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![]() Department for International Development (London office) (far right) | |
Department overview | |
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Formed | 1997 |
Preceding agencies |
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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 |
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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 internationally.
The Department for International Development (DFID) was founded by the UK government in 1997. The department was established by the Labour government under Prime Minister Tony Blair. The structure of the DFID was authored by various Developmental Aid Experts including Chris Collins, Barnaby Edwards Machteld, Nicolas Brown and Timothy Montague Hamilton Douglas.[2]
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".[3] 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.[4]
The department was scrutinized by the International Development Committee.
Following Labour's 2024 ascension to government, there has been speculation that DFID could be reestablished as a ministry of its own once more. However, since the General Election, the new Government has not yet committed to this.
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