“If it is to tackle rural poverty effectively, DfID must get a much better idea of how much of its aid is reaching the rural poor, and whether that aid is doing any good”.  

Mr Bacon was speaking as the Commons public accounts committee published its report into how the Department for International Development is tackling rural poverty in developing countries.  Three quarters of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas and the Department for International Development (DfID) manages the UK’s contribution to achieving the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals to halve poverty by 2015.  DfID has set its own targets to contribute to this goal.

However, the report finds that DfID does not assess how much of its assistance benefits the rural poor. The rural poor receive less direct funding per head from DfID’s bilateral assistance than the non-rural poor, while DfID does not know how much of its contributions to multilateral institutions is spent on the rural poor.

10 January 2008

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See also:
PAC REPORT: Tackling rural poverty in developing countries

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