The United Kingdom government has acknowledged a “severe” risk that international development skills and expertise are being lost, more than three years after it axed its separate aid department.
The admission is disclosed in a public spending watchdog’s report into the 2020 creation of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, which also criticizes a failure to properly assess the costs and benefits of the controversial merger.
The study warns that internal “trust in the organisation” is still being damaged by a failure to align “pay and allowances” of staff who worked at the former Department for International Development and at FCDO.