the department for international development [dfid] is united kingdom government department responsible for administering overseas aid.the goal of the department is ''to promote sustainable development and eliminate world povery''.dfid is headed by the united kingdom's secretary of state for international development.the position is held since 14 july 2006 by priti patel.in a 2010 report by the development assistance committee ]dac],dfid was described as ''an international development leader in times of global crisis''.the uk aid is often used to publicly acknowledtge dfid's development programmes are funded by uk tax payers.
dfid's main programme areas of work are education,health,social services,water supply and sanitation,government and civil society,economic sector [including infrastructure,production sectors and developing planning],environmental protection,research,and humanitarian assistance.
in 2009/10 dfid's gross public expenditure on development was 6.65bn pounds.of this 3.96bn pounds was spent on bilateral aid [including debt relief,humanitarian assistance and project funding ]and 2.46bn pounds was spent on multilateral aid [including support to the eu,world bank,un and other related agencies].although the department for international development's foreign aid budget was not affected by the cuts outlined by the chancellor for the exchequer's 2010 spending review,dfid will see their administration budgets slashed by approximately 19 percent over the next four years.this would mean a reduction in back-office costs to account for only two percent of their total spend by 2015.
in june 2013 as aprt of the 2013 spending round outcomes it was announced that dfid's total programme budget would increase to 10.3bn pounds in 2014/15 and 11.1bn pounds in 2015/2016 to help meet the uk government's committment to spend 0.7% of gni [gross national income] on oda [official development assistance].dfid is responsible for the majority of uk oda;projected to total 11.7bn pounds in 2014/15 and 12.2bn pounds in 2015/16.
the national audit office [nao] 2009 performance management review looked at how dfid has restructured its performance management arrangements over the last 6 years.the report responded to a request from dfid's accounting officer to re-visit the topic periodically,which the comptroller and auditor general agreed would be valuable.the study found that dfid had improved in its general scrutiny of progress in reducing poverty and of progress towards divisional goals,however noted that there was still clear scope for further improvement.
in 2016 dfid was taken to task with accusations of misappropriation of funding in the british overseas territory of montserrat.whistle blower sean maclauglin commenced legal action against the department in the eastern carribean court questioning the dfid fraud investigation process.