International Development

Lessons from Canadian Involvement in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States
- November 1, 2018
As Stephen Brown noted in a recent blog, much of the media commentary on the latest Peer Review of Canada’s development co-operation has focused on its recommendations to increase spending and implement the Feminist International Assistance Policy. Brown reminds …
By Stephen Baranyi
Canadian Foreign Policy, Fragile States, International Development
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Canada’s Lessons in Afghanistan Not Recorded and Not Learned: Part 1
- October 29, 2018
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko’s assessment of American lessons learned in Afghanistan is similar to that of Canada, except that our findings are not based on systematic and independent review. Canada lacks appropriate monitoring and evaluation …
By Nipa Banerjee
Canadian Foreign Policy, Fragile States, International Development, Middle East
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Canada’s Lessons in Afghanistan Not Recorded and Not Learned: Part 2
- October 29, 2018
In terms of Afghanistan, Canada has clearly been afflicted with attention deficit disorder; in less than a decade, it changed program focus three times (as noted by a summative evaluation of Canada’s development program in 2015). The lessons that could …
By Nipa Banerjee
Canadian Foreign Policy, Fragile States, International Development, Middle East
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Development Partnership Part 1: The Way of the Future
- October 10, 2018
A key goal for Canada is to be BACK as a credible development partner. A significant driver is the ambition of taking a UN Security Council (SC) seat in 2020. Recent signals, however, suggest some uncertainty about Canada winning …
By John Sinclair
Canadian Foreign Policy, International Development
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Development Partnership Part 2: A Canadian Action Agenda
- October 10, 2018
This blog continues from Part 1, The Way of the Future.

A solid agenda exists of desirable institutional changes in Global Affairs Canada (GAC, and other public entities) over the next few years. We need to start building new …
By John Sinclair
Canadian Foreign Policy, International Development
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Beyond Aid Budgets: What Canada Can Do to Promote International Development
- October 10, 2018
Of late, many commentators, from humble bloggers to the more august Toronto Star and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have lamented Canada’s relative lack of generosity in foreign aid and called on the Canadian government to increase the …
By Stephen Brown
Canadian Foreign Policy, International Development
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What Do Canada’s Peers Say about Canadian Development Co-operation?
- September 19, 2018
by Hunter McGill and Stephen Brown

Every five years or so, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conducts a “peer review” of the countries that belong to its Development Assistance Committee (DAC). This year was Canada’s turn and …
By Stephen Brown
Canadian Foreign Policy, International Development
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Canada’s Feminist International Assistance: Can Bad Policy be Well Implemented? (Part 1)
- September 13, 2018
Last summer, the government of Canada launched its “feminist international assistance policy,” a radical rebranding to a “truly feminist approach that supports the economic, political and social empowerment of women and girls, and makes gender equality a priority, …
By Christoph Zuercher
Canadian Foreign Policy, International Development, Women
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Canada’s Feminist International Assistance: Can Bad Policy be Well Implemented? (Part 2)
- September 13, 2018
In Part 1 of this blog post, I ranted about discussed why Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy is likely to fail. However, even a bad policy can be implemented in ways that make failure less likely and create opportunities …
By Christoph Zuercher
Canadian Foreign Policy, International Development, Women
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The ODA Accountability Act at Ten: Time for an Update
- September 5, 2018
by Stephen Brown and Hunter McGill

Ten years ago, the Canadian parliament unanimously passed the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act, following years of intensive lobbying by Canadian civil society organizations. Prior to 2008, Canada had not had any legislation …
By Stephen Brown
Canadian Foreign Policy, International Development, Women
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Bangladesh on the Move, Part 1: A Development Breakthrough
- June 5, 2018
Bangladesh, a country branded at its birth, in 1971, as a bottomless development basket by Henry Kissinger, marches forward. Proving Kissinger’s words wrong, this development success story unfolds in one of the poorest countries of the world.

The country moves …
By Nipa Banerjee
Asia, Economy, Éducation, Environment, Health, International Development, Women
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Bangladesh on the Move, Part 2: Future Prospects
- June 5, 2018
Read Part 1 of this article here.

London-based research organization BMI has listed Bangladesh as one of six countries that will be growth performers in the period 2016–2025. Three major factors are identified as boosters of this growth. An …
By Nipa Banerjee
Asia, Economy, Éducation, Environment, Health, International Development, Women
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