Defining Morality: DFID and the Great Lakes

Abstract

This article examines the work of the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID) in the Great Lakes region of central Africa. It traces the formulation of policy and compares it with DFID’s operations in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from 1997 to 2001. Drawing on research from the region and the UK, the article argues that DFID’s “new humanitarianism” offers little new, and that the spoken poverty agenda is misleading. It concludes that whilst DFID’s moral terminology suggests that there is a framework for response, in fact DFID defines what is “good” and redefines events – including its own activity – to fit with it.