International development group should be ‘more explicit’ about infrastructure work, MPs say

Poor roads, power and water networks are preventing growth in many places, MPs on the International Development Committee warned in its report.

The Department for International Development (DFID) should publish a departmental strategy on infrastructure and keep better records about how its money is spent by international organisations, the Committee said.

The DFID spends £1 billion on international infrastructure annually and should be "proud" of the work it does to build infrastructure in developing countries, the report said.

"DFID can be proud of much of the work it does to provide infrastructure, but it is strangely silent about this in its key strategic documents such as its Business Plan. Ministers must improve how they monitor infrastructure spending by multilateral organisations like the EU and World Bank and should also be more confident in trumpeting DFIC's infrastructure policy," said Malcolm Bruce, committee chairman.

"Our over-riding conclusion is that DFID broadly makes a strong contribution to the sector, but that it needs to communicate its work more effectively," the report said.

A new departmental strategy on infrastructure would help DFID "convey its rationale and priorities", the report said.

Those priorities should include the need to provide local employment, implement road safety measures and ensure that any technologies used are appropriate to the country in which the project is located, it said.

“DFID’s spending must not only build the infrastructure, but also boost employment, local procurement and the private sector within developing countries,” the report said.

It added that larger projects should make use of local resources, including “the training of construction workers as well as the relevant professionals necessary to design, build and maintain projects”.

UK engineers should also be encouraged to share their expertise with engineers in developing countries, the report said.

It also recommended that the DFID brought in more external expertise to deal with infrastructure matters and ensure that it employs infrastructure advisers wherever they are necessary.

The MPs also expressed concern about the amount of corruption in the infrastructure construction industry in developing countries.

The report highlights DFIDs role in setting up the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST) to handle corruption in developing countries, which will be adopted by the World Bank.

DFID should continue to provide the funding and staff time to ensure that CoST can "fulfil its early promise", Bruce said.