McLeod Group guest blog by Rachel Vincent, November 27, 2017

When Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Canada’s second-ever national action plan on women, peace and security at the start of November, four other federal ministers as well as a huge crowd of civil society representatives and diplomats were also on deck for an impressive show of support. To what extent does it advance a feminist foreign policy? Though the new plan is a clear step forward, it also carries important ...

McLeod Group Blog by Carolyn McAskie, November 22, 2017

When the current government was voted in two years ago, it triumphantly announced that Canada was back on the international stage, signifying a clear break with the previous regime which had run its own version of “Canada first”, picking and choosing among international fora, denigrating the UN and cutting international development contributions. Nowhere was the difference between the two governments more marked than in their respective attitudes towards UN peacekeeping. It appeared ...

McLeod Group Blog, November 15, 2017

Next week, a team from the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), including representatives from Norway and Germany, will be in Ottawa as part of the preparations for the peer review of Canada’s international cooperation efforts to take place next June. Here is the McLeod Group’s letter of welcome to the visitors.

Dear Peer Reviewers,

Welcome to Ottawa! It has been five years since the last DAC review of Canada’s international cooperation activities and your visit comes ...

McLeod Group guest blog by Karyn Keenan, November 9, 2017

Earlier this year, Export Development Canada (EDC), a Crown corporation mandated to promote Canadian exports and investment abroad, was tasked with running Canada’s new Development Finance Institute.

While EDC has for decades facilitated business in developing economies, its mandate is an exclusively commercial one. Its new objectives of poverty alleviation and sustainable development will require it to finance private investment that respects human rights and is protective of the environment. The ...

McLeod Group Blog, November 2, 2017

Back in April 2015, the Harper government announced the creation of a Development Finance Institute (DFI) with $300 million of funding to be disbursed over five years. Canada’s DFI was to join a worldwide array of similar investment organizations that provide loans for private sector investments in developing countries. As our May blog indicated, this new initiative quickly disappeared into a political black hole from which it suddenly re-emerged as a new Liberal initiative ...

McLeod Blog by Rieky Stuart, October 12, 2017 

During a panel discussion at the recent CCIC annual conference, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Development, mentioned the case of a Pakistani woman forced out of her home by her husband, separated from her children and left penniless (see our previous blog). She stated that “the system is broken” and used this example to highlight the problem of cultural norms and how they needed to change for ...

Blog by Stephen Brown, October 4, 2017

“I would love to increase the aid budget,” admitted Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Liberal Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary to Canada’s Minister of International Development, speaking at a recent conference organized by the Canadian Council for International Co-operation. But, she argued, “The system is broken.”

As an illustration, she told the story of a Pakistani woman whose husband had kicked her out of their home, changed the locks and left her destitute. Caesar-Chavannes rhetorically asked, “No ...

McLeod Group Blog, September 25, 2017

Canada’s new Feminist International Assistance Policy, launched by Minister of International Development Marie-Claude Bibeau in June, has been welcomed by many Canadian organizations and individuals as an exciting step towards a renewed approach to foreign aid. But niggling doubts haunt its implementation: Is Global Affairs Canada “fit for purpose”?

When Juan Somavía was appointed head of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1999, he wanted to deepen the organization’s focus on decent work for both ...

McLeod Group Guest Blog by Ian Smillie, August 1, 2017

A recent op-ed in the Globe and Mail talked about Canadian aid to Haiti. The print edition spoke of “more bang for the buck” and called it a new “Canadian-led approach.” The online edition said, “Canada must do more with less.” However, the subject of the op-ed is about neither of these things.

According to the author of the article, Bjorn Lomborg, Director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, his think-tank did ...

McLeod Group Blog, June 26, 2017

Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland’s address on June 6 laid out what was meant to be a bold new vision for Canadian foreign policy in a hostile international environment. However, the speech repeated familiar arguments and promises regarding the Canadian government’s commitment to signing more free trade agreements (FTAs) and to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

In the face of Donald Trump’s protectionist rhetoric, Freeland’s speech attempted to position Canada as ...