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DFID’s work through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

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Over the period 2007-11, the UK Government was the second largest donor to UNICEF, contributing £690 million. The review looks at the impact and effectiveness of DFID’s partnership with UNICEF.

This report provides insight into the UK’s relationship with UNICEF by examining delivery of a range of aid programmes in Africa. The report recognises that UNICEF is delivering tangible benefits but that DFID needs to manage UNICEF as a strategic partner and provide greater clarity to UNICEF with regard to its role in and expectations of each programme.

ICAI examined a water and sanitation programme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, two complex health programmes in Sierra Leone and single-focus malaria bed net programmes in Sierra Leone and Ghana. In each case, DFID was the major donor.

DFID trusts UNICEF to deliver programmes and achieve results in support of the Millennium Development Goals. It also relies on UNICEF to work in difficult environments, manage multiple delivery partners and carry out large-scale procurements. DFID does not manage this important relationship in a systematic manner and uses a relatively light touch with UNICEF compared to other delivery partners. Programmes are delivering results but there is evidence of delays and shortfalls, with some questionable value for money. ICAI recommends that DFID provides greater clarity to UNICEF with regard to the expectations of its role in each programme. DFID is now focussing more on results and value for money in its relationship with UNICEF, maintaining closer control where justified by budgets or risk levels and it should continue this improvement.

As a result of our findings this review has been marked Green-Amber.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: DFID should manage its relationship with UNICEF as a strategic delivery partner, by maintaining regular oversight of its UNICEF portfolio as a whole and managing UNICEF relationships with a greater focus on results and value for money.

Recommendation 2: DFID should negotiate an updated global Framework Arrangement with UNICEF, which reflects current best practice in management of the partnership, clarifies procurement charges and is aligned more closely with DFID’s approach to managing commercial contractors.

Recommendation 3: DFID should strengthen its management of UNICEF’s local programme delivery, building on good practice seen in some DFID country offices and reflecting approaches used to manage other types of service delivery partner.