HC Deb 25 June 2003 vol 407 cc812-3W
Dr. Tonge

To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what percentage of the Department's projects were in countries which were(a) found to have achieved sustainability, (b) found to be too early to judge sustainability, (c) found to have doubts as to their sustainability and (d) were not assessed for sustainability in each year since 2000. [120483]

Hilary Benn

DFID does not make judgments about the sustainability of our partner countries.

All our projects are designed to be sustainable so that they will continue to deliver benefits in the long term. DFID's projects under implementation above a certain threshold (£1 million from April 2002) are assessed annually through DFID's Performance Reporting Information System for Management (PRISM).

To give us a more accurate picture of performance, we break our projects down according to a risk assessment.

It is not possible to produce reliable, comparable data on project success for each year since 2000. Figures since April 2002 are as follows:

Financial year 2001–02 Percentage
High risk projects judged likely to be successful 24
Medium risk projects judged likely to be successful 56
Low risk projects judged likely to be successful 81

Source:

Performance Reporting Information System for Management (PRISM).

Financial year 2002–03 Percentage
High risk projects judged likely to be successful 33
Medium risk projects judged likely to be successful 52
Low risk projects judged likely to be successful 84

Source:

Performance Reporting Information System for Management (PRISM).

Each project is given a score ranging from one to five, based on the likelihood of their achieving their intended objectives. For the purposes of this exercise, we judge projects receiving a score of one or two to be successful. Projects receiving a lower score may have achieved some of their objectives and so brought some sustainable development benefits.

We have a target in our 2003–06 Public Service Agreement to improve the performance of our projects in each risk category.

Dr. Tonge

To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what percentage of departmental projects worth over £1 million initiated in each year since 1997 have long-term sustainability mandates. [120493]

Hilary Benn

All of DFID's projects are designed to be sustainable so that they will continue to deliver benefits in the long-term. Our Performance Reporting Information System for Management (PRISM) system measures the success of our projects (above £1 million) against a range of criteria, one of which is sustainability. Headline progress in evaluating the success of our projects is reported in DFID's Departmental Report.