Ethiopians from the township of Feji Goba pick up bags of maize they receive through an emergency food assistance program in Shashemene, Ethiopia, after prolonged droughts affected their crops, February 3, 2012. The relief program is funded by CIDA and run by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and its partners.
OTTAWA — The
Conservative government will reduce aid to Ethiopia as part of its
effort to slash $377 million in foreign aid over the next three years.
“Ethiopia
has been identified as one of the countries where CIDA will reduce its
bilateral programming,” the office of International Cooperation Minister
Bev Oda said in an email statement. Oda’s office would not disclose the
amount of the cuts.
In 2010-11, Canada spent more than $176
million in Ethiopia, making it our third-largest aid recipient after
Haiti and Afghanistan. This year’s cut will be the second in a row and
comes as the country continues to face food shortages following a
devastating drought last year that saw more than one in 10 citizens
receive some level of food assistance.
Cuts are also coming to 12
of the world’s poorest countries, Postmedia News reported last month.
Benin, Niger, Cambodia, China, Nepal, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe are
expected to lose virtually all Canadian aid funding.
The news
comes as the World Economic Forum, which Oda attended, wrapped up Friday
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. European financial woes are
expected to slow investment across Africa, but oil-rich Middle-Eastern
investors are looking increasingly to Africa, attracted by some of the
world’s fastest growing economies, rapidly rising disposable incomes and
relative political stability in many countries.
Q&A: Responses from the office of International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda to the Citizen’s questions on Ethiopia.
Q: Can
you confirm that Canada’s bilateral aid to Ethiopia will remain
constant for 2012-13 at $146 million (same as 2011-12)? If not, what
funding changes are planned for this year and coming years? Will there
be changes to multilateral aid? If funding has not been cut, can you
explain what specific factors led Canada to keep the funding constant in
Ethiopia while a number of other African and other countries
internationally are seeing funding cut or dropped altogether?
A: Ethiopia has been identified as one of the countries where CIDA will reduce its bilateral programming.
-
Canada’s international development assistance will continue our
government’s commitment to make our international assistance focused,
effective, and accountable and that Canada will continue to deliver
value for aid dollars, making a real difference in the lives of the
people they are intended to help. \
- We will continue our efforts
in this direction and build on steps we have taken so far. Canada will
continue to build on its successes and lessons learned in its drive for
focussed results benefitting the people of Ethiopia to build upon the
results, successes and lessons learned in Ethiopia to provide the best
use of our aid dollars.
- CIDA will maintain strong partnerships
with key multilateral and global partners and will continue to respond
quickly and effectively to humanitarian crises.
- We are consolidating some programming and winding down support where Canadian commitments have been met.
-
At the same time, Canada continues to provide leadership and
investments to various important multilateral initiatives such as the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Global
Partnership for Education.
- Canada also continues its support to
development banks that provide financing to developing countries to
boost economic growth and UN organizations that provide support and
engage with developing countries on a wide range of issues in all
corners of the world.
- CIDA will eliminate/reduce modest
multilateral investments that have high operating costs, that have
overlap with other programming or that do not closely align with CIDA’s
thematic priorities.
Q: How much do trade and strategic/security concerns factor in to Canada’s bilateral aid strategy for Ethiopia?
A: Results and effectiveness are at the forefront of the development agenda.
- Canada’s aid achieves concrete results.
-
For example, we support programs that help alleviate hunger in
developing countries, enable millions more children to be in school, and
help developing countries ensure the essential elements for sustainable
economic growth are in place.
- Canada is also leading a global
effort to help improve the health of mothers and children and reduce the
number of preventable deaths.
Q: Does Canada support the
Ethiopian government’s resettlement of Ethiopians to make way for
large-scale commercial agriculture developments? Will CIDA fund NGOs
that help with the humanitarian effects of the resettlement policy, as
it has said it would for Canadian mining projects?
A:
CIDA does not provide support to the Government of Ethiopia’s Commune
Program nor to any industrial and large scale commercial agriculture
projects.
- CIDA currently has no bilateral programming related to the resettlement policy.
Q:
Why does Canada continue to support, through its bilateral aid, a
government in Ethiopia that has jailed its opposition and critical
journalists, limits the work of groups to do advocacy work and
democratic development, and is seen by most observers as a repressive,
undemocratic regime that routinely abuses the human rights of its
citizens?
A: Canada takes human rights, including the
persecution of LGTBQ individuals, into consideration when determining
the most effective distribution of aid, and Canada takes allegations of
human rights abuses in Ethiopia very seriously.
- Canada does not provide direct budget support to the Government of Ethiopia.
- Canada’s development assistance to Ethiopia is channelled through international, multilateral and Canadian organizations.
-
Canada attaches conditions and controls to its development assistance
delivery mechanisms in all recipient countries, including Ethiopia to
prevent misuse of Canadian taxpayers’ dollars.
Q: Some NGOs
complain that CIDA’s new competitive-bid protocols on applying for
project funding via the Partnership Branch favour short-term projects to
the detriment of the long-term projects they think a country with
deep-seated poverty like Ethiopia needs. What is CIDA’s response to
this, and does it plan any changes to this protocol? Will there be any
change of focus to the kinds of projects the Partnership Branch funds in
Ethiopia and through which partners it will fund them?
A: Efficiency,
effectiveness and the capacity to deliver concrete results are the key
criteria for allocating development resources. The most meritorious
proposals put forward by Canadians organizations will continue to be
funded.
- CIDA’s Partnerships with Canadians Branch (PWCB)
recognises that Canadian organizations are respected, effective and
experienced in work with the objective of poverty reduction in
developing countries.
- Our Government respects the wishes of
Canadians who want Canada to do its part to help those living in
poverty. Canadian tax payers also want Canada’s international assistance
to be effective and make a real, sustainable difference to help those
we intend to help.
- Under its Partners for Development Program,
CIDA selects effective, and cost -efficient projects that will deliver
results and outcomes in an accountable way.
- CIDA’s support
decisions are made according to the merits of proposals, good use of tax
payers dollars and results to be achieved, not only based on
organizations. Canada is fortunate to have many organizations based in
every region of Canada and CIDA receives many worthwhile proposals.
However, not every proposal can be supp
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