Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting the Canadian Council for International Co-operation to appear before the committee today. As some of you may know, CCIC is Canada's national coalition of civil society organizations working globally to achieve sustainable human development.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would add that one of the welcome things to come with the new Liberal government is its focus on continuity with change. We've had 10 years of working around maternal and newborn child health and support for food security for growth, so let's build on that. I think the policy review should focus on the way we can build on what we've already generated without making too many changes.

Foreign Affairs committee  Christina or Jim can probably add more, but I would say that we're already doing it. All of our members work with local partners. They work with their experience and their expertise.

Foreign Affairs committee  If I may, I will answer in English because I always have trouble with technical terms in French.

Foreign Affairs committee  I want to say I think aid is an essential piece of fighting poverty. Much like you, I would insist or hope that Canada over the next five to 10 years...one of the key outcomes of this review is to establish a timetable for how it's going to increase its ODA, but it's also important to keep in mind that while ODA is the most immediate source or resource for tackling poverty, governments also have domestic resource mobilization.

Foreign Affairs committee  Through its development assistance committee, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development brings together all industrialized donor nations. There are 28 members. Canada is one of them. Over the past several decades they've identified core principles that are key to the effective delivery of aid, and outcomes that will have a positive impact on reducing poverty.

Foreign Affairs committee  I believe that in fact most NGOs weren't consulted, and most of the countries that got dropped were also not consulted.

Foreign Affairs committee  Exactly. You may have long-term partners there, and you've just learned that you're not going to be able to renew programs. But I think the surprising thing was the reaction for many of the high commissions and embassies here in Canada when they learned that their countries were dropped as countries of focus through a press release.

Foreign Affairs committee  Sorry, can I quickly add just one thing? One element that's very important in your aid relationship, and this is as true for civil society organizations as countries, is aid exit, if you want. It's part of our code of ethics for our members. You need to let the partners that you're working with know that you have a plan for eventually getting out of the country or getting out of the partnership, and you plan for that exit so that they can build their capacity, build their resources.

Foreign Affairs committee  I guess you could say that, yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  As I said in my statement I don't think there's a perfect mix in the number of countries. The real importance is predictability and consistency. Canada changing every four years which countries it's working in is not helpful to the international community. You all know this very well, but as a government you need to know where your revenue is coming from, especially if it's aid; you need to plan budgets.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much to members of the committee for inviting the Canadian Council for International Cooperation to appear before you on this study on countries of focus. As Mr. Nault and Jim have mentioned, the study is very timely, given the launch yesterday of the international policy review.