McLeod Group guest blog by Ian Smillie, August 6, 2019

The Globe and Mail recently ran a story written by two employees at a Canadian government-funded organization called Convergence. Headlined “Blended finance offers global solutions,” it explained – or at least it tried to explain – how “strategic use of capital from public sources to mobilize private-sector funds can help developing countries.”

“Blended finance,” the article states, “is the strategic use ...

McLeod Group blog, June 13, 2019

Women Deliver, the world’s largest gathering on the health, rights, and well-being of women and girls, made headlines last week in Vancouver. Hosted by Canada, it was the setting for a major announcement by Maryam Monsef, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Minister of International Development, of a contribution of $300 million towards the newly launched Equality Fund. The donation is specifically targeted to build gender-lens ...

McLeod Group blog, June 3, 2019

The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) has released its preliminary report on member countries’ development assistance expenditures in 2018. It makes for interesting, if discouraging, reading. Overall, global official development assistance (ODA) decreased by 2.7% from 2017, with a smaller share going to the poorest countries.

When it comes to Canada’s performance, the report looks at both the quantity and quality of aid. Despite its claims ...

McLeod Group guest blog by Joan Kuyek, April 17, 2019

Although it took 15 months to identify and appoint lawyer Sheri Myerhoffer to the new post of Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, her powers remain undefined. Civil society organizations in Canada and the Global South fear that, for the umpteenth time in the last 20 years, they will be disappointed in their efforts to hold Canadian companies accountable for their often predatory ...

McLeod Group blog, April 8, 2019

The Canadian government recently announced that it would match every dollar Canadians contribute to the response to Cyclone Idai in Southern Africa. While the matching funds mechanism sounds like a generous move and one that would encourage individuals to donate more, it actually contradicts universally agreed humanitarian principles. In particular, it lets the allocation of Canada’s humanitarian assistance be skewed by media coverage and popular sentiments. Matching funds are in fact a terrible way to ...

McLeod Group guest blog by Liam Swiss, April 4, 2019

Whether blamed on Scott Brison’s retirement or the SNC-Lavalin affair, the revolving door of Trudeau Cabinet shuffles and resignations over the past months has heads spinning. A move that attracted little attention outside the development community was the departure of Marie-Claude Bibeau from the international development portfolio.

Bibeau’s appointment as Minister of International Development in Trudeau’s “Because it’s 2015” gender-balanced cabinet was a safe choice. Though a political novice, she has some ...

McLeod Group Blog by Stephen Brown, March 21, 2019

From the international development perspective, Budget 2019 is the most disappointing federal budget since the current Liberal government was elected. Foreign aid warrants a mere three paragraphs. The first repeats past commitments and the third describes how the government will report on Canadian aid, as legislated by the most recent omnibus bill. ...

McLeod Group blog, March 4, 2019 

After years of pressure from civil society organizations, the Canadian government finally adopted new legislation on December 13, 2018, that removes restrictions on charities’ ability to undertake policy advocacy. This is a welcome step, but more efforts are required to modernize how charities are regulated.

The McLeod Group had expressed its concerns about charity policy in previous blogs. ...

McLeod Group guest blog by Roy Culpeper, February 19, 2019

The sudden resignation in January of World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has reignited debate on the process of selecting his successor. To fill this position, US President Donald Trump has nominated Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs David Malpass, whom some critics believe would use the position to undermine the Bank. For example, Justin Sandefur of the Washington-based Center for Global Development said that Malpass’s disdain for the Bank’s ...

McLeod Group Blog, February 6, 2019

Mali, a vast country in West Africa on the edge of the Sahara, is receiving large amounts of assistance from Canada. But what are we doing there? Are we addressing the deeply rooted issues that make Mali an impoverished, fragile state?

Canada’s involvement in Mali came back into the public eye just before Christmas when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a brief visit to the Canadian military contingent in Gao, northern Mali. Canada’s much-vaunted return ...