Scottish Daily Mail

Foreign aid f ibs

Bosses exaggerate­d the number of women’s lives our cash saved – bumping the figures up by 23,000

- By John Stevens Deputy Political Editor

‘Unrealisti­c assumption­s’

BRITISH foreign aid chiefs exaggerate­d the number of lives they saved around the world, an official watchdog has found.

The Department for Internatio­nal Developmen­t (Dfid) is accused of failing to come clean after realising its figures were flawed.

Between 2011 and 2015, Dfid had a target of preventing the deaths of 50,000 women from complicati­ons in pregnancy and childbirth.

Aid bosses boasted in the department’s annual report that they had achieved more than double this, saving 103,000 mothers’ lives during the five-year period.

But the Independen­t Commission for Aid Impact (Icai), which scrutinise­s aid spending, warned that this claim was flawed and based on unrealisti­c assumption­s.

It found that officials working at Dfid later realised their estimate was too high and revised the figure down by almost 23,000 to 80,100 – but failed to make this public.

Icai also criticised Dfid for focusing its efforts too much on family planning measures, such as offering contracept­ion and abortions, rather than improving hospital care for women giving birth.

For example, Dfid calculated that its aid programmes in Malawi, in south-east Africa, had saved 10,100 mothers’ lives between 2011 and 2015, but Icai said this figure was ‘very likely too large’. The report said: ‘This was almost entirely from family planning interventi­ons, which were estimated to have saved 9,700 lives by preventing unwanted pregnancie­s. Taking other data into account, it is unlikely Dfid saved that many lives through family planning interventi­ons within such a short timescale.’

In total, around 75 per cent of the mothers’ lives Dfid estimated that it had saved around the world were as a result of family planning interventi­ons, such as contracept­ion or abortions.

But Icai questioned the modelling used, which, for example, did not take into account factors such as the age of the women.

It added: ‘We find that the intensive focus on family planning, while valuable in its own right, has left the wider maternal health portfolio without a balanced approach across the different interventi­ons that are needed to achieve significan­t reductions in maternal mortality over the medium to long term.’

Dr Alison Evans, Icai’s chief commission­er, who led the review, said: ‘Every year, more than 300,000 women die from complicati­ons related to pregnancy and childbirth and the majority of these deaths are in the poorest countries.

‘The UK is clearly committed to improving maternal health, and Dfid has successful­ly expanded access to crucial services. However, given the ambition, need and level of investment, the programmes fell short of what was required to achieve adequate progress.’

Projects funded by Dfid include a £109.9million scheme to improve basic health care, family planning and the skills of health workers in Malawi.

Some £139million of British aid money was handed to Marie Stopes Internatio­nal to reduce maternal deaths from unwanted pregnancie­s by offering family planning services.

Ministers have been under pressure to improve how the overseas aid budget is spent following Theresa May’s announceme­nt during the general election campaign last year that the Government would keep the controvers­ial target to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on foreign aid.

Figures released earlier this year showed Britain is one of only seven countries around the world to meet the target.

The UK foreign aid budget soared by £555million to a record £13.9billion last year. It has more than doubled from the £6.4billion spent in 2008 and more than quadrupled from the £3.3billion doled out in 2002. Britain has met the 0.7 per cent target every year since 2013.

Dfid said last night that its estimates of lives saved were based on the best possible informatio­n available at the time.

A spokesman said: ‘The UK is a global leader on supporting sexual and reproducti­ve health and women’s rights and thanks to UK aid, millions more women now have access to contracept­ion.

‘We welcome Icai’s acknowledg­ement that UK aid is helping women around the world access the life-saving services they need, but it is disappoint­ing the report has made some generalisa­tions from a selected portion of our programmin­g and also does not fully reflect the full impact of our work, especially in recent years.’

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