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In Response to DFID

As reported in the August edition of this bulletin, the long-awaited report from the DFID Development Awareness Review has now been published. The report requires careful reading but, one of its main conclusions is that:

“From the evidence reviewed, we conclude that raising awareness of development issues in the UK is likely to contribute to reducing global poverty but it is not possible to establish a direct link or quantify the contribution made by DFID-funded activity. Therefore, a decision to continue funding activity in this area cannot be entirely evidence-based.”

Because the report found no direct evidential link that DFID funded Development Awareness activity has contributed to reducing global poverty, the DFID Secretary of State has taken the following decisions:

Though these decisions, following on from the decision taken in May 2010 to cancel the Global Learning Engagement Fund, do mean that DFID funding for this work will be severely limited, there is some positive news.

Firstly, the decision to let existing DAF projects continue to completion, which will be good news for a number of organisations in Wales in receipt of both Major and Mini Grant funds.

Secondly, the decision to carry on with the procurement exercise for the Global Learning Project in the schools sector, though we are unclear how DFID intends to proceed with this in Wales.

Strictly in terms of Wales, though, it is clear from the list of stakeholders consulted that no-one from Wales, or indeed Scotland or Northern Ireland, was consulted as part of the process, though one would have thought that the review would have been potentially informed and enhanced by the opinions of people from these different policy environments.

Also, there is little evidence from the report that the position paper that was submitted as a result of a Cyfanfyd meeting convened by Cyfanfyd in March and which represented the views of a wide range of stakeholders in Wales was considered at any length.

The report does refer to “the institutionalisation of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship across the education and youth sectors in Wales”, but doesn’t go any further in exploring the implications of the strategy or, indeed, the factors that helped to shape it, one of them being the work and support provided by the voluntary sector organisations working in the field.

It will be a relief to many that the review has ended and there is some light, faint as it may be, at the end of the tunnel. However, the report as published does seem to emphasise a worrying trend in terms of UK government departments generally, the tendency to marginalise and ignore Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. To all intents and purposes what purports to be a UK-wide report can be read as a report that is primarily and almost exclusively focused on activity in England.

The full review report can be accessed by following this link:

http://www.dfid.gov.uk/development-awareness-review

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