Candian Council for International Cooperation

International development organizations say that the Harper government has failed to meet its promises to increase funding to address global poverty. The 2007 Federal Budget indicated that $315 million would be added to ODA for this current year, 2006/07, but identified no new funding initiatives for 2007/08. The 2007 budget continues the performance of previous governments-increasing aid spending by 8%. But, the budget fails to improve Canada's foreign aid spending, a key promise of the Prime Minister during the last election.

"Mr. Harper pledged a one time increase of $425 million to boost aid spending followed by steps to achieve average donor performance by 2010," says Gerry Barr, President-CEO of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC). "This would have improved Canada's performance as an international aid donor. But that's where the government has failed to deliver." says Barr.

CCIC calculates that Canadian ODA 2006/07 will be $4.7 billion or 0.34% of our Gross National Income (GNI), but will then drop to $4.5 billion in 2007/08 or 0.31% of our GNI. This is not even half of the UN target of 0.7% to which other donors have committed.

Canadian international development organizations welcome the government's commitment to develop a comprehensive strategy for enhancing focus, efficiency and accountability in Canadian aid efforts. "However, the criteria should be based on ensuring the effectiveness of Canadian aid in reducing poverty, rather than simply aiming to be the largest of five donors in Canada's core countries of interest," adds Barr.

"Increasing accountability for foreign aid has been a major focus of parliamentarians in the past six months" says Barr. "The government now has a unique opportunity to add its support for Bill C-293 currently before the House and bound for the Senate. Bill C-293 will provide a legislated mandate for improved reporting and focus for Canadian aid spending".

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