Overseas aid benefits cannot be measured, watchdog report finds

The spending watchdog has found it impossible to measure if more than £12 billion being spent on overseas aid is making any difference to the government’s key development goals.

Funding is being channelled more widely through Whitehall but no department is in charge of monitoring how well the money is being used over- all, the National Audit Office (NAO) warned.

Some departments are struggling to spend their official development assistance (ODA) because they do not have the staff and systems in place to deal with the increase in money they are handling, but Treasury deadlines mean there is a risk the funding “might be rushed”, it added.

About £12.1 billion was spent on aid in 2015 across 14 government departments.

The government is committed to spending 0.7 per cent of national income on ODA and a new aid strategy was drawn up setting out the main objectives ministers hoped the money would achieve - strengthening global peace, security and governance, enhancing crisis resilience, promoting global prosperity and tackling extreme poverty.

But progress can only be measured for the last aim, the NAO report said.