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COOPERATION WITH VOLUNTARY AGENCIES
33
In 1976, the first full year of operation, 61 applications were
received from voluntary agencies for part funding of development
projects which they were undertaking overseas. 24 applications were
approved to which ODM committed £520,000; £200,000 was issued to the
agencies. 27 projects were still under consideration at the end of
1976.
latter.
33.The Joint Funding Scheme was slow to get underway and although there
has been some improvement we remain disappointed at the relatively
modest flow of applications more particularly since we had the impres-
sion, before the Scheme was launched, that the agencies had a sizeable
number of projects for which they would be seeking support.
Initially we had thought that the difficulties might be mainly pro-
cedural ones, arising from the amount of information we were seeking in support of applications, and the accounting requirements which had
been laid down. Some agencies seemed particularly concerned about the
However most agencies have now said that they do not consider
our information requirements to be a problem (although some clearly do have difficulty in producing all the information needed) while simplified accounting arrangements which we have introduced have eased
this particular problem, apparently to the agencies' satisfaction.
We hope that the Scheme's requirements will weigh less heavily as the
One agencies and the Ministry become more used to working together. possible reason for the relatively modest flow (although the agencies themselves have not suggested that this is the case) might perhaps be
that we have kept firmly to the requirement that projects should be
developmental in character and that we are unable to support purely
welfare projects. In this connection it is worth noting that more