Closure of DFID.

Byline: Arif Azad

ON June 16, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the merger of the Department For International Development (DFID) with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in parliament. The suddenness of the decision in the midst of the global pandemic took everyone by surprise, and criticisms of the merger came thick and fast from across the political spectrum, including former prime ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron, as well as the aid sector, which had been left out of the loop.

Most criticisms revolved around the fact that dissolution of Britain's widely known DFID would damage countries' hard-won standing abroad and derail its independent work on poverty alleviation, gender empowerment, health and social protections in the world's poorest regions. DFID's role in shaping debates on development was crucial in terms of providing a necessary balance to the neoliberal tilt of the World Bank.

The merger, however, was long in coming. Johnson had dropped strong hints of DFID's reabsorption into the FCO since he was foreign secretary. Andrew Mitchell, former secretary of state for international department from 2010-2012, had previously foiled the FCO's inroads into DFID's domain. However, with the recent appointment of Anne-Marie Trevelyan, an ardent Brexiteer, in the post, the dice was fully loaded against DFID. Her attachment to the cause of international development was suspect as evidenced in her oft-stated 'charity begins at home' mantra, and her approach dovetails with Johnson's long-held view of DFID as 'a cashpoint in the sky'.

DFID was one of the crowning achievements of the Labour Party, which pledged when in the opposition in the early 1990s to separate British aid from perceived associations with foreign, trade or defence policy, in response to the Pergau Dam arms-for-aid scandal. Until then, the FCO had exercised considerable sway over aid distribution in pursuit of its policy objectives.

The merger will have adverse effects on international development.

In 1997, Blair's government established DFID as an independent department, with the formidable Clare Short as first sectary of state for international development. Under her, DFID grew and flourished in influence, reach and intellectual rigour; she shifted the focus to no-strings-attached aid. This went hand in hand with Labour's ethical foreign policy under the late foreign secretary Robin Cook. In time, DFID become a world leader in...