Event Summary:
Robert Greenhill
President, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
addressing
Canada’s Development Challenges
11 January, 2007
At the offices of Aird Berlis
Summary by
Karen Lu
SDF Research Associate and Program Coordinator
Canadian Institute of International Affairs, National Office
When Robert Greenhill published his much-anticipated report, Making a Difference? External Views on Canada’s International Impact as part of the External Voices project initiated by the Canadian Institute of International Affairs in 2005, he had no idea that it would form the foundation of his work today as President of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Mr. Greenhill had occasion to reflect on the significance of this report at an event hosted by the Toronto Branch of CIIA on 11 January 2007.
The findings of that report set up the “base-case for what CIDA is doing now,” Greenhill said, “and have directed the CIDA’s effort to be more relevant, focused and effective today.”
The report set out to answer the following questions: Had Canada made a difference or not since the fall of the Berlin Wall?; If we had made a difference, why?; and where could/should Canada make a different in a future? After conducting extensive interviews with prominent Canadians and non-Canadians from across the political ideological spectrum (from Paul Heinbecker, former ambassador to the UN to Henry Kissinger, former US national security advisor and secretary of state), Greenhill concluded that Canada had not made as great a difference in the last 15 years as we could have. Although Canada had made a difference in negotiating the Ottawa Convention to ban landmines, resisting apartheid in South Africa, strengthening bilateral and multilateral trade relations through NAFTA and the WTO, and garnered the reputation of “practical problem-solver” in the G-7, our broader engagement in diplomacy, development and defence was minimal and failing. CIDA went from “leader” in the 1960s and 1970s to “lagger” in the 1980s as it lost its funding and policy focus partially as a result of a succession of 10 ministers in 15 years.
The picture looks much brighter today. CIDA has never been more relevant, focused and effective in its 50-year history than it is today according to its President. CIDA’s aid has made a difference in the context of broader trends in development worldwide. Improvements have been made in the areas of poverty reduction, access by the poor to basic public services, and an overall rise in per capita incomes. Greenhill argues that there is a direct link between these development improvements and international aid. The cases of Bangladesh, Mozambique and Tanzania provide particularly compelling examples of this connection. All were previously impoverished and heavily aid-dependent states now on the road to political and economic self-sufficiency. Bangladesh is now nearly food self-sufficient and infant mortality rates were cut in half from 1990 to 2003. Mozambique has averaged more than 8% growth in 1995 and witnessed a remarkable decline in absolute poverty. Tanzania’s annual GDP per capita increased from 144 to 297 US dollars between 1990 and 2004, and female literacy increased from 77% to 90% over the same period.
The effectiveness of Canadian aid in particular is evidenced in a variety of areas. In the area of health care, Canada’s support for Vitamin A supplementation has saved more than 2 million lives. Measles immunization has reduced measles deaths by half. CIDA’s “Stop TB” partnership and Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course (DOTS) program jointly aim to provide new drugs to fight TB, provide oversight mechanisms and contribute to the bulk negotiation of drugs to reduce their cost by 75%. These programs have yielded real results-more than three quarters of a million lives were saved from tuberculosis as indicated by the World Health Organization. In the area of education, the attendance rate in primary school in Mali went from 26% in 1990 to 74% in 2005, with a large proportion of this increase represented by girls. Canadian aid also contributed to disaster relief during the 2004 tsunami that affected over seven million people in 10 countries. CIDA reached more than two million people through humanarian assistance and ongoing reconstruction efforts in housing, food and water, health care and the recovery of their livelihoods. The effect of Canadian aid in the improvement of economic growth can be best seen in East and South Asia. China and India but also Thailand and Vietnam are making rapid progress on income poverty, hunger and child mortality. Finally, Canadian development assistance helps to promote knowledge development and knowledge transfer through new technologies. Examples include improved agricultural varieties and cropping systems that have enhanced food productivity and better microbicides and contraceptives that have improved the reproductive health of the poor. The fruits of CIDA’s development assistance can also be observed in countries that have graduated from recipient to donor status, including Hungary, Czech Republic and Thailand. Today, Brazil provides development support to Haiti. These examples point to CIDA’s philosophy of giving a “hand-up rather than a hand-out”.
CIDA’s approach today is also more focused than it has ever been before. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set international, time-bound and specific benchmarks against which, the performance of national actors can be measured. Among the goals to be achieved by 2015 are universal primary health and education and a reduction of child and maternal mortality rates. Collective strategies aimed at meeting the MDGs represent an improvement in the focus of development.
CIDA’s programs are making a real difference through their concentration on a few countries in which Canada can be a top-five player in development assistance. This focus can be observed in Haiti and Afghanistan.
