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The report, commissioned by leading development charity World Vision, makes the following key points:

It strongly supports the commitment by all the main parties to meet the UN's target for aid spending, and argues that the Government needs to be stricter and more transparent about what can count as aid, particularly outside the Department for International Development (DFID).
But it highlights the fact that development is not simply a matter of spending money, and that policies across government (e.g. on climate change, or corruption) have important development impacts.
It argues strongly that DFID should remain a fully independent department, on an equal footing with the Foreign Office, focussed on global poverty reduction.
But it also suggests that DFID and other departments need to change the way they work together to deliver the UK's international development objectives across government (e.g. through more joint strategies for key countries).

Sarah Mulley, Senior Research Fellow at ippr and the author of the report said:

"Helping to lift the world's poorest people out of poverty is not simply a matter of increasing aid spending, important as that is. The UK's commitment to international poverty reduction needs to be judged across a range of policies which extend far beyond what is usually thought of as 'development policy', and which are outside the direct control and remit of DFID. As we approach the general election, all political parties need to recognise that development is not just a matter for DFID, or simply a question of aid budgets."

The ippr report looks at the UK's record on conflict, trade, migration, climate change and corruption, and argues that a new cross-governmental international development strategy is needed, including areas of policy which have not so far included a strong development voice.

Justin Byworth, Chief Executive of World Vision UK, said:

"World Vision strongly believes that DFID should remain a strong and independent department within government, but in our inter-connected world development must also be a priority for other UK departments including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. As we approach a crucial election, and the world convenes to review the Millennium Development Goals, now is the right time to ensure that the full range of UK policies help to support poverty reduction around the world."

The report examines a criticism that is sometimes levelled at DFID - that it does not work effectively with other parts of government. ippr argues that DFID has had good reasons to hold itself slightly apart from the rest of government - the benefits of its independence are clear in the poverty focus of UK aid spending. But the report argues that the gains DFID has made in the last decade now need to be secured by making international development integral to the wider policy agenda.

Much debate has focused on how DFID operates in countries where the UK is at war, and Afghanistan in particular. ippr argues that DFID does need new ways of working in these situations, but that it would be a mistake to reconfigure the department's entire approach on the basis of the demands of these particular cases.

Notes to Editors
ippr's report Policy coherence and the future of the UK's international development agenda is published on March 5.

Contact: Monica Evans, interim Media Officer, ippr, 020 74706112 / m.evans@ippr.org

Tim Finch, Director of Strategic Communications, ippr, 020 7470 6106 / 07595 920 899 / t.finch@ippr.org

Sophia Mwangi, Senior Communications Officer, World Vision UK, 01908 244427 / 07725 372 864 / sophia.mwangi@worldvision.org.uk