The U.K. Department for International Development released Thursday its first Bilateral Development Review since 2011, after a yearlong delay.
The BDR offers little new information about DfID’s bilateral priorities, instead bringing together some of the agency’s more recent shifts in aid spending. These include an emphasis of spending aid across the government, a pledge to spend 30 percent of aid through fragile states, an end to general budget support in bilateral spending in favor of earmarked contributions, and plans to follow through on its pledge from April’s Syria donors conference to spend an additional 1.2 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) in the Middle East and North Africa region.
“The BAR does not demonstrate any radical changes in policy but rather indicates that existing trends will be accelerated. Economic development, creating jobs, boosting trade and investment all receive heavy emphasis,” Peter Young, director of Adam Smith International, told Devex.
About the author
Molly Andersmollyanders_dev
Molly Anders is a former U.K. correspondent for Devex. Based in London, she reports on development finance trends with a focus on British and European institutions. She is especially interested in evidence-based development and women’s economic empowerment, as well as innovative financing for the protection of migrants and refugees. Molly is a former Fulbright Scholar and studied Arabic in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.
