The Giant Cash Point in the Sky: The DfID/FCO Merger and its Implications for Global Britain
| Author | Victoria Honeyman,Simon Lightfoot |
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905820958821 |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
30POLITICAL INSIGHT•SEPTEMBER 2020
From the moment of its birth, there
have been those who have called
for the Department for International
Development (DfID) to be subsumed
into the Foreign and Commonwealth Oce
(FCO). It has long been rumoured that
Boris Johnson was in favour of merging
the DfID and FCO and in June 2020, the
Prime Minister did just that. What started in
February 2020 with the merger of DfID junior
ministers with the FCO, and an order for DfID
Country Directors to report to FCO ocials
ended up with the creation of the Foreign,
Commonwealth and Development Oce.
While the move may not have been a surprise
within the development community or those
in Whitehall, its timing – and the potential
results – have been criticised by those working
within the sector, and academics focused on
development and Britain’s global position. In
prime ministerial aide Dominic Cummings’s
culture war, it looks like the DfID may be the
rst casualty.
The creation of the DfID
In 1997 Tony Blair created the DfID and
committed Britain to the 0.7 per cent of
Gross National Income spend on overseas
development aid (ODA), which the UN had
recommended almost three decades before.
The Giant Cash Point in
the Sky: The DfID/FCO
Merger and its Implications
for Global Britain
Boris Johnson’s decision to merge the Department for International
Development into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was not
a surprise, but the move has raised questions about Britain’s post-
Brexit commitment to overseas aid, as Victoria Honeyman and
Simon Lightfoot report.
When Harold Wilson had created the Oce
for Overseas Development, with Barbara
Castle at its head, it had been an independent
department with a cabinet seat, demonstrating
its importance within his government. However,
Wilson’s Conservative successor Ted Heath,
downgraded overseas development to a
division of the Foreign and Commonwealth
Oce. Being part of the extensive FCO, under
the Foreign Secretary, meant that development
was subsumed into wider concerns and its
voice was largely ignored.
New Labour began a new era in overseas
development aid. By increasing Britain’s
ODA budget and creating an important,
independent department, with an
independent Secretary of State in the shape
of Clare Short, Blair sent an important signal
to the wider world – the new government
would be more ‘ethical’ in its foreign policy and
aid would be based on need not the ‘political
agenda’ of the FCO (Gallagher 2011). This shift
meant the DfID had the potential to build
new relationships with the developing world,
repairing old, colonial wounds (Honeyman
2019). Britain would enhance its global
voice and would be able to ‘punch above its
weight’ based on its development spending.
The International Development Act 2002
enshrined ‘reduction in poverty’ at the heart
of UK aid and allowed the DfID to be a major
actor in delivering UK soft power, in particular
focusing on gender and health issues.
The political cost of ODA
During its lifetime the DfID came to be seen
as an ecient government department and
an eective aid actor. However, the decision
by the Conservative government to pass
Political Insight September 2020 BU.indd 30Political Insight September 2020 BU.indd 3004/08/2020 13:2804/08/2020 13:28
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