§ Mr. Bowen Wellsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs by what means his Department evaluates the effectiveness and impact of aid given bilaterally and by the multilateral agencies to which the United Kingdom contributes; and if he will give examples.
§ Mr. RaisonInternal and independent evaluations of the effectiveness of bilateral projects and programmes are232W carried out on a systematic basis under the aegis of the Overseas Development Administration's evaluation department. I am placing in the Library of the House a booklet containing a brief account of this work and also a list of evaluations which have been carried out. The effectiveness and impact of multilateral programmes are best evaluated by the organisation itself with appropriate use of independent evaluators; we encourage the establishment of effective evaluation machinery in each body through our membership of governing councils. Apart from the development banks, the agencies are rarely involved in programmes directly comparable with bilateral ones, but techniques are being sought to compare the effectiveness of UN programmes with those of bilateral donors. We are a member of task force on concessional flows established by the development committee of the International Monetary Fund/International Bank for Reconstruction and Development which is about to undertake some comparative research on the effectiveness of both types of aid.