Posts Tagged 'Aid'

HomeTag: Aid

HOW MUCH FOREIGN AID?

HOW MUCH FOREIGN AID?

McLeod Group Blog by Ian Smillie, July 22, 2016

Buried deep in the government’s discussion paper on its foreign aid review is a tiny comment about aid volumes. It is a warning that whatever you might want to tell the government about aid, don’t bother talking about numbers. The UN spending target of 0.7% of gross national income for rich countries is called ‘unrealistic… in the current fiscal context.’

This is almost verbatim what every Canadian government has said about the ...

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CANADA AND FRAGILE STATES

CANADA AND FRAGILE STATES

A McLeod Group Blog by Carolyn McAskie, July 8, 2016

In its review of International Assistance, currently underway, Global Affairs Canada asks what role Canada should play in addressing ‘fragile states.’

Fragile states are among the poorest countries—often either conflict-ridden or emerging from conflict. They are unable or unwilling to provide the core functions of a state (governance, safety and security, management of resources) or to deliver basic services to their citizens (health, education, agricultural inputs, economic security). The concept captures both poverty ...

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HUMANITARIAN DILEMMAS

HUMANITARIAN DILEMMAS

McLeod Group Blog by Hunter McGill, July 5, 2016

The government’s current consultation process on international assistance includes several questions about humanitarian (emergency) assistance. There is no denying that there is a pressing need for humanitarian aid in many parts of the world, with estimates of populations at risk and in need of help running as high as 125 million. The total budget for humanitarian assistance in 2015 reached US$25 billion. So it is no surprise that over 9000 ...

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OPAQUE TRANSPARENCY IN CANADA’S FOREIGN AID

OPAQUE TRANSPARENCY IN CANADA’S FOREIGN AID

McLeod Group Blog, June 30, 2016

By Liam Swiss and Stephen Brown

The Canadian government has been lauded for its efforts to increase the transparency of its foreign aid. The Aid Transparency Index has ranked Canada’s bilateral aid in the “Good” category for the past few years, below only a handful of the world’s top donor agencies. The government regularly publishes open data online, including its historical project datasets and contributions to the International Aid Transparency ...

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Policy Coherence for Development: Putting it into Practice

Policy Coherence for Development: Putting it into Practice

McLeod Group Blog by Stephen Brown, June 23, 2016

Providing foreign aid is only one among many things that countries like Canada can do to promote international development. Official development assistance (ODA) on its own is not sufficient to help developing countries radically improve the lot of their poor and marginalized people, including achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by the 2030 deadline.

A government’s policies beyond aid – including agriculture, fisheries, trade, investment, immigration, climate change, security and intellectual property ...

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THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND BUCKETS OF MONEY

THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND BUCKETS OF MONEY

McLeod Group Blog, June 20, 2016

A year ago, in July 2015, the great and the good of the world’s development community gathered in Addis Ababa to talk money at a conference on “financing for development”. It had become clear, in the lead up to the agreement on the Sustainable Development Goals, that the world’s foreign aid budgets were not going to come anywhere near the price tag. Action was required.

What emerged was an “Action Agenda” that had 134 paragraphs, ...

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CANADA’S INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE REVIEW: OPPORTUNITIES AND RED HERRINGS

CANADA’S INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE REVIEW: OPPORTUNITIES AND RED HERRINGS

McLeod Group Blog, May 20, 2016

In his Globe and Mail column on May 12, Jeffrey Simpson took note of seven major policy consultations currently under way: Canada Post, defence, communications and culture, innovation, productivity, missing and murdered aboriginal women, Via Rail upgrades and the legalization of marijuana, all expected to report back in 2017. The very next day, Friday the 13th, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) kicked off another one: an International Assistance Review.

“See a pattern here?” Simpson asked. “Consultation. ...

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TRUDEAU SHOCK SENSATION: “AID TARGETS TOO AMBITIOUS”

TRUDEAU SHOCK SENSATION: “AID TARGETS TOO AMBITIOUS”

McLeod Group Blog, May 12, 2016

According to a recent article in the Toronto Star, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has “acknowledged Ottawa has no intention of meeting the international goal to spend .70 per cent of gross domestic product on foreign aid anytime soon.” The article goes on to say that he is “scaling back Canada’s support of a key UN goal to boost international aid spending, calling it ‘too ambitious.’”

In fact what Trudeau said—a bit deeper into the article—was, ...

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BROKE OR BROKEN? HOW WE RESPOND TO EMERGENCIES

BROKE OR BROKEN? HOW WE RESPOND TO EMERGENCIES

A McLeod Group Blog, April 22, 2016

by Ian Smillie

In May the United Nations will convene the first-ever ‘World Humanitarian Summit’ in Istanbul, bringing together world leaders, NGOs, the private sector and others—5000 people in all—to talk about the growing humanitarian challenges of our time. The objective is to ‘enable the world to better prepare for and respond to crises, and become more resilient to shocks.’ A ‘major shift’ in disaster prevention is foreseen.

Maybe.

For months, the humanitarian paper mill has ...

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Foreign Aid Mindlessness – USAID Has Lost its Vision

Foreign Aid Mindlessness – USAID Has Lost its Vision

Guest Blog by Tom Dichter, January 7, 2016

About a year ago the U.S. government’s foreign aid agency (USAID) completed a new mission statement based on polling some 1500 of its staff members.

“We partner to end extreme poverty and to promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing our security and prosperity.”

I’ve been working in international development for fifty years and I’ve rarely seen as mindless a statement coming from any entity devoted to promoting development (Recall that USAID stands for the “United ...

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