ADAM CHAPNICK
  • Adam Chapnick
    • Contact
    • Biography
    • Employment
    • Education
    • Academic Honours and research grants
    • Professional Administrative Experience
    • Advisory/Editorial Boards
    • Scholarly Assessments
    • Academic Associations
    • Additional Relevant Information
    • Testimonials
  • Teaching & Learning
    • Teaching Philosophy
    • Teaching Experience
    • Supervisions and Thesis Defence Committees >
      • Supervisions
      • Thesis Defence Committees
    • Refereed Conference Presentations (Teaching & Learning)
    • Publications (Teaching & Learning)
    • Teaching Blogs >
      • Virtually Learning
      • The First Sabbatical
      • The Scholarly Edition
    • Other Teaching & Learning Activities
  • Research
    • Articles
    • Book Chapters
    • Books and Edited Collections >
      • Situating Canada in a Changing World: Constructing a Modern and Prosperous Future
      • Canada on the United Nations Security Council
      • The Harper Era in Canadian Foreign Policy
      • Manuel de rédaction à l’usage des militaires
      • John W. Holmes: An Introduction, Special Issue of International Journal
      • Academic Writing for Military Personnel​
      • Canada’s Voice: The Public Life of John Wendell Holmes
      • Canadas of the Mind
      • The Middle Power Project
      • Through Our Eyes: An Alumni History of the University of Toronto Schools, 1960-2000
    • Conference Presentations
    • Newspaper and Newsletter Commentaries
    • Publications in Conference Proceedings
    • Reports
    • Reviews
    • Teaching & Learning Publications
  • Public Speaking
    • Guest Lectures & Invited Speeches
    • Invited Workshops & Presentations (Teaching & Learning)
    • Arrange a Lecture, Workshop, or Presentation
  • Adam Chapnick's Blog

Adam Chapnick's Blog

On foreign aid and Canada's Security Council bid...

5/3/2020

0 Comments

 
A couple of weeks ago, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released an extensive data set that tracks the contributions of member countries to official development assistance (ODA) in 2019.
 
Here is what the University of Ottawa’s Stephen Brown – one our leading experts on ODA – said about Canada’s numbers through a blog for the McLeod Group (later reproduced by the University of Ottawa’s Centre for International Policy Studies):
 
“Despite talking a good game when it comes to foreign aid … it is clear that Canada is refusing to contribute its fair share of development assistance.” 
 
Brown goes on to declare that “under the Trudeau government, Canada is less generous than under Harper.” Put another way, even though the Liberals have actually increased the international assistance budget since 2015, ODA as a percentage of gross national income has dropped from an average of 0.30% under the Conservatives to 0.27% in 2019.
 
I agree with this element of Brown’s analysis.
 
Canada has the capacity to contribute more to international assistance. Moreover, investing extensively in foreign aid is consistent with the national interest.
 
Canada is a trading nation. It is in our interest to increase the number of prospective consumers of Canadians goods and services around the world by helping struggling members of the international community pull themselves out of poverty.
 
Canada is also an aging nation, reliant on a steady stream of educated immigrants to maintain our economic prosperity. Supporting poverty alleviation around the world is a logical component of any proactive immigration strategy.

Later in the same blog, when Brown points out that “Norway and Ireland, Canada’s ‘rivals’ for a seat on the UN Security Council … are providing foreign aid equivalent to 1.02% and 0.31% of GNI, easily outshining Canada,” he appears to imply that Canada’s efforts to secure a seat on the UN Security Council this summer could be compromised by its lack of generosity relative to Norway and Ireland.

That contention, which has been made more explicitly by others, is less convincing.
 
Critics of Canadian ODA policy often fail to note that the same OECD data also show that, on a grant equivalent basis, Canada provided more aid than either of its Security Council competitors in 2019.
 
Some will respond that since the Canadian economy is much larger than Norway’s, and Ireland’s, the international community could punish Ottawa for being miserly.
 
But for the recipients of development assistance, it’s the total dollar amount that counts.
 
If I’m looking for seed money to start a new business, I’ll take $30,000 from a less generous Canada over $25,000 from a more generous Norway every time.
 
We therefore shouldn’t expect Canada’s disappointing record in international assistance to have any real effect on its campaign for a Security Council seat.
 
In fact, with more than four times Ireland’s development budget, Ottawa will be in a favourable position if the election comes down to using aid to sway a country’s vote.
 
***
 
If you’d like to read more about ODA, especially in Africa, take a look at the work of my fellow Trent alum, David Black. I also recommend anything that Shannon Kindornay has written. She is currently a senior analyst at the Canadian International Development Platform, a critical source for any student of Canadian foreign and public policy. 

If you need something longer to read while sheltering from the virus at home, you can find some my books here, here, or here.
 
To be notified of the next blog post, follow me on Twitter @achapnick. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter at https://buttondown.email/achapnick.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Adam Chapnick is a professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC). The views expressed here are entirely his own.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019

    Categories

    All
    Canadian Foreign Policy
    Diplomacy
    Iran
    Trudeau

    RSS Feed

Blog 

Click Here to Read the latest From Adam Chapnick

Newsletter

Subscribe to Adam Chapnick's Newsletter

Contact

  • Adam Chapnick
    • Contact
    • Biography
    • Employment
    • Education
    • Academic Honours and research grants
    • Professional Administrative Experience
    • Advisory/Editorial Boards
    • Scholarly Assessments
    • Academic Associations
    • Additional Relevant Information
    • Testimonials
  • Teaching & Learning
    • Teaching Philosophy
    • Teaching Experience
    • Supervisions and Thesis Defence Committees >
      • Supervisions
      • Thesis Defence Committees
    • Refereed Conference Presentations (Teaching & Learning)
    • Publications (Teaching & Learning)
    • Teaching Blogs >
      • Virtually Learning
      • The First Sabbatical
      • The Scholarly Edition
    • Other Teaching & Learning Activities
  • Research
    • Articles
    • Book Chapters
    • Books and Edited Collections >
      • Situating Canada in a Changing World: Constructing a Modern and Prosperous Future
      • Canada on the United Nations Security Council
      • The Harper Era in Canadian Foreign Policy
      • Manuel de rédaction à l’usage des militaires
      • John W. Holmes: An Introduction, Special Issue of International Journal
      • Academic Writing for Military Personnel​
      • Canada’s Voice: The Public Life of John Wendell Holmes
      • Canadas of the Mind
      • The Middle Power Project
      • Through Our Eyes: An Alumni History of the University of Toronto Schools, 1960-2000
    • Conference Presentations
    • Newspaper and Newsletter Commentaries
    • Publications in Conference Proceedings
    • Reports
    • Reviews
    • Teaching & Learning Publications
  • Public Speaking
    • Guest Lectures & Invited Speeches
    • Invited Workshops & Presentations (Teaching & Learning)
    • Arrange a Lecture, Workshop, or Presentation
  • Adam Chapnick's Blog