Catalogue description Records of Asian and Pacific departments

An Asia Division was one of the first to be established in the Ministry of Overseas Development. It consisted of a number of departments dealing with the provision of capital and technical aid to defined geographical areas of Asia and the Pacific Ocean. These were the East Asia and Pacific Department, the South Asia Department and the Middle East Department. The Division also had responsibility for the Middle East Development Division, based in Beirut.

In 1966 the East Asia and Pacific Department was split, forming two new departments in the Asia Division, East Asia Department and Central Africa, Mediterranean and Pacific Department. In the following year, separate provision was made for development in Malaysia, with a new Malaysia and Singapore Department being formed, again in Asia Division. This department was moved in 1968 to become part of the Social Development and Personnel Services Division, and the Central Africa, Mediterranean and Pacific Department became part of Africa Division at the same time.

In April 1970 territorial responsibilities were briefly reorganised, the department becoming the Caribbean, Pacific and Central Africa Department, but at the end of May 1970 responsibility for Rhodesia and Zambia passed to the East Africa Department, and a new Caribbean and Pacific Department was created. The Department was abolished in December 1971, with work on Pacific Dependent territories passing to a new joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Overseas Development Administration Dependent Territories Department, and other Pacific business passing to a new Middle-East, Mediterranean and Pacific Department.

Following the creation of the Overseas Development Administration in 1970, there was a reorganisation of the departments dealing with Asia, though the Asia Division remained. The South Asia Department continued, but there were three new departments: Middle East and Mediterranean; South East Asia; and Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and East Asia. In 1971 the latter department was renamed Far East Department.

In 1973 a South East Asia Development Division was opened in Bangkok, and in the same year the Middle East and Mediterranean Department assumed responsibility for Caribbean affairs, becoming the Middle East, Mediterranean and Caribbean Department, though this arrangement only lasted for a year and was reversed in 1974. After the conversion of the Ministry of Overseas Development into the Overseas Development Administration in 1970, a number of joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Overseas Development Administration departments were established, reporting to the FCO on political matters and to ODA on development.

Among these were the Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department (1972-1976), the Hong Kong Department (1976-1977), the Hong Kong and General Department (1977-1978), and the Pacific Dependant Territories Department (1972-1979) and the South Pacific Department (1979-1980). Development matters for Hong Kong, the Seychelles, the British Indian Ocean Territories, the British Solomon Islands, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Pitcairn, the New Hebrides and the South Pacific Commission were all dealt with by these departments until they were absorbed into the appropriate Overseas Development Administration Departments.

A new Disaster Unit was set up in 1974, and though its remit was world-wide (to prepare for natural disasters, in liaison with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Department of Health and Social Security and other international and voluntary organisations), the frequency of such disasters occurring in South Asia at the time resulted in the Unit being placed as part of the Asia Division in 1977. The unit was moved to the Education Division in 1980. This move was part of a general reorganisation of Asia Division. South East Asia Department was abolished (though the Development Division continued), replaced by an Eastern Asia Department.

South Asia Department was renamed Southern Asia Department, and the Mediterranean and Near East Department was removed to the Africa Division. In the following year, the Division was retitled Asia and the Oceans Division, as it assumed responsibility for a new Caribbean, Pacific and Latin America Department, and in 1982 for the West Indian and Atlantic Department (responsibility for the West Indian islands being split between the two departments).

Responsibility for Pacific development passed to a new Latin America and Pacific Department in 1989, and to a unified Eastern Asia and Pacific Department in 1990, but this was split in 1992 to create separate Pacific and Eastern Asia Departments. The two were re-unified in 1995. The Southern Asia Department was split in two in 1990, Department I handling India, Bhutan and Nepal, and Department II dealing with Sri Lanka, the Maldive Islands, Afghanistan, Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan and regional matters.

These departments were joined in 1992 into a new Southern Asia Department, and at the same time a Western Asia Department was created to deal with the Middle and Near East, regional matters, and also development in Malta and Cyprus. Also in 1992, a regional office to manage United Kingdom aid in south Asia was opened in Dhaka.