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BUDGET 2017: OLD WINE IN OLD BOTTLES

BUDGET 2017: OLD WINE IN OLD BOTTLES

McLeod Group Blog, March 24, 2017

From an international assistance perspective, Budget 2017 was disappointing, stingy and in some respects hypocritical. It mainly recycled old commitments and failed to provide any new money.

There has been no shortage of pressure to increase the volume of aid. Calls for a significant boost can be found in last year’s International Assistance Review, which generated a large volume of public input, as well as the report of the House of Commons Standing ...

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PUTTING MONEY WHERE OUR MOUTH IS

PUTTING MONEY WHERE OUR MOUTH IS

McLeod Group Blog, March 9, 2017

The federal budget will be delivered on March 22. There is much speculation about the scope the government has for various types of expenditures, given the projected size of the deficit. As Canada attempts to project a positive, engaged, helpful image on the world stage, a key step to take would be to increase our foreign aid budget.

In global rankings of aid donors, Canada is far down the listing, at 0.28% of gross national ...

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CANADA AND THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL: BETTER LUCK THIS TIME?

CANADA AND THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL: BETTER LUCK THIS TIME?

McLeod Group Blog, February 8, 2017

After the Harper government’s disastrous attempt in 2010 to win one of the temporary seats on the United Nations Security Council, the Trudeau government has decided to try again. The next opening is in 2021. Fair questions to ask at this point are: Why are we doing this, and what difference might it make for Canada?

Fifteen months into the mandate of the Liberal government, foreign policy issues have attracted considerable attention on the part of ...

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BEYOND THE MARCH: SUPPORTING WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS GLOBALLY

BEYOND THE MARCH: SUPPORTING WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS GLOBALLY

McLeod Group Blog, January 30, 2017

The organizers expected about 800 people to show up for the Ottawa Women’s March on Saturday, January 21st. Instead, between 6,000 and 8,000 people converged on the Human Rights Monument –women, men, and children, many wearing versions of the now iconic pink pussy hat and carrying clever signs playing on Trump’s vulgar comments about how to treat women. In cities and towns across Canada, people came for many different reasons, but there was a clear ...

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LIFEBOAT DRILL: CANADA, TRUMP AND THE WIDER WORLD

LIFEBOAT DRILL: CANADA, TRUMP AND THE WIDER WORLD

McLeod Group Blog, January 23, 2017

Preparation for the incoming Trump administration is, understandably, a high priority for Canada. In this, the Canadian government needs to think beyond immediate self-interest, and consider not just the long game, but the fact that we are not alone in checking the lifeboats, the davits and the life preservers.

In advance of the inauguration, the Trudeau government has done some hasty redecorating and furniture rearrangement. Multilingual former journalist and author Chrystia Freeland, now a tested deal-maker, ...

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BACK TO THE FUTURE: CANADA AND UN PEACEKEEPING

BACK TO THE FUTURE: CANADA AND UN PEACEKEEPING

McLeod Group Blog, January 17, 2017

How serious is Canada about global peace and security? The decision has been made to return to UN peacekeeping, but only in principle. Now comes the hard part: the what and the where. Do we understand what has been happening during our absence from the modern world of peace operations? Discussions have been based on a fair amount of misinformation (e.g. peacekeeping didn’t use to be complicated, or political, or dangerous).

So what’s missing now?

When dealing ...

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REFUGEES: BRIDGING THE HUMANITARIAN-DEVELOPMENT GAP

REFUGEES: BRIDGING THE HUMANITARIAN-DEVELOPMENT GAP

Guest Blog by James Milner and Kevin Dunbar, January 11, 2017

Events in Europe and elsewhere over the past year have again highlighted the many deficiencies of the “global refugee regime.” Established in the aftermath of World War II, this regime has two core functions: to ensure protection for refugees and to find a solution to this plight.

By any objective measure, the global refugee regime is not working – and there have been growing demands from the public and politicians of ...

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THE WAR ON TERROR vs. THE WAR ON POVERTY

THE WAR ON TERROR vs. THE WAR ON POVERTY

McLeod Group Blog by Ian Smillie, January 4, 2017

In a recent New York Review of Books article, William Easterly argues that by conflating the ‘war on terror’ with the ‘war on poverty’, Western donor governments have made a big mistake.

Easterly, Professor of Economics at New York University and author of several powerful critiques of foreign aid (The White Man’s Burden, The Tyranny of Experts) says that Western donors, making a correlation between poverty and terrorism—for which there is little ...

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The International Assistance Review: What They Heard

The International Assistance Review: What They Heard

McLeod Group Blog by Stephen Brown, December 19, 2016

After completing its large-scale consultations as part of its International Assistance Review, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) recently published online a summary entitled “What we heard”. The review was a welcome opportunity for interested parties across Canada and around the world to express their views. GAC engaged over 15,000 people and organizations in 65 countries and received over 10,000 contributions. The task of collating all the information they received was colossal—and it ...

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PARLIAMENT’S BLURRY REPORT ON ‘FOCUS’

PARLIAMENT’S BLURRY REPORT ON ‘FOCUS’

McLeod Group Blog, December 13, 2016

In early November, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development issued a report titled ‘Development Cooperation for a More Stable, Inclusive and Prosperous World: A Collective Ambition.’  Unfortunately, the contents don’t quite live up to the title. The committee has missed an opportunity to make an important contribution to the process of preparing a new international assistance strategy for Canada, a process which is expected to produce a policy ...

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