UK Development Policy 1997–2023

This chapter conducts an in-depth analysis of UK development policy, from the establishment of DFID in 1997 until 2023, structured into five time periods that broadly follow different administrations—1997–2001, 2002–2009, 2010–2016, 2017–2019, and 2020–2023. We find that while in the early days of DFID, the dominant theme motivating development policy was poverty reduction, from the early 2000s to 2010, there was a gradual increase in linking poverty reduction first to recipient security and later to international security. 2010, when the Conservative-Liberal Democrat administration came to power, marked a discursive shift towards framing ODA as a means to mitigate risks to national security. After the Brexit referendum in 2016, UK development policy became dominated less by national security concerns and more by a narrative aligning aid with national interest more broadly, prioritising commercial and economic interest. The notions of ‘Global Britain’, ‘and the UK as a ‘global development leader’ increased, reflecting a more inward-looking approach to foreign policy and a concern with image rather than substantive policymaking.