Sages and Sadness

For a meeting of development experts it was clearly unique. To be sure, those well versed in the opportunities and challenges of foreign aid get together all the time in places as diverse as universities, international conferences and workshops.  But on this occasion they assembled in one of the two main meeting rooms in the House of Commons itself and the collective wisdom gathered there didn’t disappoint.I was honoured to host and moderate the morning and afternoon sessions along with MP John McKay and it became obvious early on that we were taking part in something special.  Along with academics and researchers, there were over 50 non-governmental organizations represented at the sessions.In a way, I shouldn’t have been so surprised at the turnout; it’s been obvious for some time now that foreign aid and government’s role in it are going through times of transition. It was troubling to hear of how for years the Canadian government has supervised a general decline and confusion in its development programs and how it’s been relegated to the lower tiers of those groups leading efforts to assist the most disadvantaged around the globe.This, of course, was nothing new, but it was the strength and poignancy of the collective judgment of these experts that got us all to sit up and take note. They wondered why successive governments of different stripes failed to comprehend the importance of aid investment when countries like Britain and Norway had transitioned years earlier into effective aid regimes that made a clear difference on the ground in everything from environmental sustainability to newborn child and maternal health standards. Even formerly developing nations like India and Brazil were raising their game in various fields while Canada was lagging behind.Virtually all of those present wondered how Canada could justify its subtle pullout from Africa when so many of the international protocols we had signed required us to invest more heavily there. This has been a frequent note in these blog pages, but to hear it from people who understand the development field well was a profound exercise.There was also the sense expressed that politics is mattering less and less to the fate of the world’s poor, in Canada at least. These are Canadian leaders in a field that is witnessing numerous other players ratcheting up their foreign aid efforts at a time when this country is in retreat. Like their environmentalist cousins, they are suffering from a kind of acute international embarrassment at the underwhelming performance of the last number of federal governments.It was inspiring though to hear how, despite the lack of government leadership, these NGOs are performing miracles in the field. Underfunded and lacking effective federal partnership, they have nevertheless undertaken and succeeded at levels and in fields of operation that make you proud to be a Canadian.Nevertheless they are distressed at what they feel to be the lack of imagination, resource allocation and curiosity at CIDA especially. Aware that government commitments can often accomplish what others can’t, they challenged their political counterparts, right in the centre of government itself, to get its act together and re-enter the world’s stage with something more than weak programs and empty rhetoric.These are the brightest and the best among us, yet they feel they are operating in a vacuum of development commitment. As they watch CIDA become increasingly irrelevant, they are courageously coming forward and speaking truth to power – including right at the heart and centre of Canadian federal politics.The collective message to CIDA was clear and profound: ramp up your efforts or risk full irrelevancy – not an easy message to hear but I thank them for their clarity, courage and sense of purpose.  Check the short video out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ5xSqzi16g