Devex: DFID’s entire junior ministerial team is merged with the Foreign Office
“The junior ministerial team of the U.K.’s Department for International Development was quietly merged with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office [(FCO)]on Thursday as part of a government reshuffle. Relief among development professionals at the news that DFID would retain its independence was short-lived; soon after Anne-Marie Trevelyan was announced as DFID’s new secretary of state, it emerged that all of the department’s junior ministers would now be working jointly for FCO, a Whitehall power rival. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has previously threatened to merge the two departments. Although that didn’t happen, the shake-up of the ministerial team was branded ‘integration by stealth’ by one former senior DFID official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ‘It is a clear statement of intent on the role development assistance is to play in foreign policy,’ he said…” (Worley, 2/14).