Records of Aid and Financial Management Divisions

Records of aid and financial management divisions relating to the co-ordination of the UK's aid effort within regions and globally.

Records of Investments and Crown Agents Department are in OD 71.

Records of the Aid Management Department are in OD 37.

Records of the Aid Policy Department are in OD 51 and OD 116.

Records of the Finance Department relating to regional aid programmes and the functions previously performed by the Aid Management Department are in OD 20.

Records of the various aid co-ordination departments are in OD 36.

Records of the Finance Division, later Finance and Aid Policy Division (1987 to 1997) are in OD 141

Topics

Aid and development

The various overseas development departments have always found the need to devote resources to the co-ordination of the UK's aid effort within regions and globally, so that the work of the geographical departments did not focus too narrowly on the particular needs of the territories concerned at the expense of the wider environment. This practice was initially instilled in the Department of Technical Co-operation because of the responsibility it inherited from the Colonial Office for the regional development programmes under the Colombo Plan.

As the Department developed and experience in the provision of aid evolved, the need for effective control and evaluation of the aid provided, and the value represented by it grew, and was reflected in a succession of departments whose role was the management and co-ordination of the overall aid effort. The Aid Co-ordination Department, initially responsible for this with the Finance Department, was replaced in 1969 by an Aid Policy Department, which in turn was followed by a Development Co-ordination Department in 1975, and the Bi-lateral Co-ordination Department in 1980 (Bi-lateral Co-ordination and Consultancies Department from 1981).

The role of these departments was essentially the same, to work on the size, distribution and composition of the UK's aid programme, including liaison with other states and international organisations' aid programmes and commercial aspects of aid policy. The Evaluation Department was responsible for the evaluation of aid activities immediately following their completion to assess the value for money of projects and to inform future aid provision projects.