Protecting Canada’s Aid Budget
Guest post by James Haga from Engineers without Borders Canada.
Canadian foreign aid can be truly transformational when used in a smart way – it can save lives, help put children through school, and create the opportunities needed for millions of people to lift themselves out of poverty.
Consider, for example, the impact of Canada’s leadership at the 2010 G8 Summit. By drawing the attention of world leaders and shining a spotlight on the critical and under-served issue of maternal, newborn and child health, over $7 billion in new funding has been secured for these programs, resulting in a healthier, more productive future for millions of people. To help ensure international donors follow through on their commitments to developing countries and maximize value for money, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper serves as co-chair of the UN Commission on Accountability and Transparency.
In recent years, Canada’s premier development agency CIDA has committed to important measures to make Canada’s foreign aid more efficient, focused and accountable. Most recently, the Minister of International Cooperation, the Honourable Bev Oda, announced that Canada has joined the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), a commendable move that will strengthen the transparency of information on Canadian aid.
While these concrete steps have resulted in Canada accomplishing more with its existing aid, it’s currently unclear what effect the global economic uncertainty will have on future aid spending. In view of the Government of Canada’s commitment to reigning in their deficit, the 2012-2013 foreign aid budget runs the risk of being sharply reduced.
This is why ONE and Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB) have teamed up to ask that Canada’s effective foreign aid spending be spared from looming cuts. In advance of the final budget being presented in early March, 2012, we’ll be working with our members across the country to ask that Canada fulfill its responsibility to the world’s poor by maintaining its current aid spending.
- James Haga
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About the Blog
The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
21/12/2011 at 2:27 pm
Please consider signing my petition, as it asks not only to maintain Canada’s current aid spending, but to increase it to the level we promised in the seventies. Thank you.
http://www.change.org/petitions/prime-minister-stephen-harper-propose-a-realistic-timetable-for-increasing-canadas-oda-to-07-of-gni
11/01/2012 at 11:36 pm
I do not agree at all with aiding other countries with taxpayer money, if someone wants to contribute on their own, great or do as I do, sponsor a child who needs our help but don’t give away taxpayers money, enough of that is wasted already!!!