OTTAWA - The government should consider disbanding the Canadian International Development Agency because it has failed to make a difference in Africa for the past four decades, a Senate report recommended yesterday.
"Given the failure of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in Africa over the past 38 years to make an effective foreign-aid difference, the government of Canada should conduct an immediate review of whether or not this organization should continue to exist in its present non-statutory form," says the Senate foreign affairs committee in a report that was two years in the making and heard from hundreds of witnesses.
Since 1968, CIDA has spent $12.4-billion in Sub-Saharan Africa, but has little to show for it.
I think there must be something wrong with the math.
$3 Billion a year in budget...but only $12.4 Billion spent after 40 years?
Should that be $124 Billion spent maybe?
and $3 Billion a year? that is a whole lot of money...I would think that Sub-Saharan Africa would end up being one of the most prosperous areas of the world after that kind of money is spent.
I think that CIDA's failures in sub-Saharan Africa represent the failure of the West's whole international development/aid system.
CIDA has gotten better in recent years, but for too long we only funded big infrastructure projects and tied our aid to purchases of Canadian goods. There are examples of CIDA funding projects in Africa, but requiring buildings to be built to Canadian standards (including roofs pitched a certain way for easy removal of snow...). The imposition of draconian policies (i.e. limiting spending on public services like health and water) by the World Bank doesn't help either.
And when the West/World Bank extracts more from Africa in interest payments on debt charges than we provide in aid - something is seriously wrong.
CIDA would be better off providing more microfinancing (a proven method of getting aid to those who need it most), or providing much more financing to the international groups (i.e. MSF) that do good work in Africa. In many cases, those NGO's can respond more quickly more effectively and with more accountability than an agency tied down in Ottawa.
In addition, if we in the West are serious about helping Africa (since we did create much of the mess that exists today), we should lift tarrifs on African goods (i.e. cotton), stop tying our aid to purchase of Canadian goods and start wiping their debts out. Link these to good governance initiatives, but also stop imposing neo-liberal World Bank Western standards on African countries.
A lot of foreign aid is meant as much to bolster the economy at home than abroad.
I used to get people that would call and complain whenever, say, a $9m aid program was announced for Africa, Kosovo or wherever.
If you looked at the release, though, you would see that a Winnipeg company is supplying the fabric for $1m, an Orillia company would be providing the machined parts for $3m, the vehicle would be one built at the GM military vehicle plant in Ontario, the containers come from a BC company, a Halifax company would be paid to pack and ship the stuff over and a couple of CIDA people would be there to oversee the distribution of goods to the specific region it was going to. Oh, and they'd throw in a tonne of whatever Canadian crop is really depressed at the time to cut down the surplus in the system (bags made by a Saskatchewan firm and trucked to final Canadian destination by a Montreal firm) .
On the books it's $9m in foreign aid but it's almost entirely spent within the Canadian economy. People, I guess, have the sense that someone at DFAIT wold be going down to the post office, get a money order for $9m and mails it off to the country.
Of course, they don't all work like this but each project has a chunk of it that stays in Canada as well.
[quote][cite] zander:[/cite]I think that CIDA's failures in sub-Saharan Africa represent the failure of the West's whole international development/aid system.
CIDA has gotten better in recent years, but for too long we only funded big infrastructure projects and tied our aid to purchases of Canadian goods. There are examples of CIDA funding projects in Africa, but requiring buildings to be built to Canadian standards (including roofs pitched a certain way for easy removal of snow...). And the imposition of draconian policies by the World Bank
And when the West/World Bank extracts more from Africa in interest payments on debt charges than we provide in aid - something is seriously wrong.
CIDA would be better off providing more microfinancing (a proven method of getting aid to those who need it most), or providing much more financing to the international groups (i.e. MSF) that do good work in Africa. In many cases, those NGO's can respond more quickly more effectively and with more accountability than an agency tied down in Ottawa.
In addition, if we in the West are serious about helping Africa (since we did create much of the mess that exists today), we should lift tarrifs on African goods (i.e. cotton), stop tying our aid to purchase of Canadian goods and start wiping their debts out. Link these to good governance initiatives, but also stop imposing neo-liberal World Bank Western standards on African countries.[/quote]
It's sure starting to sound like zander is the "superman" that humanity has been waiting for since time began to direct Plan Earth. Such is the bane of humanity. The next guy over just doesn't govern "right." They are all making mistakes and if only humanity adopted my plan, all would be bliss.
The chosen style of Central government planning that Africans vote into existance is what is responsible for African Poverty.
All foreign aid should stop. There are plenty of Canadians living in squalor on Reserves who could use the money too if we just want to give it away to the unproductive. The Central Planner is responsible for poverty on Rerserves too. The Canandian government has no right to take money from those who earned it here to give it away to anybody.
Giving alms always kills the spirit and the pride of personality of the reciever. In Canada, the "Stamp fishery" turned a 500 year tradition of hard working people into a bunch of government dependants. The same thing happens when we help" people in Africa. There is no incentive to do it on their own in the first place and then the man with a plan comes by to just giving them everything for free.
Alms ought to be left to the Church.
Just like the church should not be involved in state affairs, the state ought not be involved in church affairs.