Canada was respected throughout the developing world for the work done through the Canadian Development Agency (CIDA). However, last month the famous name brand of Canada was merged into the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, signaling a shift in the country’s development and aid priorities. CIDA, the agency, which once upon a time had quite a reputation for problem solving and other bettering the world activities, has now been largely confined to promoting foreign trade.
CIDA now aims to strengthen its links with the private sector, focusing opportunities beneficial to them. Critics believe that the decision to merge CIDA with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development will mean that greater emphasis will be placed on foreign policy and commerce than poverty elimination and humanitarian objectives.
International Development Minister Julian Fantino is on record as saying that Canada’s interests should be governed by aid. The new department has been asked to “vigorously promote and defend Canadian interests and values abroad.”
According to Senator Colin Kenny, a former chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, Prime Minister Harper’s move to pull CIDA out of some of the poorest countries in the world – like Malawi and Niger – and shift its emphasis to countries Canada wants to increase trade was reprehensible for a government committed to stand on firm moral principles in its international dealings. Last year, the government placed a nail in the foreign aid coffin by cutting foreign aid budget by 7.5 percent — bringing it down to .31 percent of GDP — considered a sad step in the wrong direction — the UN target is .7 percent.
Canada’s critics are concerned that the emphasis of the merger seems to be on what development can do to further the government’s other objectives. “I don’t hear any talk from the Trade Minister or (Foreign Affairs Minister) John Baird, for that matter, about how trade and foreign policy are going to advance the purposes of our official development assistance. It’s all in the other direction,” said Ian Smillie, a foreign aid consultant.
Aileen Carroll, who was minister of international co-operation under Paul Martin, told a Globe reporter that CIDA – and the aspect of Canada that the agency represented – would be missed. “The brand once was a good brand. Whenever I was overseas, I certainly felt that there was a lot of cachet to that name,” she said.
Canada is making a huge mistake by diminishing its role in Africa at a time when there appears to be a new Scramble for Africa, much more aggressive than the predatory 1884 Berlin conference which partitioned Africa according to the whims of colonial powers. Today Africa is not only of interest to former colonial powers like Britain and France, or the U.S. and the European Union, but also to India, Russia, Latin America, Turkey and Iran. Recent visits by sitting presidents of China and the U.S. is an indication of how important these countries regard Africa. While these countries are building special relationships with Africa, Canada, which once was highly regarded in Africa for its contribution, appears to be left on the sidelines.
A seminar entitled “Positioning Canada for the Africa of 2015” has recommended that Canadian diplomacy has to be more active, the ‘Canada brand’ has to be more visible in Africa, and Canada should strengthen its diplomatic capacity to ensure it has what is needed to secure its interests in Africa.
Undoubtedly, Africa will continue to have problems on a continental scale, but the Africa of 2015 promises to show growth and development on a global scale. In his keynote presentation at the seminar, Dr. Olayemi Akapo suggested that Africa’s formidable assets make it a region that simply cannot be ignored since it comprises of “20 per cent of the world’s land mass, 30 per cent of the world’s sought-after metal and mineral resources, 10 per cent of oil reserves, 53 countries or almost a quarter of the membership of the UN, an increasingly educated population approaching one billion people or some 15% of the world’s population, a growing middle class, a $1.7 trillion economy growing at an average rate of 5% just before the recent financial crisis hit, a rapidly expanding infrastructure and increasingly sophisticated political institutions. The New Africa has left behind the old political and neocolonial mindset, and has set its course on economic development in a globalized international system.”
Canada would make a difference in Africa because of its long history of involvement in African development and its cultural and linguistic affinities with a large number of African countries.
Canada should also use the growing African diaspora community, which believes that Canada has a moral and ethical obligation to provide assistance to the poorest developing countries, most of whom are in Africa. The African diaspora rightly wants Canada to get involved in Africa more aggressively. One hopes the transfer of CIDA to the Department of Foreign Affairs won’t have a great impact on its aid and development policies.
