McLeod Group blog by Lauchlan T. Munro, November 30, 2023

Halfway to the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) target date of 2030, the UN’s recent assessment of the world’s progress is pessimistic: “the climate crisis, the war in Ukraine, a weak global economy, and the lingering effects of… COVID-19… have… hindered progress towards the Goals… (T)he world’s poorest and most vulnerable… are experiencing the worst effects of these unprecedented global challenges”. While those factors have undoubtedly had important ...

McLeod Group guest blog by Edward Jackson, November 23, 2023

This year’s conference of the parties on climate change, COP 28, promises to be as complex, contentious, and consequential as any of its predecessor gatherings. It will also feature the broadest representation of constituencies in the meeting series to date – except, bizarrely, for workers.

Steps Toward Inclusion

The COP process is, in fact, becoming more inclusive. As with earlier COPs, government ministers, investment bankers, company executives, UN officials, and NGO leaders will ...

McLeod Group blog by Lauchlan T. Munro, September 11, 2023

Is the UN just an ineffectual talking shop, incapable of meaningful action? Richard Jolly does not think so. In his short, insightful and easy-to-read autobiography-cum-UN history, Jolly shows that the UN has long been at the forefront of intellectual and practical innovation in international development, though this contribution is widely overlooked. And, he asserts forcefully, ideas do matter.

Born into a middle-class English family, Jolly was sent as ...

McLeod Group guest blog by John Cameron, June 26, 2023

With Canadian official development assistance (ODA) stuck below the OECD average for more than 20 years, a federal election possible at any time, the governing Liberal Party agnostic towards ODA and opposition Conservatives likely to propose cuts, it is time for civil society organizations (CSOs) to radically rethink advocacy and public engagement strategies. Approaches based on maintaining good relationships with government officials have not resulted in more or substantively better ODA. ...

McLeod Group guest blog by Daniel Livermore, June 22, 2023

Global Affairs Canada has taken the first important step in making GAC “fit for purpose”. After months of anticipation, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly unveiled a discussion paper, Future of Diplomacy: Transforming Global Affairs Canada, first to a group of Canadian ambassadors on June 7, then to a Senate Committee. It’s a significant document, but it covers only the machinery of government, not the more ...

McLeod Group guest blog by Leah Reimer, May 23, 2023

Two billion people, a quarter of the world’s population, live in fragile and conflict-affected states. These people are increasingly vulnerable to the changing climate. Climate change adds new stresses to areas and populations already facing high levels of fragility. For example, by interacting with economic and political contexts, climate change compounds the risks of conflict. Droughts, crop failures, floods and fires can intensify existing tensions or create ...

Guest blog by Julie St-Pierre-Gaudreault and Susan Spronk, May 15, 2023

In order to address problems in the field of international development, and particularly to achieve its feminist objectives, the Canadian government is now promoting “innovative” financing tools that mobilize money from private actors. Do these “innovative” strategies better address development crises or are they a form of neoliberalization of solidarity?

International financial needs are increasing, whether due to climate change, widespread violence against women or successive economic crises. Yet, the proportion ...

McLeod Group blog by Stephen Brown, April 17, 2023

Foreign aid figures for 2022 are out and they show a large increase in disbursements. But you might want to wait before popping the bubbly. Unpack the data a bit, and you won’t find much to celebrate.

The so-called good news

The OECD trumpets that official development assistance (ODA) set a record high in 2022 for the fourth year in a row, according to preliminary data. Total development assistance from ...

McLeod Group guest blog by Gloria Novovic, April 11, 2023

As the Canadian government drafts its long-awaited feminist foreign policy, it is wise to examine the implementation of its Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP), adopted six years ago. However, the Auditor General’s recent report is an administrative distraction from critical discussions on how we define and measure the success of a feminist policy. Oversimplifying the incoherence between feminist long-term ambitions and short-term mechanisms of international assistance, the ...

McLeod Group blog by Stephen Brown, March 29, 2023

The government has repeatedly promised to “increase Canada’s international development assistance every year”, including in the Minister of International Development’s most recent mandate letter. Newly released Budget 2023 repeats the commitment to annual increases, while simultaneously breaking that promise. There is not a single new cent for foreign aid or humanitarian assistance.

Worse still, the new budget has actually cut international assistance by 15% or ...