Hello, Mr. Chair.
Members of the committee and colleagues, thank you for the opportunity to be here today and to take part in this important discussion.
My name is Eva Busza and I am the vice-president of research and programs at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
The foundation was established by an act of Parliament in 1984 to help Canadians engage with Asia. The bulk of our work does not fall under the rubric of development assistance, rather we operate at the cusp of trade, innovation, development, and geopolitics. Consequently, the perspective I bring may be a little different from those who have spoken from the international development community. I will also draw on my prior personal experience, which includes 15 years as a development practitioner, focusing on security sector reform, conflict and disaster programming, and fragile state assistance, including four years working as the director of strategic planning, focusing on global threats, for the current UN Secretary-General.
As you've seen, your question of how to select countries of focus has given rise to much larger reflections on what Canada needs to do both internally and externally to enhance its aid effectiveness, adapt to a changing world, and help the poorest and most vulnerable.
Let me begin by directly addressing your questions.
Should Canada concentrate its bilateral development assistance in a small number of countries and on select sectors?
First, let's remember that one-third of Canada's development assistance is bilateral, and 90% of that assistance goes to countries of focus. The remaining two-thirds is not subject to the countries-of-focus model. My first caution is that the committee needs to look beyond bilateral assistance at the entire package. Is a one-third/two-thirds split the right one? While not subject to the countries-of-focus model, is there a de facto country allocation in the remaining two-thirds, and how is this coordinated with our bilateral aid? Are programs adequately addressing the myriad of global and regional challenges that not only affect the most vulnerable today, but are likely to drive those who have escaped extreme poverty back down into the bottom tiers? Are climate change, health epidemics, transnational crimes, and natural disasters getting sufficient attention from our assistance? My sense is that we need to give more priority to the latter, but the decision needs to be based on a robust program analysis, which I assume will be an input provided to you by Global Affairs Canada.
I would further urge you to conduct your analysis by looking at what mechanisms and development support is being provided by government departments and agencies other than Global Affairs Canada internationally, for example, by Finance; Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; the Public Health Agency; Environment and Climate Change; Innovation, Science and Economic Development; the Royal Mounted Police; and the Department of National Defence. Our development policy needs to be shaped based on a whole-of-government approach, and that starts with a whole-of-government mapping.
In principle, given Canada's limited resources, I agree with prior witnesses who have argued that our support across the board should be focused on a limited number of select sectors in a few countries, but that we balance this with giving due attention to regional or global interventions. The regional context simply can't be ignored, given that health epidemics, droughts, conflicts, crime, and financial flows don't tend to respect borders.
Why should we focus?
Because you have more chance of being effective in your programming if you focus, for all the reasons D.G. Kent outlined in her opening testimony. That being said, as other witnesses have emphasized, mere focus on geography or on sector is no guarantee of increased effectiveness.
Other measures need to be taken. Some of these include, first, identifying what we are good at, and cross-referencing that with what types of interventions seem to have maximum impact, and what sectors are under-invested in by the international community.
Second, we need to make a distinction between three contexts: stable countries with pockets of highly vulnerable or impoverished populations—this could be LDCs or middle-income countries where, as the World Bank data indicates, 70% of the most poor and vulnerable reside—fragile states, and humanitarian emergencies. The programming that is most likely to be effective in these different types of situations not only differ, but so do the delivery mechanisms and the emphasis and approach taken to capacity building.
Third, we need to align our proposed intervention with the development priorities of the countries and regions in question. Do they want the type of assistance we are able to provide? Buy-in at the national level is ideal, but sometimes, particularly in fragile states, it may be sufficient to have support at the sub-national level. Regardless, buy-in from a key stakeholder who can affect change is central.
You asked about international agreements and initiatives, and should they help us identify some of these principles.
There are a number of agreements that provide guidelines and principles for development assistance. Some of the more important include the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the Accra Agenda for Action, the Busan Principles, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Are they perfect? No, but they do encapsulate the knowledge countries around the world have gained about what is most likely to advance poverty reduction and development. Moreover they serve as an ordering and coordinating mechanism, which is essential, given the vast array of development actors out there.
Regarding your question on the effectiveness of a country-of-focus model, I've already suggested that the country-of-focus model should not be driving development decisions. An assistance framework that is designed to focus on vulnerable and poor populations, as opposed to states, and that allows for tiered interventions, which prioritize its programming for different types of development situations, is the way to go. For example, in fragile states or regions, conflict prevention, transitional justice and reconciliation, and basic livelihood programs coordinated with support provided in the security arena, are likely to be most effective.
I would like to end with some forward-looking recommendations.
Today Canada has the opportunity to position itself, once again, as an innovator in development assistance and as a valued international partner. How do we do this? First, on the coordination side, as many more actors get involved in poverty reduction, and as ODA stays relatively flat, efficiency of aid delivery becomes even more important and more difficult. Two of the things that are often the hardest to fund are coordinators and coordinating systems. They're just not that sexy. As a practitioner, you come across so many incidents of waste due to duplication or badly targeted resources. Canada could be of tremendous value by providing both human resources and supporting coordinating technologies and information systems.
Second, with our emphasis on being an innovation nation, we need to bring our science and technology policy and our trade policy closer to our development policy and be a leader in developing and applying ICT and technology to aid delivery and monitoring. Some examples include applying big data collection and analytics to disaster response and coordination, supporting mobile phone applications for health diagnostics or water and sanitation access, using drones to provide medical and food supplies to the most vulnerable and hard to reach populations, and supporting the revolution in fintech by allowing the poorest and most vulnerable easy access to microfinance and basic services.
Third, we should aim to be a leader in fostering market approaches to development. We are already doing this to a degree by supporting social entrepreneurs, but there is so much more we can do in this area.
Finally, we could signal our commitment to this new role by hosting an international innovation and development summit, and partnering with key donors, foundations, and the private sector.
Thank you for the time you have allowed me. I will be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have.