Posts Tagged 'OECD'

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul? Don’t Cut Foreign Aid to Meet Refugee Resettlement Costs

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul? Don’t Cut Foreign Aid to Meet Refugee Resettlement Costs

McLeod Group Blog, Nov. 23, 2015

Amid the excitement of a new government and the encouraging news of meaningful Canadian action to help in the global effort to assist refugees from the Middle East find asylum, there is cause for concern. Where will the money come from?

Canada’s spending on foreign aid has been dropping for the last five years. Under the international rules for calculating this assistance, the money Canada spends on supporting refugees during their first year here is counted ...

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Foreign Aid: Think of it More as a Dating Site

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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The One We Would Write: A Mandate Letter for Canada’s Next Development Minister

The One We Would Write: A Mandate Letter for Canada’s Next Development Minister

McLeod Group Blog, June 16, 2015

You will serve as Minister of International Development Cooperation, with full cabinet membership, reporting directly to me as Prime Minister. As Minister you will:

Policy

  •  Rebuild Canada’s capacity to be a strong global development actor after a decade of institutional neglect and distorted priorities.
  • Develop programs within a broad made-in-Canada framework that does not rely on norms and precedents of G7 and OECD member states. Engaging the South is critical to Canada’s future well-being, its economic, political and ...
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Out of Focus: Canadian Aid Merry-Go-Round

Out of Focus: Canadian Aid Merry-Go-Round

McLeod Group Blog, July 4, 2014

To the extent that any of them take Canada seriously as an aid donor, our ‘focus’ countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America must be tearing their metaphorical hair out. Long criticized by the OECD for spreading Canadian aid too thin and over too many countries, the Harper government cut the number in 2009 from 25 to 20. Out went eight very poor countries in Africa and two in Asia. Perhaps thinking nobody was watching, ...

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How to Hijack an Aid Program

AN OPEN LETTER TO AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER TONY ABBOTT

from Ian Smillie

October 29, 2013

Dear Tony Abbott,

The day after you led your Liberal/National Coalition to a landslide victory in September, you announced that AusAID, the Australian government’s aid agency, will be integrated into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Because many have likened this move to what Canada has done in merging CIDA with DFAIT, I thought I might give you some background information on what has happened ...

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OECD: Two Cheers for Canadian Aid

June 27, 2012

The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) has just released its most recent Peer Review of Canada’s foreign aid efforts. Led by France and the Netherlands, DAC member countries (the 24 leading traditional aid donors) made some useful and pointed remarks about how Canada is seen internationally. Interestingly, they do not share the view expressed by Minister of International Cooperation Bev Oda that Canada is a leader in global development cooperation efforts.

Among other things, Canada is faulted for not ...

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Foreign Aid: Telling Parliament

November 22, 2010

The Second Report to Parliament on Canada’s Official Development Assistance 2009-2010

Lost amidst the welter of recent government announcements about the wonderful things Canada is planning to do with its aid budget was the tabling in the House of Commons of the second Report to Parliament on the Government of Canada’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), 2009-2010. You would think that a government which places great store in action and principles – if we are to believe the Prime Minister’s explanation ...

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