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. These include aligning with a developing country's national plans, and ownership of those national objectives. I think that, to some extent, decentralization could play an important role. Regardless of its countries of focus or the themes it picks, Canada must align those themes—or tailor them, as Christina said—to national needs and priorities.
We started to do that through the decentralization of Global Affairs Canada. I think part of the challenge is that the decentralization focused a lot on putting more staff into the field, but the decision-making authority and the power over funding remained very much in Ottawa. If we can shift some of the decision-making authority to the field, where they have a better sense of local realities and needs, and can collaborate between civil society organizations or partner country governments, I think that would be effective as well.