CIDA Merger with Foreign Affairs May Help the Poor (The Star)
After Canada's announcment that CIDA will be folded into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, senior fellow and director for Europe Owen Barder is quoted in The Star on how the merger has the opportunity to help eliminate harmful trade policy.
Most agricultural commodities imported into Canada face a 19-per-cent tariff, a high barrier that most farmers in the world’s poorest nations can’t navigate.
But even as Canada protects its own farmers with high tariffs, it also disburses billions of dollars worth of aid to the world’s poorest.
“It makes no sense, giving aid to the same countries you hit with high tariffs,” says Owen Barder, a London-based official with the Centre for Global Development, a think tank that focuses on international aid issues.
It’s a disconnect, Barder said, that could be addressed and resolved with foreign aid officials positioned closer to the centre of power in Ottawa.
On Thursday, the federal Conservative government announced Canada’s international aid and humanitarian assistance agency, CIDA, will be folded into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
While some aid experts worry the shakeup could mean poverty alleviation will become an afterthought to Canadian business interests, others in the international aid and development sector say the move may actually give foreign aid advocates more influence.
“Wouldn’t it be great if development people within DFAIT (Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade) could help shape trade policy and bring down the high Canadian agricultural tariffs?” Barder said.
Canada’s move is in line with other developed countries. While Sweden and the U.K. have their own independent aid ministries, the U.S., Norway, France and others have folded them into larger government departments, usually with positive results.
“We wish foreign aid was altruistic, but it’s always been an expression of foreign policy,” said David Morley, president of UNICEF’s Canadian operations. “Sometimes you felt the two (CIDA and Foreign Affairs) were going off into different worlds. This could be good, getting the aid portfolio closer to power.”
“Canada doesn’t do aid out of generosity or good nature,” said Marc Bellemare, a Quebec native and assistant economics professor at Duke University who studies development assistance. “Aid has always been tied to foreign policy. This is a more transparent. At least we’re being more open about what it is.”
