Last August, a consultancy called Agulhas had a look at DfID's progress on aid effectiveness. Overall it rated the department highly, although this paragraph is telling:

"the evaluation finds that DFID (like most donors) likes to project a positive image of its own performance, and tends to gloss over imperfections in the aid process. (Development NGOs are also guilty of overselling the impact of aid in their ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign.) In the view of a number of internal and external respondents to the evaluation, DFID is over-sensitive to external criticism, and unwilling to engage the public in a frank debate on the effectiveness of external assistance."