When then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the creation of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in September 2020, he signaled the dissolution of the Department for International Development (DFID) after nearly 25 years. Over that time, DFID had won a stellar international reputation, recruited a large and well-respected body of expertise, and made a material contribution to important changes in the global development architecture.
This series, published over 18 months, examines the ways in which DFID enabled the UK to pursue its development objectives, and the department’s contribution to global development over the years of its existence.
Boris Johnson’s decision to merge DFID with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office—dissolving a department with a stellar international reputation—was loudly criticized from all sides. It is now generally accepted to have failed, and politicians across parties have been actively considering how to rectify matters. DFID’s experience from 1997 to 2020 is highly germane.
