DFIDs programme in Nepal : Sixth report of session 2009-10, Vol. 2: Oral and written Evidence

This peer review of United Kingdom reviews its development policies and programmes. It assesses not just the performance of its development co-operation agency, but also policy and implementation.

Many of the poorest countries in the world are affected by insecurity and violence. Insecurity has human and economic impacts, both for affected countries and their neighbours. Many insecure countries also receive lower levels of aid per capita than stable countries. These are good reasons to provide assistance to insecure countries, but there are also difficulties and risks. This report examines how the Department for International Development (DFID) works in insecure environments, ranging from some of the world's most insecure countries where armed conflict is still present and stabilisation is required, to less insecure contexts where donors may have more scope to engage in long term development projects. It examines what DFID is achieving and how it designs and manages its programmes, including dealing with risks to its staff. Insecurity is defined by reference to the incidence of political violence and the level of threat to aid workers. The NAO's work included four country case studies, literature and documentation review, data analysis and surveys. Their findings covered DFID's increasing interest in insecure environments, on what its expenditure has achieved in insecure environments, the design and management of country programmes, managing staff resources and costs and value for money. There are seven recommendations.

The journal of the OECD Development Assistance Committee. This issue includes Development Co-operation Reviews of The United Kingdom and Germany as well as the DAC Joint Assessment of the Aid Programmes of Germany, The Netherlands and The UK in Mozambique and an article on Poverty-Enviro-Gender.

work of the Committee in Session 2008-09 : Second report of session 2009-10, report, together with formal Minutes

Incorporating HC 1041-i, session 2008-09

This book examines and compares the diverging security approaches of the UK, China and India in peacebuilding settings, with a specific focus on the case of Nepal. Rising powers such as China and India dissent from traditional templates of peacebuilding and apply their own methods to respond to security issues. This book fills a gap in the literature by examining how emerging actors (China and India) engage with security and development and how their approaches differ from those of a traditional actor (the UK). In the light of democratic peace and regional security complex theories, the book interprets interview data to compare and contrast the engagement of these three actors with post-war Nepal, and the implications for security sector governance and peacebuilding. It contends that the UK helped to peacefully manage transition but that the institutional changes were merely ceremonial. China and India, by contrast, were more effective in advancing mutual security agendas through elite-level interactions. However, the ‘hardware’ of security, for example material and infrastructure support, gained more consideration than the ‘software’ of security, such as meritocratic governance and institution building. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, development studies, Asian politics, security studies and International Relations in general.