Reflections on Aid and Security in Afghanistan

• January 30, 2014

This is a follow-up to the excellent and timely comments by Professor Roland Paris on the implications of an attack by the Taliban on a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul, a few weeks ago.

Taliban attacks are common in Afghanistan, including …

Bangladesh: The Future of Development Partnerships

• January 20, 2014

By Syed Sajjadur Rahman, Visiting Professor, School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa

This essay, along with the ones by Yiagadeesen (Teddy) Samy and by Stephen Baranyi and Alicia Dobson, arose out of the Bangladesh: Out …

A Post-2015 Development Agenda: Into the Last (Long) Lap

• October 16, 2013

Post-2015 is becoming the biggest development game in town, especially New York. A flurry of activity in the summer months climaxed at the end of September with a UNGA ‘Special Event’ at which leaders from both developed and developing countries …

Is the Global Partnership Ready to Broaden Its Mandate?

• September 4, 2013

Partnership, especially global, has to be a good thing. But many saw the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation as a flawed last-minute compromise agreed at the 2011 Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Korea.

The question remains whether the …

CIDA Merger is Fine, but Fundamental Questions of Policy Remain Unresolved

• March 22, 2013

Published in the Globe and Mail, March 22, 2013

Thursday’s announcement that the Canadian International Development Agency will be folded into the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade leaves critical questions about Canada’s aid policy unanswered.

First, regardless …

Canada Must Do Much More to Promote Ethical Mining

• March 11, 2013

Published in the Toronto Star, March 11, 2013

Recent months have seen heated debate about CIDA’s venture into funding partnerships between Canadian mining companies and international development NGOs. Earlier in March, CIDA Minister Julian Fantino told a gathering of …

Beyond 2015: MDGs, SDGs and Busan’s Global Partnership

• October 25, 2012

Despite a still-struggling global economy, one in which contagion from the developed world is now enveloping emerging economies, there is a boom in international donor-recipient diplomacy. Globalization is forcing us to recognize that there is no longer easily divisible rich …

Foreign Aid: More of the Same?

• September 21, 2012

Published in Embassy Magazine, September 19, 2012

Canada’s contributions to reducing global poverty are rarely a priority topic for debate in the House of Commons. Foreign aid is an important tool for supporting international development, but it will likely …

Bev Oda’s Real Legacy at CIDA

• July 10, 2012

Media commentary has been remarkably lenient regarding Bev Oda’s record at the end of her five-year stint as Canada’s Minister of International Cooperation. Coverage has by and large ignored how, under her watch, the government systematically undermined both the fundamental …

Exploring the Potentials of NGO-Corporate Partnerships for Development

• March 28, 2012

A recent article by Princeton professor Anne-Marie Slaughter about new diplomatic initiatives at the U.S. State Department may induce an acute case of policy envy in many Canadian readers. Under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as Slaughter describes, U.S. diplomacy …