Who is Anneliese Dodds, the new UK development minister?

For 48 hours, the only clue to the identity of the United Kingdom’s new international development minister, following Labour’s stunning election victory, was a mysterious place card on the Cabinet table on Saturday morning. The card read “Minister of State (Development)” and behind it was sitting Anneliese Dodds, who had expected to continue as the party’s chair — with responsibilities for internal administration and campaigning — but who, it later turned out, had lost that post. On Monday, Downing Street confirmed Dodds had taken over the international development brief from Lisa Nandy, who had spent 10 months preparing for the role before being surprisingly promoted to culture secretary on Friday. Even then, the announcement described Dodds as “Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office” — with no specific mention of development — and, more significantly, that she has a second job, at a different department, as minister for women and equalities. It was an inglorious, even chaotic, process from a party that, until last month, was toying with whether to restore to international aid the heft and status of its own department, or at least create a “new model” for delivering it — instead of leaving it as the lesser sibling within the giant FCDO, now given a minister with an additional job. “Let's hope the Government isn't underestimating the importance or size of the challenge on rebuilding the UK's development approach.” --— Ian Mitchell, senior policy fellow, Center for Global Development The aid sector in the United Kingdom has been left scrambling to work out how Dodds will juggle her various responsibilities, and to assess the person catapulted suddenly into a challenge Nandy had spent so many months getting ready for. Nick Dearden, the director of the campaign group Global Justice Now, described the turn of events as “worrying,” saying in a post on the platform X: “It must be the first time since, when, the early 70s, when there hasn’t been a dedicated ministerial lead for international development/overseas aid?” Ian Mitchell, senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development think tank, told Devex: “With major challenges on international financial reform, incentivising developing countries to act on climate and ensuring UK aid actually reaches those in need let's hope the Government isn't underestimating the importance or size of the challenge on rebuilding the UK's development approach.” So who is Anneliese Dodds, the shock pick for the daunting task of reviving the standing of U.K. development that was left “degraded,” in the words of Labour’s election manifesto, by the previous Conservative government? The answer is someone on the soft left of the party who has marched for action on the climate crisis, is well-liked by colleagues, and seen as highly intelligent — she completed a master’s degree in social policy and authored a book titled “Comparative Public Policy” — but whose career has stalled. Until three years ago, Dodds was Labour’s shadow chancellor — the equivalent of U.S. treasury secretary — but she was demoted to party chair alongside responsibility for women and equalities, which thrust her into the bear pit of disagreements over transgender rights. Last year, she announced she would be “the UK’s first ever Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, with a seat at the top table, dedicated to advocating for women in all their diversity in every Cabinet conversation.” Nine months on, Dodds will attend Cabinet meetings, but not as a full member, and will speak for both international development and for the women and equalities plans she drew up — and, presumably, still wants to drive through — which include a new Race Equality Act and menopause workplace guidance, among other initiatives. It is not the first time a U.K. minister has held both briefs — Penny Mordaunt performed both roles for a year from 2018, while running the since-axed Department for International Development — but equalities will be a much bulkier, more ambitious portfolio for Labour. This “how many hours are there in the day” issue may be as significant for Dodds’ ability to make her mark as the chasm between Labour’s bold promise to “rebuild Britain’s reputation on international development” and its timid policy offer. Keir Starmer, the new British prime minister, rejected calls to restore an independent aid department, there will be no quick return to spending the United Nations target of 0.7% of gross national income on aid, and — in the medium term at least — billions will continue to be diverted from the aid budget to housing asylum seekers in the U.K. Dodds must also escape the shadow of her powerful immediate boss, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who successfully fought to keep development within his huge department as part of his own ambitions to redraw the U.K.’s relationship with the global south at what he calls “the end of the post-colonial era.” In her own first-day speech to FCDO staff, Dodds set out what she sees as the core of “a clear and effective, modern development policy,” telling them: “Our mission will be to relentlessly pursue a world free from poverty on a liveable planet, in which we deliver humanitarian aid to those who need it most; unlock climate finance; tackle unsustainable debt; enhance our ability to prevent conflict; accelerate economic development; and of course, foreground women and girls in everything we do.” Romilly Greenhill, chief executive of U.K. network for NGOs Bond, suggested her background could be an advantage, telling Devex: “The new minister's experience and commitment to championing women's rights and gender equality will be invaluable in supporting marginalised communities worldwide. “We also look forward to her bringing her financial expertise to the role, particularly to help find urgent responses to the global debt crisis and priorities for reforming the global financial system.”