THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
29. The BBC seek to respond to the needs of their "official consumers", despite the scope and unpredictability of events. They told us that the advent of glasnost has led to an “explosive growth" of high level political activity reported in the media in the USSR and Eastern Europe. ' They estimate that "simply in order to maintain... coverage of the USSR and Eastern Europe satisfactorily until the end of the present Triennium, a minimum of nine additional monitors are needed immediately", with the likely need for a further substantial injection of staff in the next Triennium. 2 The cost of the nine monitors would be about a quarter of a million pounds. 3
30. We raised this matter with the FCO, who told us that they would be "considering with the BBC whether there will be a need to adjust monitoring priorities." As Mr Tusa told us, the ultimate choice of prioritics is matter for the FCO but a diminution of other coverage, for example of Western Europe, might damage the good relations with FBIS who value that service. We hope that this issue can be resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the BBC and FCO, as we are in no doubt of the importance of monitoring Eastern Europe on a comprehensive basis.
World Service Television News
31. In last year's Report. we noted that the Government had decided in principle against providing public funds to start up a World Service Television News," and said that we would monitor the situation closely. The BBC have commissioned Schroder Wagg to produce a business plan and report on viability. This plan is now being studied. The final arrangement has not been decided, but we were given an absolute assurance that the service would be separately funded and would not involve any cost to the main World Service."
4. OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION
32. We examined the Permanent Secretary, Mr Caines, and ODA officials on a wide range of issues relating to the aid programme. Figures supplied during our evidence session on the Spring Supplementary Estimates showed that an increasing proportion of the bilateral programme is devoted to sub-Saharan Africa and of that an increasing percentage is spent on programme aid: in 1983 9 per cent, in 1987 18 per cent and a larger percentage still expected for 1988. We regard these shifts as significant, and as likely to influence substantially the effectiveness of the aid programme as a whole. We were therefore concerned that the Permanent Secretary told us that, “We do not actually have a planning basis which has a model of what is the desirable split" between project and programme aid. Without commenting on the relative effectiveness of the two types of aid, which must depend on their individual applica- tions, we do believe that they are sufficiently different instruments to merit a study of the optimum balance of resource deployment between them.
Mozambique
33. Mozambique's Structural Adjustment Programme has received increasing support in recent years from the British aid programme." We were pleased to hear the Permanent Secretary's very positive assessment of Mozambique's economic progress under that pro- gramme. He highlighted specifically "the reduction in Government subsidies, exchange rate adjustments, the removal of price controls". 12 A major example of project aid in Mozambique is the restoration of the rail links, particularly the Limpopo line, to which the ODA contributes through the Southern Africa Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC). We were glad to hear of Britain's continuing active involvement in this project and of the efforts of the ODA to spread the donor participation in the programmes. The Permanent Secretary mentioned for example the interest of the Japanese.13 We expect to return to the Southern Africa region
Evidence, p 65.
? Thid.
1
Q 222.
S
Evidence. p 69.
QQ 225-6.
Op cit, paragraph 19.
7 Q 234.
× Q17.
4
Q18.
10
Q 22.
"IQ 36. 12Q 40.
13Q 41.
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