Measuring the Impact of the UK’s Development Aid Budget

The UK has spent at least 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) on official development assistance (ODA) since 2013. The Department for International Development has focused on strengthening the evaluation of projects and programmes funded by the aid budget in recent years, and the Government more broadly has indicated its commitment to monitoring the outcomes of its bilateral aid programmes and the performance of its multilateral aid partners. In addition to this governmental self-assessment activity, the ODA budget is subject to oversight by several bodies with a monitoring remit.

This House of Lords Library briefing provides background information on the UK’s ODA budget, surveys the development of government policy on the evaluation and measurement of development activity and suggests sources of further reading which provide information on the impact of specific aid initiatives.