"Injecting optimism" in the UK

For over ten years the Development Awareness Fund (DAF) has given millions of pounds to NGOs to "promote awareness" within the UK. Groups are paid for projects that endorse the government's ideas and spread a sense of optimism about the Department for International Development's activities. Many programmes are targeted at schoolchildren, while recipients include several British trades unions.

Fortunately the fund's time is coming to an end - but the practice of spending millions in "foreign aid" on this domestic propaganda continues. This paper analyses the history of the DAF and the considerable problems with this cosy political set-up.