The department of the UK Government responsible for overseas aid is set to merge with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Parliament on Tuesday.
Johnson told MPs that the Department for International Development (DfID) would merge with the Foreign Office in order to align aid spending with the objectives of the United Kingdom, a move that has caused controversy.
DfID operates in various countries around the world including Rwanda where, among other sectors, it supports and finances interventions in agriculture activities, trade, education , and infrastructure.
Prime Minister Johnson said the “long overdue reform” would ensure “maximum value” for taxpayers.
“For too long frankly, UK overseas aid has been treated like a giant cashpoint in the sky that arrives without any reference to UK interests,” the Prime Minister said.
Johnson said he would create a new “ super-department ” called the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which would be overseen by foreign secretary Dominic Raab.
Opposition Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer dismissed the merger as “pure distraction,” saying it would weaken UK influence, and if elected PM he would restore DfID.
The step has also been opposed by three former prime ministers-Conservative David Cameron and Labor’s Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.
Cameron has said that would mean “less expertise, less voice for development at the top table and ultimately less respect for the UK overseas.”
Former PM Tony Blair said he was “utterly dismayed by the decision to abolish DfID.”
“We created DfID in 1997 to play a strong, important role in projecting British soft power. It has done so to general global acclaim,” he said in a tweet.
Blair described DfID as a leader in both programmes and thought in development, helping millions of the world’s most vulnerable to be relieved of poverty and killer diseases.
“The strategic aims of alignment with diplomacy and focus on new areas of strategic interest to Britain could be accomplished without its abolition,” he noted. “Wrong and regressive move.”
Tony Blair: “I am utterly dismayed by the decision to abolish DFID. We created DFID in 1997 to play a strong, important role in projecting British soft power. It has done so to general global acclaim. (1/3)
— Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (@InstituteGC) June 16, 2020
"It is a leader in both programmes and thought in development, helping millions of the world’s most vulnerable to be relieved of poverty and killer diseases. (2/3)
— Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (@InstituteGC) June 16, 2020
The strategic aims of alignment with diplomacy and focus on new areas of strategic interest to Britain could be accomplished without its abolition. Wrong and regressive move.” (3/3)
— Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (@InstituteGC) June 16, 2020
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