Oda on ODA

ROME, ITALY – In something of a rush, International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda and her staff caught the plane in Ottawa en route to the Cooperation Minister’s run-up meeting to the G8, scheduled for Italy next month. I was fortunate to be asked along. From the outset, the minister’s staff were professional and inclusive. There was no keeping me at a distance owing to my role as CIDA critic and Ms. Oda herself kept me well in the loop as to what was transpiring at these meetings.It’s odd you know, but when you get outside of Ottawa (especially these days), the person who was your opponent can suddenly become a friend. My difficulty with CIDA and the minister in these last months has become known enough and involves three areas: 1) the Agency’s cuts to development assistance in 8 African nations; 2) the lack of consultation surrounding the cuts; 3) the unknown way in which the Agency operates. All that being said, my relationship with Bev Oda has been a positive and helpful one.Talks here in Italy have centered around Official Development Assistance (ODA) and the role of the G8 countries in ensuring that foreign aid and development funds don’t get pinched or overlooked by the worldwide economic crisis faced by the developed nations. Canada was praised for sucessfully "untying" its aid, meaning that supplies could be purchased in the countries in which the aid was being disbursed. Chaired by Italy, the sessions here have seen Bev Oda clearly raise her voice for accountability, targeted aid, and for a more cooperative approach among all the donor agencies. The other nations, appreciating her forthrightness, followed suit and promised cooperation.It’s to Oda’s credit that the sessions remained as focused as they did. Observed in the palatial halls that housed the meetings, she seems sincere and quiet, almost diminutive. But when it comes Canada’s turn to make its presentation, she appears humbly confident – exactly what others here would expect a Canadian leader to act like. When she spoke today of the “youth tsunami” that was about the explode in the developing world, the minister was clearly offering a prescient warning: start targeting much of the aid towards children and youth or we could have a development fiasco on her hands. Furthermore, she was the only one to speak to the subject directly, and the prophetic way in which she delivered the challenge registered clearly with her counterparts.These aren’t easy days politically in Ottawa; the constant sabre rattling does no real service to our country, nor to the world in which we are supposed to be an example. But in Bev Oda, Canada has a decent and capable public servant who refuses to let partisanship trump principle. I’ve always known that, but here in Italy she proves it repeatedly. The fate of the world’s poor could rest in the hands of someone much less capable or compassionate. Our differences are likely to remain, that’s fair enough. But in a political world of parry and thrust, she stands apart in a quiet humility that I think represents the best that’s in politics