Catalogue description Records created or inherited by the Department of Technical Co-operation, and successive Overseas Development bodies

Department of Technical Co-operation, 1961-1964

The Department of Technical Co-operation was established in July 1961 by the Department of Technical Co-operation Act of the same year, and powers were transferred to it from the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, the Commonwealth Relations Office and the Ministry of Labour.

The Department's objective was the effective management and co-ordination of the government's technical aid programme, working in conjunction with the political overseas departments (which for the time being, with the Treasury, retained control over capital aid projects) and the British Council.

The organisation of the new Department broadly reflected its origins, and remained for all its existence a mixture of different administrative units (bureaux, departments, divisions, branches and directorates). The organisation was subject, rather than geographical, in its arrangement.

In addition, there were a number of specialist and technical advisers to the Department who operated outside the 'departmental' organisation. These officers, often part-time staff and often on secondment from other departments or from outside organisations, provided guidance to the secretary for technical co-operation on all matters relating to overseas development in their fields of expertise. Many of these post-holders had deputies to assist them, who sometimes had particular areas of expertise themselves.

Responsibility for the affairs of the Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Agencies, (except for the Agents' financial policy as it affected the Colonial territories, and honours and awards), passed from the Colonial Office to the Department when it was established. The Department was also made responsible for the Anti-Locust Research Centre, the Overseas Services Resettlement Bureau, the Directorate of Overseas Surveys and the Overseas Geological Surveys (previously Colonial Office sections); these continued largely unaltered in their organisation under the new Department.

The Department also took over the Colonial Office's role in sponsoring three educational bodies, the Council for Overseas Colleges of Arts, Science and Technology, the Inter-University Council and the Colonial University Grants Committee.

In October 1964, following a change of government, the Department was wound up and replaced by the Ministry of Overseas Development. The Directorate of Overseas Surveys was included in the Ministry of Overseas Development, but the Overseas Geological Survey went to the Natural Environment Research Council.

Ministry of Overseas Development, 1964-1970

Unlike its predecessor, the new Ministry of Overseas Development had control of capital aid projects, and it absorbed functions related to this from the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, the Commonwealth Relations Office and HM Treasury.

In addition, the Ministry took over the work of liaison with the United Nations (and particularly the Food and Agriculture Organisation and UNESCO) on matters relating to aid and development from the Board of Trade, the Department of Education and Science and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, these functions being transferred under the Ministers of the Crown Act 1964. The Ministry also assumed responsibility for the Tropical Products Institute, the Tropical Products Research Unit, the Tropical Stored Products Institute and the Tropical Pesticides Headquarters and Information Unit from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Initially, the Ministry continued to be organised along the lines of its various predecessor organisations' constituent parts, but in the course of 1965 the ministry was organised into a largely divisional structure. Most of the divisions consisted of three or more departments, usually but not always dealing in related subjects or geographical areas.

Functions relating to the administration of the ministry were carried out by departments within broader divisions which also dealt with aid and development matters, and as such they were liable to be moved about in the organisation quite often.

As with the Department of Technical Co-operation, the Ministry included a large number of specialist and technical advisers on numerous subjects of relevance to the development programme. The Ministry continued to be responsible for the Anti-Locust Research Centre, the Overseas Services Resettlement Bureau, the Council for Technical Education and Training for Overseas Countries and the Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas.

Overseas Development Administration, 1970-1974

The incoming Conservative government published a white paper in October 1970 entitled The Reorganisation of Central Government (Cmnd 4506), which outlined its proposals for the future organisation of several government departments, including the Ministry of Overseas Development. The overall thrust of the reorganisation, as defined in the white paper, was towards a new style of government, intended to place 'emphasis on the grouping of functions together in departments with a wide span, so as to produce a series of fields of unified policy'.

As part of this plan the Ministry was dissolved and its functions absorbed into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as the Overseas Development Administration (ODA) in November 1970. ODA retained its own minister, as it was recognised in the white paper that the Ministry and its predecessors constituted a valuable body of expertise which should not be diluted in the amalgamated Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The minister was not a member of the Cabinet, however, and was responsible to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for the overall policy (though management of the overseas aid programme remained a distinct function). Further, the white paper suggested that an aim of ODA should be to 'engage the private sector of industry, commerce and finance to a greater extent than hitherto' in the provision of aid, a move which resulted in increased involvement of private sector companies, and seconded expert individuals, in the work of ODA. The internal organisation of ODA did not change greatly from that in place in the Ministry.

The number of overseas development divisions ran by ODA increased in 1972 to five, following the model of the original Middle East Development Division based in the British Embassy in Beirut. New development divisions were established for East Africa (based in Nairobi), Southern Africa (Blantyre), and South East Asia (Bangkok), their basic function being to provide advisors experienced in the local conditions to advise on technical and economic questions connected to the British aid programmes there, and to advise generally on development matters in their regions.

Overseas Development bodies after 1974

Following the general election of February 1974, the incoming Labour government honoured its manifesto pledge to remove control of the overseas aid budget from Foreign and Commonwealth Office control. In March 1974 the Overseas Development Administration (ODA) was separated from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and re-established as the Ministry of Overseas Development, with its own minister, who did not have a place in the Cabinet.

In 1979 the Ministry of Overseas Development was re-established as the Overseas Development Administration. In 1997 the ODA became the Department for International Development.