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 ...

Blog by Stephen Brown and Hunter McGill, December 6, 2018

To help ensure that Canadian foreign aid is spent on supporting people in need in developing countries, rather than things like white elephants and Canadian commercial interests, Canada has legislation that mandates a focus on poverty reduction. The legislation also seeks to ensure that the government takes into account the perspectives of poor people and Canada’s human rights obligations when approving aid spending. The law is actually quite weak, but rather than ...

McLeod Group blog, December 3, 2018

In October, the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) hit the press like a bomb. The headlines since then have been relentless and shocking:

• “UN report calls for urgent action to avert catastrophic climate change”, The Globe and Mail, October 8, 2018
• “‘Devastating’ Human Impact on Planetary Health”, IISD, November 6, 2018
• “The Earth is in a death spiral”, The Guardian, November 14, 2018
• “Canada among worst offenders ...

McLeod Group blog, November 19, 2018

This year, the theme of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation’s annual conference was “Is Canada Back? Delivering on Good Intentions”. A confident community of civil society organizations (CSOs) felt now was the time to challenge the Trudeau government on how well it was delivering on its promises.

The concern is that bold words were not being turned into pro-poor, gender-sensitive implementation. A much strengthened effort is needed for effective programming on Canada’s two bold ...

McLeod Group blog by Betty Plewes, October 30, 2018

In July, I received a frantic email from a Ugandan colleague who was coming to Canada to present a paper at the International Conference of Agricultural Economists in Vancouver. Both of her research associates, one from Ethiopia and one from Nigeria, had been refused a Canadian visa needed to attend the conference. Could I help?

They had received identical rejection letters stating that the visa officer was not satisfied that they would leave ...

McLeod Group guest blog by Ian Smillie, October 23, 2018

Every five years or so, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conducts a “peer review” of its members’ development assistance programs. This year, it was Canada’s turn again, and the OECD report card was, as it almost always is, generally positive and constructive in its gentle criticism.

There was polite applause. The McLeod Group wrote, “Overall, the report gave Canada good marks for adopting ...

McLeod Group blog by Stéphanie Bacher, October 11, 2018.

We often hear about Canada urging other countries to respect human rights, most recently Saudi Arabia. But other countries also make recommendations to the Canadian government in order to help Canada improve its human rights situation at home and abroad.

This year, it was Canada’s turn to undergo an assessment called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. At the review, other countries made a total of ...

McLeod Group blog, September 24, 2018 

Medical advances in public health, notably in the realm of vaccinations, have transformed the life expectancy of people in all parts of the world. They have also vastly improved the quality of life: less blindness, less deafness, less brain damage, and fewer other crippling effects from contagious diseases such as measles. Even the poorest countries in the world have invested “blood and treasure” in vaccination campaigns.

Thus, it was no surprise that “vaccines for all” was ...