Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-11-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much her Department has spent on election observation (a) in real terms and (b) as a proportion of her Department’s budget since 2010.

Mr Desmond Swayne

DFID tracks its spending on support to elections, and this encompasses election observation to build public confidence in electoral processes and help deter fraud, intimidation and violence. DFID spent a total of £212 million on bilateral and multilateral support to elections during the period 2010/11 to 2014/15 which represents 0.5% of DFID total spend. During this period DFID has funded elections observation in a number of countries often as part of wider election programmes, for example in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Kosovo, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan.