“I learned as a young banker in the City [of London] that there is no such thing as a merger: one side wins and the other side loses,” sighed Andrew Mitchell, the former United Kingdom development minister, as he recalled the chaotic death of its dedicated aid department five years ago.
The remark sums up the widespread view that the revered Department for International Development was not “merged” into the new Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office as an equal partner, but gobbled up by the U.K.’s mighty Foreign Office — or “destroyed” in the description of the ex-DFID top civil servant Mark Lowcock at the same think-tank event last October.
There is a clear parallel with the breathtaking shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is being absorbed by the State Department, with its future influence unknown. So, what were the consequences of the loss of DFID, which now might be echoed on the other side of the Atlantic?