On 12 January 2011, the Department for International Development (DFID) launched a public consultation on a new scheme to deliver on the Coalition Government commitment to give the British public a say in how part of the development budget is spent. The consultation ran for 6 weeks and ended on 25 February 2011.
The Government has now decided to fulfil this commitment by launching a scheme, to be called UK Aid Match, to back the public choice for development appeals. Funds allocated for this Scheme are additional to existing DFID funding for civil society organisations. More information about how to apply to UK Aid Match.
The consultation provided helpful insights that were used to shape the design. The specific questions asked were:-
46 responses were received: 29 from civil society organisations, 14 from media organisations and 3 from members of the public. All responses apart from one believed the idea had merit. Most also requested further information on how match funding would work in practice. Sixty percent of responses made recommendations on how the Scheme should be run.
Issues which were raised on a regular basis included:
The purpose is to give the UK public a direct say over how a portion of the aid budget is spent.
The pilot will be assessed against the level of demand for match funding and the demand from the public to give donations to cause that are match funded.
DFID recognises that applying for match funding will require a degree of organisational capacity.
The application process has been designed to present the minimum burden to applicant organisations. It is similar to application processes DFID uses for smaller NGOs. We expect all potential applicants to be able to complete the application requirements.
The scheme funded to allow a significant range of applications.
DFID will use the pilot phase to assess how NGOs respond to the challenge and review whether any change would need to be made in later years.
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