Canadian aid-concentration policy
The recreation of Canada’s foreign-aid strategy
December 5, 2007
Adrian Reimer
Over the past few years, Government and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) policy regarding aid effectiveness has changed significantly with three different governments and several different policy statements. With the Conservative Government’s mention of increasing aid effectiveness several times in the recent past, it is interesting to observe where the government has come from over the past five years, starting with the CIDA “Policy Statement on Strengthening Aid Effectiveness” in 2002.
Increasingly, aid effectiveness has become a major plank in the platform of international development reform, to the extent where Canada is now at the stage where it is ready to reform significantly the number of bilateral aid programs under CIDA’s purview. Still, this idea is not originally Conservative, but a continuation of a policy originally outlined in CIDA’s 2002 policy document. While some of this is understandable, the new regime has yet to put forward a more comprehensive policy on aid. Perhaps in order to more properly conduct foreign policy, Canada’s political representatives should give more attention to past policy statements as they conduct Canada’s vision through legislation.
CIDA noted as far back as 2002 that “Canada has consistently been the least concentrated of all the donor countries of the Development Assistance Committee.” It is clear that, although there were domestic distractions at the time, there was no particular reason why the Chrétien government was forced to neglect this part of government that they had declared as a “priority.” What became increasingly clear during the later years of the Chrétien regime and during the Martin regime was that the Canadian Government had too many priorities, especially in the areas of foreign aid.
In the International Policy Statement on Development in 2005, the Canadian Government pledged to “wind down bilateral assistance programs.” By focusing Canada’s foreign aid in “development partners,” Canada aimed to solidify Canadian influence in countries where Canada had significant national interests. However, with the change in government, a new set of priorities was put in place.
Under Stephen Harper’s first campaign, foreign aid, while mentioned, was put much further back on the priority list than it had been under the Martin Government. Indeed, it was questionable what Harper was intending to do here, given his intention to focus more on Canada-US relations than past Prime Ministers. The Conservative party, perhaps in a more assertive way than other political movements, has had a strong interest in integrating trade, foreign relations, and Official Development Assistance. In Harper’s second year, a feeling of a more focused approach has become apparent. Starting with the trip to Latin America in the summer of 2007, Harper’s true intentions have become increasingly visible.
In remarks to the people of Chile, Harper outlined the changing priorities of Canada in the Western Hemisphere. “Canada’s new government has made clear that re-engagement in its hemisphere is a critical international priority for our country.” Taking a page from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Canada is cutting back on assistance to other countries as it seeks to preserve Canada’s perception of equality and neutrality among partner nations on both sides of the bilateral equation. In a recent Globe and Mail article profiling the coming changes it was noted that “Foreign aid groups admit that the Canadian International Development Agency needs reform and that a concentration on fewer countries may be desirable.”
Canada’s new foreign aid program may be a departure from what Canada is used to, but certainly it is healthy to take a good look at the program as it stands. Harper finally appears ready to act with this program and such a shakeup can only be healthy for the concept of foreign aid.
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