YOU can help make $20 billion of aid (each year) more effective

By Ben Anderson @ 2024-10-13T15:02 (+31)

This is a follow-up from a post I made a week ago. If you have fifteen minutes to spare, you can contribute to increasing the effectiveness of the UK's aid programme - which spends approximately US $20 billion each year - to try to direct as much of that money to go towards the most effective interventions to help the greatest number of people. 

You can do this yourself by making a submission to this consultation (you don’t have to be a UK citizen to respond), using the info from this post and the attached Submission Guide, or you can join the online workshop on October 14th @ 6:30PM BST.

This consultation closes in THREE days at midnight (UK) October 16th.

What’s the public consultation?

The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) is running a public consultation on what parts of the UK's aid programme it should review over the next few years, and how it can better go about its work. ICAI is the independent public body responsible for scrutinising UK aid, examining its effectiveness and value for money, the UK government has to respond to the recommendations of ICAI's reviews.

The consultation ends on October 16th and asks four specific questions: 

1. Which aspects of the UK's aid programme are the highest priority for review?
2. How can we improve the ways in which we examine the effectiveness and value for money of the UK's aid programme? Is there anything that you would find useful from ICAI that we do not already provide?
3. How can we improve how we communicate about our work and make our reports accessible to more people?
4. Do you have any other views on ICAI that you would like to share?

Note that the consultation does "not consider questions on the size and allocation of the UK’s aid budget.”

Why this is important

In 2023 the UK provided £15.3 billion (US $20 billion) of Official Development Assistance, in comparison from 2009 to 2021 Givewell directed £570 million to its top charities. This consultation represents a tractable opportunity to have an influence on the future effectiveness of that aid (one we don't normally have) and even a minor improvement in aid effectiveness could be incredibly impactful in helping the world's most impoverished.

How you can make a submission

If you'd like to make a submission, you can use the Submission Guide for advice for your answers and suggested arguments to put forward. The arguments listed in the guide are not my own, but have been collated from speaking to various credible and experienced individuals in the following global health and development organisations. 

PLEASE ALSO fill in the Feedback Form, (this is very helpful to an understanding of the future impact of this work).

Will this be impactful?

I don't know for certain, but I believe that if a large enough number of peoplhink so, but I don't know for certain. But I do know that similar efforts have been impactful in Australia and it is therefore worth trying elsewhere.