A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
 | |
.jpg) Department for International Development (London office) (far right) | |
| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1997 |
| Preceding agencies |
|
| Dissolved | 2 September 2020[1] |
| Superseding agency | |
| Jurisdiction | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters | 22 Whitehall, London, England East Kilbride, Scotland |
| Annual budget | £13.4bn |
| Website | gov |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Politics of the United Kingdom |
|---|
_(Tudor_Crown).svg) |
 United Kingdom portal |
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
The Department for International Development (DFID) was a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom, from 1997 to 2020. It was responsible for administering foreign aid.
The goal of the department was "to promote sustainable development and eliminate world poverty". DFID was headed by the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for International Development. The position was last held by Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who assumed office on 13 February 2020 and served until the department was dissolved on 2 September 2020. In a 2010 report by the Development Assistance Committee, the department was described as "an international development leader in times of global crisis".[2] The UK aid logo is often used to publicly acknowledge DFID's development programmes are funded by UK taxpayers.
The DFID's main programme areas of work were Education, Health, Social Services, Water Supply and Sanitation, Government and Civil Society, Economic Sector (including Infrastructure, Production Sectors and Developing Planning), Environment Protection, Research, and Humanitarian Assistance.
In June 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the DFID was to be merged with the Foreign Office to create the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.[3]
The department was scrutinized by the International Development Committee.
Secretaries of State
The final permanent secretary was Matthew Rycroft, who assumed office in January 2018.
Mission
The main piece of legislation governing the department's work was the International Development Act 2002,[4] which came into force on 17 June 2002, replacing the Overseas Development and Co-operation Act 1980. The Act made poverty reduction the focus of the department's work, and effectively outlawed tied aid.[5]
As well as responding to disasters and emergencies, the department worked to support the United Nations' eight Millennium Development Goalswith a 2015 deadline, namely to:
- Halve the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger
- Ensure that all children receive primary education
- Promote sexual equality and give women a stronger voice
- Reduce child death rates
- Improve the health of mothers
- Combat HIV & AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- Make sure the environment is protected
- Build a global partnership for those working in development.
History
.jpg)
The department had its origins in the "Ministry of Overseas Development" created during the Labour government of 1964–1970, which combined the functions of the Department of Technical Cooperation and the overseas aid policy functions of the Foreign, Commonwealth Relations, and Colonial Offices and of other government departments.[citation needed]
Over its history, the Department for International Development and its predecessors have been independent departments or part of the Foreign Office.[6] After the election of a Conservative government in October 1970, the Ministry of Overseas Development was renamed the "Overseas Development Administration" (ODA) and incorporated into the Foreign Office. The ODA was overseen by a minister of state in the Foreign Office who was accountable to the Foreign Secretary. Though it became a section of the Foreign Office, the ODA was relatively self-contained with its own minister, and the policies, procedures, and staff remained largely intact.[citation needed]
When a Labour government was returned to office in 1974, it announced that there would once again be a separate "Ministry of Overseas Development" with its own minister. From June 1975 the powers of the minister for overseas development were formally transferred to the Foreign Secretary.[citation needed]
In 1977, partly to shore up its difficult relations with UK business, the government introduced the Aid and Trade Provision. This enabled aid to be linked to nonconcessionary export credits, with both aid and export credits tied to procurement of British goods and services. Pressure for this provision from UK businesses and the Department of Trade and Industry arose in part because of the introduction of French mixed credit programmes, which had begun to offer French government support from aid funds for exports, including for projects in countries to which France had not previously given substantial aid.[citation needed]
After the election of the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher in 1979, the ministry was transferred back to the Foreign Office, as a functional wing again named the Overseas Development Administration. The ODA continued to be represented in the cabinet by the Foreign Secretary while the Minister for Overseas Development, who had day-to-day responsibility for development matters, held the rank of minister of state within the Foreign Office.[citation needed]
In the early 1980s, part of the agency's operations was relocated to East Kilbride in Scotland, with a view to creating jobs in an area subject to long-term industrial decline.[7]
In 1997, the department was separated again from the Foreign Office, when a Labour government returned under Tony Blair. Labour also reduced the amount of aid tied to purchasing British goods and services, which had often led to aid being spent ineffectually.[8] In September 2020, the department and the Foreign Office were yet again merged to form the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office by Boris Johnson's Conservative government.[citation needed]
The DFID or ODA's role has been under:
| In Cabinet | Outside Cabinet | |
|---|---|---|
| Separate government department | 1964–1967 1997–2020 |
1961–1964 1967–70 1974–1975 |
| Answerable to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)/Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO, renamed as of 2020) | 1975–1976 2020–present |
1970–1974 1977–79 1979–1997 |
As of 2008, along with the Nordic countries, the DFID generally avoided setting up its own programmes, in order to avoid creating unnecessary bureaucracy.[9] To achieve this, the DFID distributed most of its money to governments and other international organisations that had already developed suitable programmes, and let them distribute the money as efficiently as possible.[9] In July 2009, the DFID rebranded all its aid programmes with the "UK aid" logo, to make clear the contributions were coming from the people of the United Kingdom.[10][11] While the decision was met with some controversy among aid workers at the time, Commons International Development Select Committee Chairman Malcolm Bruce explained the rebranding, saying "the name DFID does not reflect the fact that this is a British organisation; it could be anything. The Americans have USAID, Canada has got CIDA."[12]
The 2009 National Audit Office Performance Management review[13] looked at how the DFID had restructured its performance management arrangements over the last six years. The report responded to a request from the DFID's Accounting Officer to re-visit the topic periodically, which the Comptroller and Auditor General agreed would be valuable. The study found that the DFID had improved in its general scrutiny of progress in reducing poverty and of progress towards divisional goals, however noted that there was still clear scope for further improvement.
