Today ICAI published its Follow-Up Year 5 report. Each year, ICAI follows up on the response to the recommendations it made in previous reviews.
The process is a key link in the accountability chain, providing Parliament and the public with an account of how well DFID and other government departments have responded to ICAI reviews. It also provides feedback to the responsible staff, and serves as a useful learning exercise for ICAI in the quest to achieve greater uptake of findings and recommendations.
This report summarises the results of the follow-up on five reviews:
- Assessing DFID’s results in water, sanitation and hygiene (May 2016)
- DFID’s efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls (May 2016)
- DFID’s approach to managing fiduciary risk in conflict-affected environments (August 2016)
- UK aid’s contribution to tackling tax avoidance and evasion (September 2016)
- How DFID works with multilateral agencies to achieve impact (June 2015)
DFID accepted the majority of ICAI’s recommendations and has taken positive action in a range of areas. Some of the highlights include:
- Concrete steps to improve the sustainability and monitoring of results of water, sanitation and hygiene programmes, including measures to ensure that vulnerable groups, such as the elderly or people with disabilities, share in the benefits.
- New guidance on scaling up programming on violence against women and girls, and a stronger approach to sharing learning across the department on what works.
- Some significant improvements in DFID’s approach to managing the risks of fraud and corruption in insecure environments when delivering remotely through partners.
- Measures to improve UK support to developing countries in fighting international tax avoidance and evasion.
- Some progress towards a more strategic approach to strengthening the multilateral aid system.