McLeod Group Blog, June 24, 2015
If you’re in favour of foreign aid, there is good news: Development aid from the world’s industrialized countries remained steady at US$135.2 billion in 2014, after an all-time high in 2013.
If you think aid should go to the poorest countries, however, there is bad news: They only got 28% of the total, a drop of 16% in a single year.
Among OECD member countries, the ten least generous—all at less than 0.2% of gross national ...
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McLeod Group Blog, May 11, 2015
In the 2015 Federal Budget, the Conservative Government announced the creation of a Canadian development finance ‘initiative’. Details remain scanty. In the name of ‘coherence and effectiveness’, the budget states that the government has established the new initiative to enhance private sector development, achieve meaningful development outcomes, and raise people out of poverty.
Despite claims about advancing ‘new’, ‘innovative’, and ‘blended’ financing by involving the private sector, neither promoting the role of the private sector ...
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The Harper government set tongues a-wagging and jaws a-dropping when it started attacking Canadian charities for accepting donations from other countries. The row began in 2012 when Joe Oliver, then Natural Resources Minister, accused ‘environmental and other radical groups’ of taking money from ‘foreign special interest groups’ in order to influence hearings about a possible tar sands-to-BC pipeline. Environment Minister Peter Kent said that ‘There has also been concern that some Canadian charitable agencies have been used to launder ...
Continue Reading →McLeod Group Blog, January 19, 2015
January 12 marked five years since the earthquake that devastated Haiti, killed over 230,000 citizens and rendered over three million people homeless, almost 30% of the country’s population. Since 2010, Haiti has received a great deal of media attention, been the subject of many promises of help (some of which have been honoured). It also experienced two major hurricanes in 2012 as well as an outbreak of cholera, believed to have been introduced by a ...
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McLeod Group Blog, December 22, 2014
According to George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, ‘War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.’ In the Harper government’s brave new world, bad financial budgeting is good financial management.
That’s the only conclusions you can draw from government departments that planned and over-budgeted so badly in 2013-14 that they were able to return $7.2 billion in lapsed funds to the treasury. Treasury Board President Tony Clement calls this incredible mess ‘a sign of good ...
Continue Reading →McLeod Group Blog, April 12, 2014
It may come as a surprise to many Canadians who follow global civil society issues to learn that Canada chairs the Community of Democracies’ Working Group on Enabling and Protecting Civil Society, a group that believes,
An active, pluralistic civil society is an essential ingredient of a vibrant democratic political system. Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are the primary vehicles through which people organize themselves to promote shared objectives and values and to convey their interests. ...
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McLeod Group Blog, May 21, 2014
Christian Paradis, Canada’s Minister for International Development, surprised a great many people—stunned might be a better word–when he said this in an April press release:
“Canada recognizes and supports the vital role that civil society plays in reaching development objectives. Civil society engages citizens in their countries’ decision-making processes that affect them. Empowered by the fundamental rights of freedom of expression, association and assembly, civil society enables citizens to hold their governments to account, providing ...
Continue Reading →Clan McLeod was out in force at this event, sharing the limelight with Joe Clark, Development Cooperation Minister Christian Paradis and a broad mix of Canadian development actors drawn from the memberships of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC) and the Canadian Association of Independent Development Professionals (CAIDP).
The highlight of our participation was a session, ‘Taking Stock: the Changing Context for Development’. The event was informal, even if the room was packed. It was a set of frank and lively conversations ...
Continue Reading →McLeod Group Blog, April 9, 2014
It may come as a surprise to many Canadians who follow global civil society issues to learn that Canada chairs the Community of Democracies’ Working Group on Enabling and Protecting Civil Society, a group that believes,
“An active, pluralistic civil society is an essential ingredient of a vibrant democratic political system. Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are the primary vehicles through which people organize themselves to promote shared objectives and values and to convey their interests. ...
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January 21, 2014
On December 5, 2013, Canada’s International Development Minister (yes, there still is one) Christian Paradis spoke to the Montreal Board of Trade about the Harper Government’s approach to foreign aid. The speech was chock-full of myth, urban legend, half-truths and what can only be described as a bunch of whoppers.
Mr. Paradis began by saying, “I want us to be recognized as a world leader in poverty reduction and humanitarian assistance.” That may be what he wants, but ...
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