EXPERT COMMENT
The white paper should help restore confidence in the UK's approach to international development, but it ducks some central questions.
The UK government has published its first white paper on international development in 14 years. A key goal is to restore confidence in the UK's approach to international development since the tumultuous merger of DFID and the FCO and the 2021 cuts to the aid budget (which involved some contracts being broken mid-project).
Andrew Mitchell, the UK's international development minister, has also sought to attract widespread support for his approach so that it might have a life beyond the next election, regardless of the outcome. However, meeting these goals has been constrained by a decision at the outset that the white paper should not involve any new public spending commitments.
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