The toothless dog

Andrew Mitchell, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development has pushed Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for that department, into creating a DfID watchdog but rightly identified his proposals as being "toothless and weak".

As Mr Mitchell points out the proposed Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact (IACDI) is to only to have the power to comment on DfID's ability to evaluate itself - but not to commission independent evaluations itself.

He is also right on the money to label DfID as operating with a "culture of secrecy" when it comes to giving out information on how money is spent on development programmes. Few details are available on where and how DfID's money is spent and whether it has been effective.