LONDON — Since the merger of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office was announced last month, much has been made by the government of international precedents.
“We will learn from the examples of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, all of whom run their development programs from their foreign ministries,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the House of Commons.
Ministers have since used these examples to suggest that the reorganization will bring the U.K. closer in line with other donors from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee. But for those in the development community who observed these mergers closely, the prime minister’s words were cause for concern.