Lagging in goal to eliminate poverty

To the editor,

Prime Minister Trudeau is often referred to as “an international darling.” The Trudeau government has done a number of good things on the international development front, including putting in place a feminist international assistance policy that promotes gender equality as it is proven that empowering girls and women results in greater stability and prosperity.

That said, Canadians and nonCanadians alike seem unaware that Canada is falling further behind on contributing to the United Nations sustainable development goals, especially those to eliminate poverty and to ensure quality education.

Canada’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) or foreign aid budget remains at a low of 0.26 per cent of gross national income, far below the internationally agreed upon target of 0.7 per cent. Canada’s situation is worsened by the fact that ODA includes refugee settlement and we have increased our support for refugees in the past two years.

This is all good, but with no new money for ODA, it means less for education and health initiatives in the poorest countries. In fact, contributions to global education used to be more than 12.2 per cent of Canada’s overall foreign aid budget but have decreased by almost half to 6.9 per cent.

We can do better!

Sherry Moran

Ottawa