African nations aid

WQ.459/2019

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BY DEPUTY J.H. PERCHARD OF ST. SAVIOUR

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 22nd OCTOBER 2019

Question

By what process are African nations chosen as a recipient of aid, whether financial or otherwise, by the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission?

Answer

Most but not all of JOA's work is in Africa. This answer also applies to the other developing countries in which we work.

Jersey Overseas Aid provides overseas aid through four principal funding programmes:

1. Grants for  development projects implemented through pre-selected charities and other specialist organisations;
2. Humanitarian and emergency aid through internationally-recognised relief agencies;
3. Community work projects, whereby teams of Jersey volunteers undertake specific development projects overseas;
4. Supporting Jersey Charities in their work overseas, frequently on a matched-funding basis.

Any country where JOA chooses to fund projects in, channelled through any of its funding programmes, must be on the OECD-DAC (Development Assistance Committee)'s list of eligible recipients of Official Development Assistance, i.e. low- and middle-income nations based on gross national income (GNI) per capita as published by the World Bank. The list also includes all of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as defined by the United Nations (UN).

JOA has a specific strategy for development projects, to focus in fewer countries, with larger, long-term programmes, to ensure greater impact. To decide which countries to focus on, in October 2018, the JOA Commissioners, applied an algorithm to the 50 least-developed countries in the world to compare levels of need and corruption. The algorithm - CPI Value / HDI Value^2

The UN's Human Development Index (HDI) is a good proxy for how much a country requires outside help. It combines measures of Health (life expectancy), Education (years of schooling) and Wealth (Gross national income per capita) to create a value between 0 and 1, where a high score means high levels of human development.

Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. A high score out of 100 here means lower levels of corruption.

Two further important filters were applied:

1. Focus on Anglophone countries. This is justified from several perspectives principally that we wish to form close working relationships with key NGO personnel and officials in the target countries, and to easily read official documents and plans.
2. Preference was given to countries with which JOA already had good links and project experience, or which had particular potential for JOA's three thematic priorities.

These results are under regular review. All new development projects in 2020, will take place in 6 countries

– Sierra Leone, Zambia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Malawi and Nepal.

Humanitarian and Emergency Aid is provided to trusted agencies working to alleviate suffering in chronic crises and sudden-onset emergencies. These usually occur in the bottom 50 countries on the HDI and must only be in countries on the OECD-DAC (Development Assistance Committee)'s list of eligible recipients of Official Development Assistance.

Community Work Projects do not need to be conducted in JOA's target countries, nor focus on JOA's three thematic priorities. The two main criteria are that they be genuinely impactful from a development point of view and safe.

Jersey-based Charities conducting international development overseas are not bound to adhere to the geographic and thematic priorities of JOA, but must work in any low- or middle-income country on the OECD-DAC list of eligible recipients of Official Development Assistance.

This information was submitted to the Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel on 29th March 2019. Please note that all this information is published in JOA's Explanatory Booklet and can be found on JOA's website.

Time of policy officer to compile answer: £100