Devex: DFID survives another day as Alok Sharma named new secretary of state
“Alok Sharma was named as the U.K.’s latest secretary of state for international development on Wednesday, joining the cabinet of new Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He becomes the Department for International Development’s fifth leader in four years, with insiders saying that frequent changeovers have become a source of disruption and frustration internally. Nonetheless, it was a moment of quiet relief for the development community amid speculation that DFID might lose its secretary of state under aid skeptic Johnson and be asked to report to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. … Little is known about [Sharma’s] views on aid, but he released a statement Wednesday saying ‘we will work across the whole of government to deliver Brexit and make sure U.K. aid is tackling global challenges that affect us all, such as climate change, disease, and humanitarian disasters’…” (Abrahams, 7/25).