Rory Stewart: What to expect from DFID's new leader

LONDON — Aid experts have heralded Rory Stewart as the United Kingdom’s most qualified international development secretary to date — but some have warned that his expertise could spell change for the U.K. Department for International Development. Stewart was announced as DFID’s new leader last week as part of a ministerial reshuffle and was broadly welcomed by the aid community for his experience and commitment to the development agenda. He previously served as a junior minister in the department, as well as in the military and foreign service where he focused on conflict and post-conflict countries. The former diplomat has also run an NGO in Afghanistan and wrote a critique of western development efforts there: too removed from local contexts, lacking expertise, and on-the-ground experience. “People [at DFID] are very positive about the appointment … To have a secretary of state who really believes in the aid agenda … [can] empower staff to punch above their weight in [international] meetings,” said Simon Gill, acting executive director of London-based think tank Overseas Development Institute. But some worry that Stewart’s firm views about how to do development could spell further disruption for DFID, which has been through six development secretaries in 12 years. The fact that he is also known for grand gestures –– famously promising to resign from his previous post as prisons minister if he failed to get a handle on drugs and violence in prisons within a year — could also foreshadow big changes for the department. “He’s not one to make small statements, he’s got grand ideals about what he can achieve in the world, and also what the U.K. can achieve,” a source who worked closely with Stewart, when he was a junior minister with DFID, told Devex on condition of anonymity. Just days into the job, the new secretary of state has already made a number of bold statements about his plans for DFID, including that he wants the department to do more on climate change. Whether he remains in place long enough to enact real change is yet to be seen — he has been vocal about his aspiration to run for prime minister if Theresa May steps down, and the Conservative party’s ability to hold on to power is also increasingly in question. A bigger role for DFID’s country offices? Ian Mitchell, senior policy fellow at the London-based think tank the Center for Global Development, said Stewart could try to shake up DFID’s operational structure by putting more emphasis on DFID’s country offices over its U.K. offices. “His books emphasize the importance of deep country experience … so I imagine he would value — and ask for more — expertise in the countries DFID is working in and that this could mean a bigger voice for country offices relative to the center and closer working with partner countries,” Mitchell told Devex. Stewart’s disapproval of DFID’s operating model, especially the practice of sending staff overseas for short postings, was well known during his first stint at DFID as junior minister for Asia and the Middle East between 2017 and 2018. A former senior official, who worked with Stewart during that time and spoke to Devex on condition of anonymity to preserve professional ties, said: “His basic worldview [was] that he knew things — because of his Iraq experience and his Afghan trek — that we office-based civil servants, even those based abroad, could never know [because of the way we operated].” The official added that Stewart expected country staff to at least speak the local language and have longer postings. The former staffer said that DFID has been reviewing its local office-based delivery model. Depending on what it finds about ongoing suitability, this could create tension between the new chief and his civil servants. If those undertaking the review consider reverting to the old regional-centric model of delivery, DFID could be “more distant to its recipients — while Rory's gut inclination will be that we need to get even closer than we are now,” the staffer said. A DFID spokesperson told Devex the department is currently undergoing a “fundamental review” of its entire operating model but that no conclusions have been reached. A stickler for detail Stewart is also renowned for his attention to detail — something that could be both a blessing and curse for DFID’s staff and contractors, according to a source that previously worked with Stewart, who described him as a “real stickler for detail,” “demanding,” and “very professional.” Unlike some ministers, Stewart always read his briefing papers in detail, which could help drive value for money and efficiency in the department, but could also make life more difficult for civil servants used to managing DFID’s day-to-day business under a more hands-off minister, the source added. The former senior official Devex interviewed agreed that Stewart’s eye for detail could become problematic, especially if it signaled a return to the kind of line-by-line scrutiny seen under former DFID head Priti Patel. “Given Rory's genetic inclination to scrutinise everything himself, and dissect (and distrust?) staff thinking, this might also be a clash,” the former official wrote in an email, adding that “reverting to the Patel system really would gum up decision-making” just when things had begun to flow more smoothly. The future of cross-government strategy Sources said Stewart is likely to be critical of the trend of spending more official development assistance outside DFID, which came in under the 2015 cross-government strategy. Other aid-spending departments have consistently scored poorly for the transparency, effectiveness, and poverty focus of their ODA, according to a number of independent rankings and reports. The former senior official said Stewart virtually killed off the cross-government Empowerment Fund — a £140 million a year pro-democracy fund run out of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, which was suspended in 2017, because Stewart was appalled at the poor quality of bids and the lack of ministerial governance. A Cabinet office spokesperson told Devex the fund was suspended to improve efficiency because its focus overlapped with other cross-government funds. However, Gill said that while ODI has concerns about aid spending by other departments, his biggest hope is that Stewart will help deliver a more coherent U.K. aid strategy. “I’d like to see the rest of government brought up to DFID’s [spending standards] … and I hope DFID will fight ... to maintain, or if possible, increase its share [of ODA]. But the current political realities mean that the real win would be to improve coherence across Whitehall and Rory is well placed to do that,” he said. Jessica Abrahams contributed reporting to this story.