The appointment of a top civil servant with deep experience in international development to a new senior post has been hailed as a significant but limited step in the U.K.’s attempts to rebuild its battered reputation on foreign aid delivery.
The merged Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, or FCDO, has been given a second permanent under-secretary — a deputy to its senior civil servant — with a brief to focus on development work and “undo damage,” as one expert put it.
The selection of Nick Dyer, a former acting head of the abolished Department for International Development, or DFID, is seen as a further victory for U.K. development minister Andrew Mitchell, who worked with Dyer at DFID more than a decade ago.
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About the author
Rob Merrick
Rob Merrick is the U.K. Correspondent for Devex, covering FCDO and British aid. He reported on all the key events in British politics of the past 25 years from Westminster, including the financial crash, the Brexit fallout, the "Partygate" scandal, and the departures of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Rob has worked for The Independent and the Press Association and is a regular commentator on TV and radio. He can be reached at rob.merrick@devex.com.
