Strathaven man heads DFID team

Dec 21 2011 by Lynda Nicol, East Kilbride News

THIRTY years after watching the building of Abercrombie House as a boy an East Kilbride man has returned to his roots to take up a crucial post at the Department for International Development.

Alasdair Wardhaugh, son of local councillor Jim Wardhaugh, is now head of Improving Aid Impact at the DFID.

And, in this their 30th year in the town, he expressed his pride at what they are doing to help the world’s poor.

He told the News: “I'm constantly proud of the contribution Scotland makes on the world stage and I know from my work in East Kilbride that Scotland can be proud of what DFID is doing on their behalf to help the world's poorest.

“It's brilliant that DFID – which is recognised as a world leader on development – has a joint headquarters here in East Kilbride. Equally, it is no surprise given that Scotland has shown, time and again, that we believe in helping the poorest. Work led in East Kilbride on DFID's value for money, transparency and improving financial management is helping those in need, and is also essential to maintain support in UK for the aid programme in difficult economic times.

“What DFID does is crucial to giving the world's poorest a fair shot at life. Much of my career has been spent in London and overseas, but I'm delighted to have come home.!

An East Kilbride man born and bred Alasdair, 41, who now lives in Strathaven, remembers watching the “'ODA Building”, as they called it then, being built, but at that point he had no idea what it was nor that he would end up spending the bulk of his career working for the organisation.

A former pupil of St Hilary’s Primary and St Bride’s High School, after studying law at university, he landed a dream job working as an administrator in the Department for International Development's London office.

In the 18 years since, he has worked on a range of complex issues including global environment policy, country programme work in West and Southern Africa, Middle East and worked in the private office of several Government Ministers.

In his new role, Alasdair is charged with getting better results for UK aid investments.

In addition to his work on value for money, Alasdair is responsible for the UK's efforts to make aid more transparent so that people in the UK and in developing countries can hold the Government to account on how aid is spent and what it achieves.

He led a project 'The International Transparency Initiative' which has resulted in a recognised standard for aid transparency.

Recognised as the engine room for DFID’s vast global network of offices, the East Kilbride office is now also spearheading the drive to ensure UK aid is spent to help more of the world’s poor at better value for taxpayers.

This focus on value for money was introduced by International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell and since then ‘Abercrombie House’ has enabled DFID to make a root and branch shift to results based aid.

As a result new plans for UK aid that will help 50 million people work their way out of poverty were announced by the UK government in March.

To mark their anniversary, International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, and Scotland Secretary, Michael Moore, came to East Kilbride last month to meet staff and acknowledge their contribution to the achievements of UK aid.