The House of Commons International Development Committee has now updated its Areas of Research Interest for 2023 to support the Committee’s scrutiny of the UK’s international development strategy and funding. Academics at all career stages, research institutions, and experts are encouraged to register their interest in these ARIs, add their existing research in the topic areas to the ARI repository, provide their insights, and suggest questions that the Committee could be asking the Government. 

The ARI includes several specific areas of interest. These include evaluating the impact of UK aid spending, as well as the UK spending through development finance institutions, the availability and quality of data on the UK Government’s contribution to international development and the impact of in-country refugee costs on wider UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) effectiveness. This updates the Area of Research Interest published by the International Development Committee in 2021, on changes to the UK aid budget. The information provided by academics and other experts on existing and forthcoming research, and suggested scrutiny questions, helped to inform the Committee’s work and subsequent inquiries.

ARIs are being used by some Parliamentary select committees as a further method for engagement with the research community, in addition to their calls for evidence based on their current priorities and inquiries.

You can register your expertise and research insights on the impact of the UK’s International Development funding by clicking the button below.