Those interested in CIDA may find these 4 papers from the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation interesting.  Here is a copy of the press release.

http://www.gordonfn.org/ForeignAidProject.cfm.cfm?cp=110

Dear colleagues,

We are delighted to share with you the results of a year-long project on Canadian foreign aid led by the Foundation’s Senior Fellow, Patrick Johnston. These four papers, released in Ottawa last week, found that Canada’s $5 billion foreign aid program is in need of a fundamental overhaul to better address the current realities of developing countries.

Authored by Patrick Johnston and academics at the London School of Economics and Memorial University, the papers re-imagine Canada’s foreign aid in an effort to understand why it is underperforming relative to its peers.

If Canada is to improve the overall performance of its foreign aid program, it must resolve the problems posed by a diffusion of authority and responsibility, the lack of an agreed aid mandate, limited public understanding and fickle financial support. The solution must be built upon shared Canadian values and cross-partisan support, cross-government engagement, an embrace of multilateralism, and sufficient political leadership and public engagement.

The papers also provide lessons for Canada based comparative studies from other jurisdictions such as the UK and Norway that have or are attempting to modernize the delivery of their aid and development programs.

Click here to download the papers.
A recent op-ed by Patrick Johnston in the Globe and Mail is available here.

For more information, please contact the authors:
Patrick Johnston, Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, Patrick@gordonfn.org
Nilima Gulrajani, London School of Economics and Political Science, N.Gulrajani@lse.ac.uk
Liam Swiss, Memorial University, lswiss@mun.ca

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