Here’s an interesting response to;
BBC: World Service Trust
Question
Asked by Lord Laird
“To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the Department for International Development has made a grant of £90 million to the BBC World Service Trust; what proportion of the trust’s income this grant represents; how they have assessed the cost-effectiveness of this grant; and whether they will place copies of the grant application correspondence in the Library of the House.[HL13438]
Baroness Northover: The Department for International Development has made a grant of £90 million to the BBC World Service (WST) in order to increase the scale of its impact on governance, health and humanitarian results. The grant will reach some 200 million people, across 14 countries, most of them fragile, in order to: improve democratic governance by enhancing political accountability and reducing the risk of conflict; improve the health of people living in poverty, particularly maternal and child health;improve communities’ ability to cope with humanitarian crises; and build a stronger evidence base by making sure that the results from the investment are closely monitored and are used to improve the effectiveness of aid spent on support to media and communication. The grant builds on development results already being achieved and delivered effectively by BBC WST. It puts the relationship on a longer-term, more strategic basis so as to increase global reach and impact. It increases efficiency by bringing together existing programmes funded by DfID in one place, and builds on the BBC WST proven track record of contributing to governance, health and humanitarian results through media.
The grant represents one-third of the BBC WST’s projected income over the life of the grant and will not exceed 40 per cent in any one year. The strategic grant was deemed to represent good value for money and be a cost-effective way of reaching a large number of people. The cost-effectiveness was assessed in a number of ways, including looking at the cost per person reached which is £0.45 and the cost of staff time to administer the grant which compares favourably to the cost of managing multiple grants.
The business case for the grant will be published on the DfID website.”