§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
What are their policies in the EC and other multilateral institutions to secure their objective of greater cost effectiveness and efficiency in multilateral aid and development programmes in the third world.
§ Baroness Chalker of WallaseyWe are active at all levels in seeking to improve the effectiveness of EC aid, from setting policy at ministerial level in28WA development councils to scrutinising project proposals in EC management committees. Results are beginning to emerge, for example with the adoption during the UK presidency in November 1992 of the declaration on development policy to the year 2000, which sets out a framework for enhancing the quality and effectiveness of EC aid.
In the multilateral development banks, action ranges from policy reviews during periodic replenishment exercises to scrutiny of project proposals in the board of directors. Most recently, we supported the comprehensive action plan prepared by the World Bank in response to its internal task force report on portfolio management; and we have welcomed the establishment of similar reviews of project quality in the regional development banks. We also consistently emphasise the need for budgetary restraint in these institutions and endorse the significant improvements in budgetary procedures recently agreed in the World Bank.
We have worked with our EC partners, Nordic representatives and others to secure agreement on reform of the UN development system. Within individual agencies our efforts have helped secure significant economies this year in, for example, the administrative budgets of the UN development programme and the UN Industrial Development Organisation; and agreement on improved budgetary procedures in UNICEF.