Independent report

CDC Group and DFID response to ICAI recommendations on: CDC’s investments in low-income and fragile states

The review makes 6 recommendations to further increase the development impact of CDC investments in Africa and South Asia.

Documents

Details

The ICAI performance review was published on Tuesday 26 March with an overall rating of amber-red. CDC and DFID welcome the ICAI recommendations as an endorsement of the shifts already agreed in 2016/17 and underway during the current five-year strategy since 2017 (i.e. 2017-2021). The recommendations are:

  • CDC should broaden the range of development impact criteria and indicators it uses when making investment decisions
  • CDC should be more active in the management of its investments, using its leverage as an investor to enhance development impact
  • CDC should strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of impacts and work with DFID to accelerate their Evaluation and Learning Programme
  • CDC should work more closely with DFID and other development partners to inform its priorities and build synergies with other UK aid programmes to optimise the value of ODA
  • CDC should better communicate its approach to balancing financial risk and development impact and the justification for its different investment strategies
  • DFID’s business cases for future capital commitments to CDC should be based on stronger evidence of achieved impact and clear progress on expanding their in-country presence
Published 7 May 2019