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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/mps-concerned-over-aid-programme.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Concern has been raised over the failure to monitor the value for money of one billion pounds of aid donated by the UK to Africa and Asia" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/min-mps-concerned-over-aid-programme.jpg" alt="Concern has been raised over the failure to monitor the value for money of one billion pounds of aid donated by the UK to Africa and Asia"/></a></p>
<p>A cross-party committee of MPs has voiced concern over the failure to monitor the value for money of £1 billion of aid donated by the UK to boost primary education in Africa and Asia.</p>
<p>The Department for International Development has &#8220;no coherent framework&#8221; to measure whether the aid makes any difference to school attendance or pupils&#8217; achievements, said the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, which gave the department a year to improve.</p>
<p>The committee was &#8220;extremely concerned&#8221; that a series of frauds were uncovered in an educational programme supported by UK taxpayers&#8217; money in Kenya, after DFID had judged the risk of money going astray &#8220;manageable&#8221;.</p>
<p>The previous Labour administration committed the UK to spending at least £1 billion annually on education aid from 2010/11. And the current coalition Government has made aid the only area outside the NHS to be protected from cuts, promising to increase DFID spending from £7.8 billion to £11.5 billion by 2014/15.</p>
<p>DFID&#8217;s focus for educational programmes has been to improve and expand state primary school networks in 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.</p>
<p>The majority have increased school enrolment from 50% or lower to 70%-90% and 14 are on track to meet UN Millennium Development Goals on education by 2015.</p>
<p>The PAC report welcomed DFID&#8217;s aims and the progress made, but added: &#8220;We have significant concerns about its ability to assess the value for money of its spending.&#8221;</p>
<p>It was &#8220;unacceptable&#8221; that DFID seemed willing to rely on &#8220;selective examples and anecdotes&#8221; to demonstrate the effectiveness of its spending.</p>
<p>&#8220;We were unconvinced that growth in enrolment would not have occurred without the department&#8217;s investment,&#8221; said the report, noting that more than 50% of the growth in school attendance in Kenya came in private schools which were not supported by DFID cash.</p>
<p>The committee welcomed DFID&#8217;s decision to appoint a director of value for money, Liz Ditchburn, but said that until new measures of the effectiveness of education spending were in place, &#8220;we can have little confidence that UK taxpayers&#8217; money is securing the fullest benefits for poor people overseas&#8221;. The committee was &#8220;surprised&#8221; that value for money had not previously been a primary focus for the department.</p>
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