Historically, Canada has not been successful in Haiti because of the lack of coordination between donors and the short-term focus of the assistance provided. We are at a point now in Haiti’s 200-year history to change things around by growing on the efforts of civil society groups, diaspora communities and neighbouring countries in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Political institutions must also be strengthened to encourage private sector growth; great opportunities exist in the low-cost textile industry. As the second highest donor in Haiti at $525 million, Canadians have made contributions to the building of institutional and physical infrastructure under the Préval government. As a significant donor, however, we must be prepared to accept responsibility for our part if Haiti fails again.
“Afghanistan is for our generation what Manchuria and Abyssinia was for the League of Nations”, said Greenhill. International engagement came at a difficult time and in far-way places. CIDA’s commitment in Afghanistan is situated in the context of a multilateral engagement with a UN mandate and the consent of a democratically-elected government. As part of Canada’s integrated approach to stabilization and reconstruction in Afghanistan that focuses on security, development and governance, CIDA supports Afghan-led and Afghan-designed programs that aid in access to: basic needs such as food and drinking water; health care including polio inoculations; education in the form of schools and teachers; infrastructure though the provision of roads, power grids and irrigation ditches; and micro-financing to encourage economic growth. The microfinance system, put in place through the collaborative efforts of CIDA, the World Bank and NGOs like CARE and BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), provides small loans ($200-loans to buy a cow or a sewing machine), 75% of which, are made to women who are also largely refugees. The micro-finance program enjoys a 90% repayment rate.
The National Solidarity Program (NSP) in Afghanistan aims at rebuilding collective engagement at the local level through the election of Community Development Councils. This process allows a village to review and vote on a list of development projects with the supervision of facilitators from outside organizations. This process is unique and significant because it allows villages to make decisions and take ownership of development initiatives; it has an 80% approval rating. Currently, 14,000 community development councils have been elected, representing one-half of Afghanistan’s rural population. Almost one-half of Kandahar has community development councils, a remarkable achievement given that community-sanctioned projects are taking place in conflict situations.
Currently, 21,000 community-improvement projects, such as sanitation and fresh water supply, have been completed or are in progress.
The Afghanistan Compact, which is the international community’s commitment to the provision of security, governance and economic and social development, has an independent oversight body that reports on its progress every six months. Progress has been made towards reaching the development benchmarks set out in the Compact, from the establishment of a Central Bank to the first democratic elections in which 12 million Afghans voted, including women. The Afghan National Army (ANA), a multi-ethnic security force, is at a level of competence sufficient to work alongside NATO military forces to provide security. For Greenhill, the number of positive developments that have taken place in Afghanistan in a matter of months is encouraging.
He cautioned, however, that Canada’s engagements in Haiti and Afghanistan are both strategic investments and risks; nothing is certain but the people want us to be there. The Government of Canada has demonstrated its commitment to Afghanistan by committing $1B over the next 10 years or $100M annually until 2011. “Afghanistan is the crucible to forge a new CIDA.”
The lessons that CIDA are learning in Afghanistan are, in many respects, the lessons of traditional development the Agency learned in Africa. These lessons include the need for an open and transparent government, sound policies that are effective and accountable institutions; a balance between the state, civil society and the private sector, political will, local leadership and local ownership of the development process; and long-term, comprehensive relationships directed by a clear purpose. Perhaps most important, Canada has learned that we need to act, not alone, but in concert with others.
What is the way forward? Minister of International Cooperation, The Honourable Josée Verner, has outlined a four-part Canadain Aid Effectiveness Agenda:
- Strategic focus sectorally and geographically to make a difference as a top-five aid donor through long-term engagement. The focus would be on no more than three sectors, the primary of which is democratic governance. Strong civil society, accountable public institutions and a respect for human rights and the rule of law all contribute to democratic governance.
- Strengthen Program delivery through increased coordination.
- Effective use of agency resources through the effective spending of funds, and the untying of aid. The key here is to provide the best services at the best prices; if a product or service can be sourced from the recipient country itself, for example in the area of food, then food security within the country will be enhanced. Over the last few years, Canadian tying ratios have decreased considerably from 70% to 43%.
- Accountability for results requires laying out what is to be accomplished and measuring results against those stated goals. CIDA will publish a new Annual Report on International Development Results as a mechanism by which Parliament and Canadians can hold CIDA accountable.
For all of these reasons, Greenhill claims that CIDA has never been more relevant, focused and effective than it is today.
The question-and-answer period generated informed debate. Questions included what CIDA is doing to address the issue of Islamic fundamentalism; the relationship between diaspora and development; the definition of foreign aid in Canada; Canada’s aid to China and its effect on our democratic governance development priority; and the extent to which CIDA’s development efforts are joined up with Foreign Affairs Canada in a whole-of-government approach. Lively discussion continued at a reception hosted at the offices
of Aird & Berlis LLP.
View the event flyer: Flyer.
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