Department for International Development

The Department for International Development (DFID) is now the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The Department for International Development (DFID) leads the UK’s work to end extreme poverty. We are tackling the global challenges of our time including poverty and disease, mass migration, insecurity and conflict. Our work is building a safer, healthier, more prosperous world for people in developing countries and in the UK too.

DFID responsibilities:

• honouring the UK’s international commitments and taking action to achieve the Millennium Development Goals
• making British aid more effective by improving transparency, openness and value for money
• targeting British international development policy on economic growth and wealth creation
• improving the coherence and performance of British international development policy in fragile and conflict-affected countries
• improving the lives of girls and women through better education and a greater choice on family planning
• preventing violence against girls and women in the developing world
• helping to prevent climate change and encouraging adaptation and low-carbon growth in developing countries

Specific actions on climate change:

• encouraging the EU to demonstrate leadership on climate change
• negotiating for a comprehensive global climate change agreement
• reducing the impact of climate change in developing countries and the overseas territories
• providing £3.87 billion through the International Climate Fund to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change
• financially supporting developing countries through REDD+ to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
• leading the diplomatic effort to mitigate climate change
• building an evidence base to understand and predict climate change