Who’s in the running to be UK’s top development official?

Reforms to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office are expected to bring “morale” and “focus” to the beleaguered department, according to a senior insider. The FCDO announced Thursday it was creating a position for a second top civil servant solely responsible for international development to work alongside the current permanent under-secretary, or PUS, Philip Barton. Speculation over who will be appointed has already begun. The new PUS, who will begin later in the year, will be the accounting officer for all government aid spending and be accountable to Parliament and the National Audit Office, the United Kingdom's public spending watchdog, according to the FCDO source. The person said: “Internally, this will boost morale and bring clearer focus. Externally, this will put FCDO back on the path to a higher standard of accountability and transparency. It’s a major step forward and a shrewd move by FCDO.” The position would improve the “focus and direction” of civil servants working on development, and improve recognition of their work, including prospects for promotion, according to the insider. The news of a second, development-focused PUS triggered excitement within the U.K.’s development sector, and observers suggested it could be the first step in recreating a separate development structure in government. The 2020 merger, which folded the Department for International Development into the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, creating FCDO, has been widely criticized for its chaotic process and hemorrhaging of development expertise. Recruitment for the role is expected to begin soon, and the news has set off frenzied speculation about who might take the job. Nick Dyer, a former PUS at DFID and currently director general for humanitarian and development in the FCDO, is being talked about as a contender. So is Lindy Cameron, leader of the National Cyber Security Centre. Prior to working in intelligence, Cameron ran DFID offices in Iraq and Afghanistan and was the department’s director general for country programmes until May 2019. Alicia Herbert, FCDO’s director of education, gender and equalities, caught attention by accompanying Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on a recent trip to his mother’s hometown in Sierra Leone for International Women’s Day. Herbert, described by two sources as “brilliant,” is also the U.K.’s special envoy for gender equality. She is Black, and her appointment would be a symbolic move in a department with a reputation for employing white men in senior roles. Moazzam Malik, a long-time DFID official widely respected by the development sector who left the department last year, is another on the spectator’s shortlist. He began a role at World Resources Institute last year. “Let’s rule me out!” Stefan Dercon, former policy advisor to former Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, wrote to Devex.