By Nick Mann | 20 June 2012

Canada needs an over-arching strategy for its development aid and should also increase the amount it spends as soon as possible, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said yesterday.

The OECD’s Review of the Development Co-operation Policies and Programmes of Canada found that between 2010 and 2011 aid spending fell by just over 5% to $5.3bn after doubling between 2001 and 201. The cut was equal to 0.31% of the country’s gross national income.

A further 7%, or $389m, cut is planned by 2014/15, which the OECD said ‘may undermine the support it has given in recent years to poor countries with weak capacity, especially in sub-Saharan Africa’.

With economic growth of up to 3% a year expected in the medium term, Canada should maintain its aid spending as a 0.31% of GNI in the short-term. It should then adopt a plan to increase spending to take it towards the international goal of 0.7% of GNI.

The OECD also noted a lack of a ‘clear, top-level statement’ to set out Canada’s development aid vision. It changed its approach d in 2008 and 2009, including new criteria for allocating funds and focusing on fewer thematic and geographical entities. However, the government needed to set out a strategy for the next five to ten years.

‘There remains a need for a clear, simple and consistent vision for Canada’s aid along with details of how its new approach to development co-operation is to be translated into objectives, strategy and programmes,’ the OECD said.

In some situations, including the civil-military co-operation in Afghanistan and humanitarian efforts in Haiti, the country’s development efforts were ‘efficient and effective’. This was due to co-operation between Canadian government ministries and the availability of sufficient funds and human resources.

The OECD recommended the use of these successes as best practice for developing a whole-of-government approach for all Canada’s development programmes.