Sections:
Department for International Development Expenditure Statistics 2007/08
Section 1
Introduction to DFID Expenditure Statistics 2007/08
1. This release reports on the deployment of official financial resources by the Department for International Development (DFID) to support international development, and shows how this funding is broken down by destination country or organisation, type of assistance and purpose. The statistics in this report are presented on a UK financial year (April-March) basis.
2. This report only covers DFID’s programme and does not provide information on the UK’s total Gross Expenditure on Development (GPEX) which includes the element of official UK aid that is delivered through other UK Government Departments.
3. Data in this report are produced on a mainly cash basis and are broadly consistent with DFID’s international reporting of Official Development Assistance (ODA). However, ODA estimates are different from the data presented in this report – they are produced on a calendar year basis, meet an internationally agreed definition and are not directly comparable with the data presented here. Provisional UK ODA estimates were published by the DAC in April 2008. Final ODA estimates and detailed information on 2007/08 GPEX will be published in September 2008.
4. The DFID programme includes bilateral and multilateral expenditure from DFID funds voted by parliament including activities funded from the Africa Conflict Pool and Global Conflict Pool. Beyond DFID voted funds, the DFID programme also includes an attribution of EC budgetary spending (the UK’s contribution to the EC is paid directly by the Treasury and then attributed to different departments with DFID receiving the attribution of the development budget ). This report also excludes some DFID voted funds which are not counted as aid.
5. The UK is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) which is a forum for consultation among 22 donor countries and the European Commission. The DAC sets the definitions and classifications for reporting on aid financing internationally, including ODA, and produces a statistical report on international aid flows annually. As a DAC member, the UK is committed to transparent reporting of development assistance in a way that permits international comparisons.
6. To further improve the consistency of the statistics reported here with DAC definitions DFID has introduced the following three key changes in the method for calculating the expenditure in this report:
- Data are reported on promissory note deposit basis, rather than an encashment basis, consistent with the reporting of ODA,
- The definition of multilateral expenditure has been revised to bring it in line with the DAC definition of multilateral expenditure,
- Sector spending is classed to a revised list of input sector codes, more consistent with DAC purpose codes.
The first of these changes may alter annual totals but, in the long run, the effect of this will net to zero. The second and third of these changes affect classifications but not summary totals. More details on each change are below.
7. The statistics presented in this release may also differ slightly from previously published data due to revisions to the coding of individual projects which have been applied retrospectively.
Promissory Notes
8. Promissory notes are a method of funding multilateral organisations where DFID ‘deposits’ funds with the Bank of England. Multilateral organisations then ‘encash’ these funds as they need them. When reporting internationally, DFID reports its promissory note deposits. However, in previous publications, DFID has reported its promissory notes encashments. Within this publication, promissory note deposits are reported, consistent with DFID’s international reporting. The effect of this change is laid out in the table below.
2003/04 |
2004/05 |
2005/06 |
2006/07 |
|
DFID Total Programme as published September 2007 (£millions) |
3,956 |
3,915 |
4,464 |
4,923 |
Promissory Note Encashments (£millions) |
-514 |
-334 |
-409 |
-723 |
Promissory Note Deposits (£millions) |
+265 |
+266 |
+472 |
+829 |
DFID Total Programme as published July 2008 (£millions) |
3,707 |
3,846 |
4,526 |
5,028 |
Multilateral Expenditure
9. DFID has introduced a stricter definition of multilateral aid to bring it fully in line with the DAC’s definition. Multilateral aid is now interpreted as core contributions to multilateral organisations as well as aid supporting the internal capacity building of multilateral organisations and aid supporting the administration and staffing costs of multilateral organisations. Any aid delivered through a multilateral organisation where the sector, theme, recipient country/region or specific project the aid will be used to support is known is defined as bilateral aid.
10. This new definition has been applied retrospectively and any aid that was previously classified as multilateral aid but now meets the bilateral aid definition has had its classification changed to reflect this. Any expenditure that has changed classification has been presented in this release as either ‘humanitarian assistance’, ‘debt relief’ or ‘other bilateral aid’. The table below reconciles previously published data with the data presented in this release.
2003/04 |
2004/05 |
2005/06 |
2006/07 |
|
DFID Total Bilateral Programme as published September 2007 (£millions) |
1,935 |
2,111 |
2,502 |
2,562 |
Expenditure previously defined as multilateral aid that meets new bilateral aid definition (£millions) |
+75 |
+88 |
+153 |
+221 |
DFID Total Bilateral Programme as published July 2008 (£millions) |
2,010 |
2,199 |
2,655 |
2 783 |
Input Sector Codes
11. DFID tracks the sectors it aid supports through a group of input sector codes. DFID has introduced a new set of input sector codes this year, more closely aligned with the codes used internationally by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). This means the sector analysis presented in Tables 5 and 6 are based on a new set of broad sectors and will differ from previously published data. General Budget Support has been notionally allocated to the new broad sectors based on partner government expenditure as previously.