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Reforming Development Assistance: Lessons from the UK Experience

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  • Owen Barder

Abstract

The establishment of the UK Department for International Development in 1997, and the evolution of the UK’s foreign aid policies, has provoked international interest as a possible model for other countries to follow. The UK now combines in a single government department not only the delivery of all overseas aid, but also responsibility for analyzing the impact on developing countries of other government policies, such as trade, environment and prevention of conflict. The department is led by a Cabinet-level minister. It has a remit to articulate the UK’s long-term security, economic and political interests in helping to build a more stable and prosperous world, and to ensure that this long-term goal is considered alongside the more immediately pressing concerns of political, security and commercial interests. It has benefited from a sharp focus on its long-term mission to reduce poverty overseas. Within a few years, the new Department has established a reputation for itself, and for the UK Government, as a leader in development thinking and practice. This paper describes the institutional changes in more detail, and considers how they came about. It also considers the steps that will be needed to consolidate its early success.

Suggested Citation

  • Owen Barder, 2005. "Reforming Development Assistance: Lessons from the UK Experience," Working Papers 70, Center for Global Development.
    • Handle: RePEc:cgd:wpaper:70
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    File URL: http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/4371
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Sebastian Edwards, 2015. "Economic Development and the Effectiveness of Foreign Aid: A Historical Perspective," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(3), pages 277-316, August.
    2. Gulrajani, Nilima, 2010. "Re-imagining Canadian development cooperation: a comparative examination of Norway and the UK," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 30036, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Emma Mawdsley & Warwick E. Murray & John Overton & Regina Scheyvens & Glenn Banks, 2018. "Exporting stimulus and “shared prosperity†: Reinventing foreign aid for a retroliberal era," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(S1), pages 25-43, March.
    4. Suzuki, Mao, 2020. "Profits before patients? Analyzing donors’ economic motives for foreign aid in the health sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    5. Treffgarne, Carew B.W., 2019. "Joined-up government? Insights from education during DFID’s first decade," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 45-55.
    6. Petr Blizkovsky & Roman Emelin, 2020. "The Impact of Official Development Assistance on the Productivity of Agricultural Production in Ghana, Cameroon and Mali," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 12(2), June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    development; foreign aid; UK; poverty reduction; Department for International Development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid

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