In 2016, the DFID was taken to task with accusations of misappropriation of funding in the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat. Whistleblower Sean McLaughlin commenced legal action against the department in the Eastern Caribbean Court,[14] questioning the DFID fraud investigation process.
In June 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office would be brought together to form the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office from 1 September the same year, centralising oversight of Britain's foreign aid budget.[15] The stated aim, according to Johnson, was to "unite our aid with our diplomacy and bring them together in our international effort". Three former British Prime Ministers (David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair) criticised the plan.[16] Johnson merged the two departments together in September 2020, forming the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. In criticism of the merge, Opposition leader Keir Starmer kept the shadow department and its ministers in place until the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle.
Pergau Dam
When it was the Overseas Development Administration, a scandal erupted concerning the department's funding of a hydroelectric dam on the Pergau River in Malaysia, near the Thai border. Building work had begun in 1991 with money from the British foreign aid budget. Concurrently, the Malaysian government bought around £1 billion worth of arms from British dealers, and thus became the subject of a UK government inquiry from March 1994.[17]
Ethiopia
In February 2015, the DFID ended its financial support for a controversial development project alleged to have helped the Ethiopian government fund a brutal resettlement programme.[18][19] Four million people were forced off their land by security forces while their homes and farms were sold to foreign investors.[citation needed]
In early 2017 the department ended £5.2m of support for the all-girl Ethiopian acting and pop group Yegna, called "Ethiopia's Spice Girls",[20] citing concerns about the effectiveness and value for money of the programme.[21][22]
Budget
| Country | DfID | ex-DfID |
|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | 178,098.8 | 19,444.3 |
| Albania | 0.0 | 540.4 |
| Algeria | 0.0 | 9,772.3 |
| Angola | 0.0 | 915.9 |
| Anguilla | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| AntiguaandBarbuda | 0.0 | 2.6 |
| Argentina | 0.0 | 960.7 |
| Armenia | 0.0 | 972.9 |
| Azerbaijan | 0.0 | 2,100.4 |
| Bangladesh | 202,634.3 | 5,610.4 |
| Belarus | 0.0 | 471.7 |
| Belize | 0.0 | 973.0 |
| Bolivia | 0.0 | 684.8 |
| BosniaHerzegovina | 0.0 | 3,506.2 |
| Botswana | 0.0 | 498.5 |
| Brazil | 0.0 | 10,168.6 |
| BurkinaFaso | 89.9 | 333.3 |
| Burundi | 6,006.2 | 101.7 |
| Cambodia | 1,246.1 | 685.3 |
| Cameroon | 10,000.0 | 43,539.7 |
| CapeVerde | 0.0 | 79.8 |
| CentralAfricanRep. | 15,797.0 | 267.6 |
| Chile | 0.0 | 1,588.9 |
| China | 0.0 | -33,505.2 |
| Colombia | 0.0 | 6,874.2 |
| Comoros | 0.0 | 6.3 |
| CongoDem.Rep. | 164,104.3 | 2,489.3 |
| CostaRica | 0.0 | 3,686.9 |
| Coted'Ivoire | 0.0 | 2,031.6 |
| Cuba | 0.0 | 3,957.3 |
| Dominica | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| DominicanRepublic | 0.0 | 408.6 |
| Ecuador | 0.0 | 244.0 |
| Egypt | 561.1 | -24,565.5 |
| ElSalvador | 0.0 | 212.2 |
| Eritrea | 5,590.0 | 287.3 |
| Ethiopia | 316,498.1 | 5,253.1 |
| Fiji | 0.0 | 1,085.6 |
| FormerYugoslavRepublicofMacedonia(FYROM) | 0.0 | 2,139.3 |
| Gabon | 0.0 | -220.6 |
| Gambia | 0.0 | 9,894.0 |
| Georgia | 0.0 | 4,337.5 |
| Ghana | 58,075.9 | 8,333.4 |
| Grenada | 0.0 | 0.8 |
| Guatemala | 0.0 | 1,077.3 |
| Guinea | 0.0 | 280.6 |
| GuineaBissau | 0.0 | 73.5 |
| Guyana | 670.5 | 371.5 |
| Haiti | 4,627.0 | 58.2 |
| Honduras | 0.0 | 26.9 |
| India | 188,040.2 | 91,019.8 |
| Indonesia | 14,227.0 | 1,563.1 |
| Iran | 0.0 | 658.9 |
| Iraq | 29,462.7 | 8,907.8 |
| Jamaica | 2,262.0 | 3,915.4 |
| Jordan | 10,065.1 | 8,473.2 |
| Kazakhstan | 0.0 | 1,782.2 |
| Kenya | 116,794.0 | 18,234.9 |
| Kiribati | 0.0 | 17.7 |
| KoreaDem.Rep. | 0.0 | 277.2 |
| Kosovo | 0.0 | 5,839.2 |
| KyrgyzRepublic | 4,109.7 | 1,842.0 |
| Laos | 765.0 | 707.9 |
| Lebanon | 18,744.9 | 7,264.0 |
| Lesotho | -27.7 | 232.5 |
| Liberia | 5,603.6 | 192.2 |
| Libya | 2,345.9 | 26,317.2 |