Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour)
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Question 36: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the reason the social accountability component of the protection of basic services programme in Ethiopia was not continued after its initial pilot phase ended in 2008; if there are any plans to re-start same; the state of play of other relevant proposals for independent evaluation of donor assisted Government spending in Ethiopia; the reason they are taking so long to implement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26262/12]

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Ethiopia is one of the nine Programme Countries for the Government's aid programme, where we have a commitment to the provision of long term strategic assistance. One of the key aims of our development cooperation programme in Ethiopia is to support the increased use of basic social services such as health and education by its citizens. While the Government of Ethiopia has made substantial progress in deploying basic services across the country, there is still a relatively low uptake of such services by the poorest and most marginalised communities, especially women. Ireland supports efforts to address this by improving the capacity of service providers and the quality of the basic services, as well as tackling the barriers poor people face when accessing these services. These efforts are advanced through a multi-donor programme with the title Protection of Basic Services. Ireland has supported this Programme since 2006.

The social accountability component of the Protection of Basic Services programme aims to enable Ethiopian citizens to express their needs and preferences for improved and effective services delivery and to hold policy-makers and service providers accountable for weak performance. Engagement in social accountability by citizens, local government officials and service providers is intended to improve service delivery by making public services more effective, efficient, responsive and accountable.

The pilot phase of this component commenced in January 2008 and concluded in July 2009. Irish Aid supported this first phase, and its preparation, with funding of €720,000. At the end of the pilot phase, the World Bank, acting on behalf of Ireland and other donors, commissioned an independent evaluation of the pilot. This evaluation confirmed that social accountability facilitated improved, constructive dialogue between citizens and local government officials in the pilot areas. It also concluded that there was an increased citizen awareness of their rights, responsibilities and entitlements to basic services.

In light of this positive evaluation, and following a rigorous process of design and procurement, led by the World Bank, the second phase began in late 2011 and will run for two years. Irish Aid has so far provided €1.8 million in funding for this second phase. Our Embassy in Addis Ababa is engaged in the management and oversight of the programme, as an active member of the steering committee chaired by the Government of Ethiopia and of the donor technical advisory group.

All programmes assisted by international donors in Ethiopia are regularly submitted to independent external evaluation, as was the case with the pilot phase of the social accountability programme. The Protection of Basic Services programme has also been reviewed recently by an international firm commissioned by the European Union Delegation. The Evaluation and Audit Unit of my Department has commissioned an external independent evaluation of the Irish Aid Country programme in Ethiopia for the period 2008-2012. This will provide an evidence-based assessment of the performance of the programme as a whole and of its contribution to partner programmes we have funded, including the Protection of Basic Services programme. This evaluation will be completed in the coming months and the full evaluation report will be made available to the public through the Irish Aid website.

More generally, Irish Aid has in place a range of rigorous checks and safeguards to ensure that Ireland's development assistance is achieving the intended development results and benefiting those who are most in need. These include regular audits, independent evaluations, independently-commissioned surveys and frequent field monitoring visits.