The surprise dismantling of USAID, the US’s #1 soft power tool, has caught allied aid agencies scrambling to pick up the slack in support of the West’s global interests. Among them is Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Here’s what we know about it.
The FCDO was created in 2020 after Boris Johnson shut down the Department for International Development (DFID) and merged it with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The FCDO’s predecessor was closed amid intense parliamentary and auditor scrutiny, including reports of the agency’s “difficulties” in assessing performance, impact and “value for money” stemming from:
31 October 2024, 16:44 GMT
In its five years as a leviathan combined foreign ministry and aid office, the FCDO has racked up its own share of controversy, including:
🧵PRIVATIZING PROFITS, SOCIALIZING LOSSES: THE SORRY STATE OF UK AND US’S HEALTHCARE
While Joe Biden and Keir Starmer rush to spend billions more in taxpayer money fueling wars abroad, both countries’ healthcare systems are falling apart. Find out why in our thread. (1/9) pic.twitter.com/IPqPHaVuky
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) January 19, 2025
