Foreign Relations of Canada - Foreign Aid

Foreign Aid

Canada's foreign aid is administered by the Canadian International Development Agency, which provides aid and assistance to other countries around the world through various methods. The strategy of CIDA and The Canadian government's foreign aid policy reflects an emphasis to meet the Millennium Development Goals, while also providing assistance in response to foreign humanitarian crises. However a growing focus on development, defense, and diplomacy in recent decades has produced a concentration of foreign aid funding to countries determined to be security risks to Canadian policy. For example, in 2004-2005 the largest recipients of Canada's official developmental assistance were Afghanistan and Iraq, two nations in conflict with the United States of America and its allies at the time. The structural emphasis on security and industry development has contributed to a fixed foreign policy that generally fails to consider global health and international social and economic inequalities.

In addition, although Canada’s foreign aid policies has been molded with the intentions to be in accordance to the Millennium Development Goals, its focus on human security has slowly shifted away as new policy developments arose. The foreign aid provided by the country became less “people-centered” and less health-related. Canada’s contributions have been quite inconsistent with regards to human security, which indicates that the reputation that the country has built throughout the years, in fact, exceeds the country’s actual record. Canada’s contributions internationally have been detrimental and crucial but it needs redirecting back to its original goals.