To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what criteria his Department uses to assess the effectiveness of UK assistance to Yemen.

The Department for International Development (DFID) uses a range of different criteria to assess the effectiveness of UK assistance to Yemen.

All projects, whether implemented directly by DFID or through a partner organisation such as the World Bank or UN, have a monitoring and evaluation framework in place with an agreed set of indicators that are specifically designed for each project. Annual reviews are undertaken for each project. Where projects are jointly funded with other donors joint evaluations are undertaken.

DFID's evaluation department is also currently undertaking an evaluation of DFID's development assistance to Yemen. The evaluation will follow the OECD-DAC evaluation criteria and assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the DFID programme in Yemen. The 2008 OECD-DAC baseline survey shows that DFID has either met or is on track to meet all the 2010 targets contained in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

The effectiveness of UK assistance to Yemen is also assessed against the three shared commitments (poverty reduction, human rights and public finance management) between the UK and the Government of Yemen and set out in the 10 year Development Partnership Arrangement (DPA). In March 2009 there was an annual review of both GoY commitments and DFID commitments.