Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 27th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

We'll go to Mr. Obhrai and Mr. Goldring very quickly. You only have seven minutes.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

I have no questions.

Go ahead, Mr. Goldring.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

Thank you very much.

To the comments of putting increased emphasis on the Americas, prioritizing, has there been a corresponding ramping up, if you like, of our presence in the high commissions, in the embassies, for looking at trade and economic opportunities? Is this part of the estimates increases to put more resources to it?

I'm thinking in key areas--for example, Barbados, which is key to South America, and possibly even looking at the upcoming opportunities that we would see in the eastern European areas, and knowing that the embassy there has been seeking more increased resources to be able to explore opportunities.

[Leonard Edwards]

The specific answer is there's nothing in the supplementary estimates that indicates we are getting new funds to put additional resources into the Americas, at least for this year. I can't speak for plans of the government going forward.

In terms of the global commerce strategy, however, there will be resources that will be available for Asia, as I pointed out in response to an earlier question, but also probably for the Americas. These decisions have not yet been taken.

Our missions in the Americas are already fairly well resourced. We do have good resources in the region. We will need to, and we are presently as we develop our strategy, conduct a mission-by-mission analysis to see how many additional resources are needed in trade or in political or in other areas.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

So this will be a future plan to increase where it's felt to be necessary, but it's all part and parcel of this prioritizing of the Americas.

[Leonard Edwards]

That's correct, yes.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

And the second—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

You have about 40 seconds.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

In regard to the comments on working on the democracy in Haiti and what has been done, we just completed a major report recently here in the committee. Is any of that report being transferred into a different direction to improving democracy development in Haiti?

[Robert Greenhill]

Thank you.

First of all, there's an example of where our departments work very closely together on the whole aspect of democracy promotion. We're very involved in helping to continue to reinforce the electoral commission in Haiti, and on the voter registration cards, which were a key element of that last election, we're now working with the Haitian government to make it permanent so people have permanent identities. That's useful from a democratic point of view and it's also useful from a general rights point of view in terms of their identification and ability to obtain services.

We've also engaged the Parliamentary Centre for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, which is working with parliamentarians, 90% of whom had never been inside a parliamentary building before they were elected, to actually help them put in place committee systems such as yours, to actually make that concept of democracy real in a daily sense. So, yes, we're very engaged in helping to move Haiti along the element of democratic—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Greenhill.

Now to Madame St-Hilaire.

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Greenhill, it would appear that CIDA's evaluation process is virtually paralyzed by the fact that the standing offers awarded to the five biggest companies have been exhausted.

What do you think of that?

[Robert Greenhill]

I didn't clearly understand the question.

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

I'd like to hear your comments on CIDA's program or project evaluation process. Is it still in operation?

[Robert Greenhill]

Yes, under the

management accountability framework

the Treasury Board has characterized CIDA's independent evaluation as strong.

We have an independent evaluation function that's been in place for some years. It's worked very effectively. For example, we just did a national program evaluation of the Afghanistan program. We also participate in very in-depth evaluations with other donors of key international programs. I mentioned the micro-finance facility. In fact our evaluation system is strong, and it's being strengthened by the addition of new independent members of the evaluation.

One interesting item is we also in this last year did a meta-evaluation of a series of evaluations over the last few years, to draw out general lessons learned. I'd be pleased to provide you with a list of the evaluations that we've put in place over the last 12 months.

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

If I understand correctly, you systematically apply an evaluation process in all projects and programs that CIDA establishes, and a fixed amount is allocated for that purpose.

[Robert Greenhill]

We have an evaluation process to overlook our key programs. We don't actually at this point look at 100% of our programs. They're identified by size and by risk. But significant programs tend to be identified at least at two levels. You'll have key programs that are evaluated, and then the country as a whole will go through an evaluation.

So in the case of Afghanistan, that's exactly what we've done. We've had significant evaluations done of things at the Afghanistan reconstruction trust fund, of MISFA, so at the program level. We also engaged independent evaluators to give us a view of how the nation as a whole was performing. By the way, they said it was performing pretty well. Both those levels are publicly available, and we can also provide you with a more detailed examination of actually how we do our evaluation structures, using Afghanistan as an example, if you would find that helpful.

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

I understood that things were going well in Afghanistan in terms of evaluation, but I want to know whether the standing offers have been exhausted.

[Robert Greenhill]

You're referring to the standing offers for evaluators?

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Yes.

[Robert Greenhill]

I believe we are still able to call in evaluators. Now I understand why you referred to those five companies. I'm going to come back to that question.

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

All right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Go ahead, Madame.

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

We've heard the warmed-over version of the government's announcement, but, Mr. Greenhill, I would like to know whether CIDA has any cash flow problems as regards the implementation of programs in Africa.

[Robert Greenhill]

The short answer is no. As Len mentioned, that means that choices have to be made. The government's choice was to double up in Africa by 2008-2009. Our game plan is ready.