Who DFID Works With
DFID works with a wide variety of international bodies, organisations, charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) because they have the skills, experience, expertise and access which allow them to further our aims of poverty reduction and sustainable development.
The following pages describe the work DFID does with a range of partner countries, multilateral organisations and other bodies. Most of the bodies we work with can be grouped under the following headings:
- global financial organisations such as the
World Bank
- global political organisations such as the
- regional organisations such as the
- other donor countries such as the members of the
- charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
Taken together, all these bodies and agencies amount to a global aid ‘system’. DFID exerts its influence in a wide range of forums and settings to make the system as efficient as possible and to deliver the best possible development aid to the world’s poor.
Bilateral or multilateral?
A one-to-one relationship with another country or body is called ‘bilateral’. The UK has bilateral relations with developing or ‘partner’ countries, as well as with other donors from the developed world.
In contrast, agencies who work with numerous countries or bodies are called
‘multilateral’. Almost 40% of DFID development funding now goes through
multilateral agencies. These include the
World Bank
and the United
Nations as well as groupings of developed nations such as the
European Union.
Between them these three bodies now handle one third of all global
development aid.
Multilaterals have many advantages to offer in the fight against poverty because
of the global reach of their operations and the expertise of their staff.
As a member of many multilateral bodies, the UK government is able to intervene
at numerous levels to influence the design and implementation of multilaterals’
policies and their projects on the ground.
Aid effectiveness
DFID not only gives money to these organisations’ development programmes but
is continually lobbying for greater efficiency and effectiveness from the bodies
we work with.
The definition and implementation of
aid effectiveness is now a major subject in
its own right giving rise to a wealth of research and to international meetings.
The most recent of these was the 2008
Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness where the UK government played a
key role in demanding greater commitments from donor countries to achieve higher
aid effectiveness benchmarks.
Updated: 4 November 2008
