Canada's aid agency is becoming more politicized, less effective, and less transparent, writes Elizabeth Payne

BY ELIZABETH PAYNE, OTTAWA CITIZEN JANUARY 19, 2012

Something is rotten at the Canadian International Development Agency. Many things, in fact, according to increasingly vocal critics who say Canada's international development organization is becoming more politicized, less effective, and less transparent under the Conservative government, despite persistent claims to the contrary.

If CIDA has really introduced "more transparency, timeliness and predictability" as International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda claims, there is little sign of it.

Aid agencies are frustrated and demoralized by delays and lack of transparency in their dealings with CIDA. Some have cut programs and laid off staff as a result.

And the government's recent habit of prioritizing and then deprioritizing countries for foreign aid dollars makes it difficult for aid agencies to build long-term relationships and has perplexed many in the international community. Some suggest it even played a role in Canada's failure to win a seat on the UN Security Council.

More problematic still, significant aid dollars are supporting the work of Canadian mining interests overseas, something University of Ottawa professor and CIDA critic Stephen Brown terms a blatant effort to "whitewash the negative effects of their resource extraction."

Oda announced four CIDA projects - totalling $26.7 million - in September that will "help developing countries in Africa and South America manage their natural resources to ensure they are the source of long-term sustainable benefits to their people."

Perhaps. But these projects also help highly profitable Canadian mining companies. CIDA will provide money to help Canadian companies Rio Tinto Alcan, Barrick Gold and Iamgold create corporate social responsibility projects with aid agencies near mining projects.

The projects include one run by Plan Canada in partnership with Iamgold to provide training in Burkina Faso and another by the World University Service of Canada to provide training in Ghana, in partnership with Rio Tinto Alcan.

CIDA has set aside nearly half a million dollars for a third project - in which World Vision Canada will work with Barrick Gold in Peru to "increase the income and standard of living of 1,000 families affected by mining operations." Barrick Gold says it also contributed $500,000 to the project.

Brown calls it "scandalous" that some of the most profitable companies in Canada are, in effect, supported by foreign aid dollars to set up programs that compensate for the negative effects of mining.

In a time of shrinking foreign aid dollars, taxpayers should not be on the hook for corporate social responsibility projects. The programs might be welcome and worthwhile, but they should be paid for by the companies that are reaping the profits and getting much of the credit. CIDA's involvement in the partnerships potentially tars all Canadians, by default, for any bad corporate behaviour, or environmental damage, that results from those mining operations.

Canadian economic interests increasingly play a role in where Canadian development dollars go, say observers.

KAIROS, whose clumsy defunding embroiled Oda in a scandal last year, was known to be a vocal critic of some Canadian mining operations. And Brown said CIDA's change in focus from Africa to Latin American countries came at a time when Canada was negotiating free-trade agreements there.

In a 2010 audit, then auditor general Sheila Fraser called CIDA dysfunctional. There have been some improvements since then - it has joined the International Aid Transparency Initiative, for example - but many problems persist.

It is fodder for a growing chorus arguing that CIDA should be folded into foreign affairs or drastically redesigned.

Brown says CIDA staff are more competent than they get credit for, and should be left to do their work.

He blames "political manoeuvring" for lack of transparency and delays in decisions from whether to continue to give money to Planned Parenthood, to the most recent delay of funding announcements. Brown believes decisions frequently get overturned at a higher political level, or stuck.

"She must have the biggest desk in Ottawa," he says of Oda because so many project approvals are said to be "on the minister's desk."

Are they sitting there because she doesn't have time to get to them, he asks, or because there is some other process in place to review CIDA decisions?

Last fall, after waiting months with no word about whether they would receive aid dollars, frustrated Canadian NGOs began quietly putting programs in developing countries on hold and cutting staff.

In an email in response to questions from the Citizen, a spokesman said it took longer than expected to review proposals because of the "very high number of proposals received," as well as the size and complexity of some of those proposals.

"We need to ensure each project is an effective use of taxpayers' resources. Our government is committed to ensuring aid dollars become more effective, focused and accountable. This process of due-diligence occasionally results in some minor delays."

More than 210 groups were told to expect word by the end of September on whether their programs would receive CIDA funding as part of a new process that required agencies to compete with each other for CIDA dollars and match part of the funding. On Dec. 23, nearly three months after the deadline, CIDA issued a release announcing that 53 projects would receive funding. There was no explanation to applicants for the delay or why some groups, such as the Community Builders Benevolence Group, which had a private donor ready to commit $100,000 to projects in Tanzania and Haiti, didn't make the cut.

"I am perplexed," said Gordon K. Wiebe, who chairs the group. "This was a closed top-down process, it's not collaborative ... you are in the dark as you go into the process ... it needs to change."

Elizabeth Payne is a member of the Citizen's editorial board.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/What+going+CIDA/6017006/story.html