Speeches by Law.

“I would also argue that there are a lot of value judgments and subjective judgments made along the way, and then you introduce an element of human error. I am sure you have seen that in practice in all your work.”

“Sometimes that is the best answer. Just very briefly—you already spoke to this earlier—how does the FCDO compare with other agencies in terms of its transparency?”

“Brendan, what systems are in place for the FCDO to monitor the effectiveness of those different contractors in meeting broader value for money targets?”

“I know we have touched on this very briefly but do you think the FCDO’s use of contractors affects its own level of knowledge and expertise?”

“Very briefly, Anisa, you talked a bit about the earlier stages of a project and what happens during it. Can you enlighten us more on how you measure the ongoing impact of a project after its completion?”

“Do you feel that donors put enough emphasis on the ongoing longevity of their impact, post the end of a programme?”

“On that point—bearing in mind the complexity and immense scope of the data ask and having seen this first-hand from the development finance side—I can only imagine how complicated it gets when you are trying to cover so many different programmes. Given the burden this can place on the FCDO itself, on partner organisati…”

“Are you saying you have limitations as an economist?”

“I welcome and echo the hon. Member’s comment about an inappropriate marriage in respect of the Devon and Cornwall ICBs. They have quite different issues. I commend the work of Cornwall’s ICB, of course, but we have to recognise the specificities of the peninsula penalty and the unique challenges facing both our areas.”

“This is a question to both of you. We have discussed localisation at quite some length, and we have discussed the gender aspects. What about reaching those most marginalised groups of people? Is enough being done, in your experience, to reach those groups and could you talk a bit more about who that might include?”

“If I may press just a bit further on the data point, we have seen that there are challenges in actually getting this data beyond basic age and gender, these very basic metrics. Do you think it is possible for the FCDO to adopt such an approach?”

“This question is particularly to Alycia, but I am interested in both your thoughts: what changes in FCDO practice do you think could make a difference to getting energy access to some of those most marginalised groups?”

“Ned, d.light has reached over 190 million people so far with off-grid solar, which is incredible scale. What do you think has been key to achieving that scale?”

“You have done it before in countries that were previously lacking access, such as the ones you now describe. Clearly, you are firing on a lot of cylinders: you have a good product, you have good distribution networks and you have cracked the financing nut in creative ways. What about policy? How does the policy environ…”

“Are there particular challenges with regard to energy access that you have experienced on some of these?”

“Getting that ambition from FCDO to at least try to collect that data?”

“If I may press just a bit further on the data point, we have seen that there are challenges in actually getting this data beyond basic age and gender, these very basic metrics. Do you think it is possible for the FCDO to adopt such an approach?”

“This question is particularly to Alycia, but I am interested in both your thoughts: what changes in FCDO practice do you think could make a difference to getting energy access to some of those most marginalised groups?”

“Are there particular challenges with regard to energy access that you have experienced on some of these?”

“This is a question to both of you. We have discussed localisation at quite some length, and we have discussed the gender aspects. What about reaching those most marginalised groups of people? Is enough being done, in your experience, to reach those groups and could you talk a bit more about who that might include?”