In March 2024, the United Kingdom set forth a Digital Development Strategy with measurable promises to partner nations across Africa and beyond — commitments to halve digital divides, expand AI research, and bring fifty million women and girls into meaningful digital participation by 2030. Two years on, the strategy remains published and uncancelled, yet the policy framework that gave it life has been replaced, three ministers have come and gone, and the budget allocations behind it amount to a single line totalling £70 million across three years against billions in broader aid spending. What