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The ODM's White Paper: A preliminary comment by members of the staff of ODI

The 1967 White Paper from the new Overseas Development Ministry (ODM) aims to answer Parliamentary questions about the UK aid programme. As a catalogue of projects, it is a welcome reminder of the extent of UK development programmes. However, this ODI Briefing Paper expresses disappointment at the lack of evidence of any Aid for Development policy. The Briefing Paper notes that ODM was established to improve the management of British Aid and to produce an aid policy that would tackle global poverty. This was the aim set out in the Ministry's first White Paper of August 1965. Its absence in the current White Paper, combined with the disappearance of the Minister from the Cabinet, may suggest that the UK is disengaging from the worldwide war on poverty.