DFID’s support to democracy programmes is part of our broader approach to good governance. One of the components of good governance is an open and transparent political system with strong political institutions. This means our democracy work includes support to civil society to improve their capacity to hold Governments to account; initiatives to build accountability into our health and education programmes to improve Government responsiveness to poor people; and work to strengthen political systems more broadly, including popular participation in the decision-making process. The latter includes direct support to elections and Parliaments.
In total, DFID's direct bilateral spend on governance programmes was £212 million in 2004-05, £322 million in 2005-06 and £286 million in 2006-07. Within this DFID spent £14 million directly on democratic elections in 2004-5, £17.1 million in 2005-06 and £15.5 million in 2006-7. Over the next five years, our support to governance will include an additional £100 million for the governance and transparency fund.
The aforementioned figures do not include our support to the UN, EU and other multilateral organisations some of which is used to fund governance and democracy promotion programmes. However, DFID does not hold details of what proportion of these contributions were used to assist with the promotion of democracy.
Note that the figures for 2006-07 are provisional estimates only.