Reacting to the 2023 Federal Budget cooperation.ca

In the first part of the event, Brian Tomlinson presented an overview of trends in Canada’s international assistance, describing the various funding flows, the government agencies delivering international assistance, the implementing agencies, and the breakdown of Official Development Assistance (ODA) by components, including development, humanitarian assistance, climate finance and in-donor refug. [...] The possibility of off-cycle funding announcements in the coming months neither mitigates the sector disappointment, nor constitutes sound public policy, unless Canada decides to transparently present the federal budget as a floor rather than a ceiling. [...] Putting Budget 2023 in a global perspective, panel members noted the imperative to regain the ground lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and make faster progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. [...] On the other hand, developing countries grapple with an escalating debt burden resulting from the combination of insufficient concessional finance, forced reliance on expensive private lending to meet their basic needs, slow deployment of pledged climate finance, and limited access to the Special Drawing Rights, the reserve asset maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). [...] The inadequacy of the international assistance architecture is acknowledged by many, including the OECD – Development Assistance Committee (DAC), in their most recent report, Debating the Aid System.