Submission to the Department of Finance Consultation on Official Development Assistance

Taking into account the perspectives of the poor means ensuring that the poor and marginalized groups in communities have their concerns, needs, and priorities integrated in the initiatives meant to address the development challenges they face. [...] Initiatives that centre the voice to the poor and marginalized populations would be an even stronger demonstration of adherence to the spirit of the Act. [...] Q2: Does the new Report for Parliament on the Government of Canada’s International Assistance 2020-2021 help to improve transparency on international assistance? What changes could be made? We acknowledge and appreciate the consistent improvements of the Report for Parliament on the Government of Canada’s International Assistance, which provides an overview of Government international assistance c. [...] Furthermore, the two volumes of the annual report could be more explicit in demonstrating the alignment of development funding with the ODAAA tests related to centering the perspectives of the poor and consistency with international human right standards. [...] It is also important that the Report to Parliament (volume 2 in particular) provides the Government’s perspective on the opportunities and challenges that the multilateral development finance institutions face in addressing all three tests in the Act.