Archive for 2020

McLeod Group guest blog by Nicolas Moyer, December 17, 2020

In a national poll commissioned by Cooperation Canada and completed on December 2, Abacus Data found that, by a 2-to-1 margin, Canadians agree that Canada needs to help poorer countries in their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Canadians are split on whether Canada should spend more to help those countries – 36% agree, while 34% disagree. How should organizations working in international cooperation come to grips with such wobbly support?

As ...

McLeod Group blog by Lauchlan T. Munro, December 2, 2020

Results-based management is alive and well at Global Affairs Canada, but with a twist. Canada’s principal dispenser of official development assistance (a.k.a. “foreign aid”) has updated its International Assistance Results Reporting Guide for Partners in a way that incorporates changes to results-based management (RBM) that Nordic donors pioneered 15 years ago. Since Global Affairs Canada (GAC) has asked for ...

McLeod Group guest blog by Gregory T. Chin, November 30, 2020

As Canada’s relations with China have sunk to a low point, some Canadian politicians are calling on Ottawa to “stand up” to China by pulling our $256 million (US$189 million) investment from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). They charge that AIIB is an “institution that is clearly being used by the government of China to expand its foreign influence in the region”, a “Continue Reading →

McLeod Group blog by Diana Rivington and Lauchlan T. Munro, November 4, 2020

Remember back in the spring when the nations of the world competed for personal protective equipment (PPE)? Canadians were shocked when US President Donald Trump tried to block the shipment of PPE to Canada. That wasn’t a one-off event. The fight to secure domestic and international sources of medical supplies has continued.

The problem, alas, is that medical supplies are an area where cooperative solutions will ...

McLeod Group guest blog by John M. Kirk, October 29, 2020 

As the cold winter looms, along with the dreaded “second wave” of COVID-19, Canadians are faced with some alarming facts. While pleased that our infection and death rates are only half those found in the United States, we are doing poorly compared with one country barely mentioned in our media: Cuba. Their death rate (adjusted to population differences) is roughly 1/25 what ours is, while Canadians are ten times more ...

McLeod Group blog by Elizabeth McAllister and Brian G. Bedard, October 6, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic was predicted and preventable. The next pandemics are equally predictable and preventable. Around 60% of human infectious diseases and 75% of emerging infectious diseases originate in animals as zoonotic diseases. The novel coronavirus is just one of many, with its spillover from animals to humans, local and regional amplification, and subsequent spread to devastating pandemic levels.

Medical, veterinary and environmental sciences’ dire ...

McLeod Group blog, September 28, 2020

It was déjà vu all over again. On June 16, Prime Minister Boris Johnston announced that the Department for International Development (DFID) would be merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The new department, called the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), is led by the Foreign Secretary. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, “UK aid will be given new prominence within our ambitious international policy. The Foreign Secretary will ...

McLeod Group guest blog by Ruby Dagher, September 15, 2020

Given the ties between Canada and Lebanon, it was not surprising that that the Canadian government quickly announced a high-profile response to the humanitarian crisis prompted by the massive explosions in the heart of Beirut on August 4. Now, over a month later, the time is ripe for an initial stocktaking on this assistance, including its size, speed and partnerships. Sadly, there are serious concerns with all ...

McLeod Group blog by Lauchlan T. Munro, September 11, 2020

Following months of bad press, faced with multiple investigations, and having been dropped by several corporate donors, the Kielburger brothers have announced that they will “wind down [the] Canadian operations” of WE Charity. This move comes only weeks after WE Charity registered as a federal lobbyist and its founders assured a parliamentary committee that the organization was financially sound. ...

McLeod Group, August 20, 2020

Dear Minister Freeland,

Please accept our sincere congratulations not only on being appointed Minister of Finance, but also for being the first woman named to that post in 153 years of Confederation. The road to gender equality is a long one indeed, and your name is in the history books. Bravo!

We write to you today to give you some unsolicited advice. Since you have been a Cabinet minister before, you will already have received lots of unsolicited ...