Canada urged to spend more on aid, increase global weight

OTTAWA — A major international report has concluded that the Trudeau government’s lofty rhetoric about being “back” on the world stage needs the added heft of more foreign aid spending.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reached that conclusion in an assessment released Friday by its Development Assistance Committee.

The report is part of the OECD’s rotating five-year review of member countries, and its findings could temper the government’s attempts to lobby for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council in the coming years.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland are both bound for the UN General Assembly this month, where they will ramp up their campaigning for the twoyear seat that would start in 2021.

Government officials say Canada will be pushing the notion of promoting public-private sector partnerships as a tool for financing foreign aid.

The OECD said Canada deserves credit for its renewed engagement on the world stage, including its global advocacy for the rights of women and girls in developing countries, but it needs to spend more on overseas development assistance.

The report said Canada’s foreign aid spending fell in 2017 to 0.26 per cent of gross national income from 0.31 per cent in 2012, far below the UN target of 0.7 per cent. The average for DAC members countries was 0.32.

It said that the government’s recent new spending of $2 billion over five years on foreign aid simply isn’t enough to restore the spending ratio to 2012 levels — the last time the OECD reviewed Canada’s aid budget and found it lacking.

In dollar terms, the OECD pegs Canada’s foreign aid at $4.27 billion US in 2017, compared to $4.5 billion in 2012. While the dollar amounts are essentially flat over the five years, a growing economy means Canada’s foreign aid as a share of the economy has declined.

Canada has become a “central actor” in supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to eradicate poverty, hunger, gender imbalance and inequality by 2030, said Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, the DAC chair.

“It is important to now set out a path to increase aid volumes to add weight to Canada’s global advocacy role,” she added in a statement accompanying Friday’s report.

Canada’s aid spending has fallen “despite robust economic growth,” the DAC said in a statement on Friday.