At a glance: The problem

The aid industry is changing, and that the quality of aid must improve if large-scale poverty reduction goals are to be met.

When done right, aid has the potential to transform lives and assist communities and countries with their development priorities. Still, much of today’s aid programming remains ineffectual and unresponsive to local needs and conditions, and is too often undermined by constantly shifting priorities and an aversion to risk-taking and innovation.

Canadian development assistance suffers from these same problems, having recently been ranked a mediocre 11th by the Centre for Global Development’s Commitment to Development Index.

In the past year, the Government of Canada has taken a few important steps towards improving the quality of our aid. For instance, the commitment to untie all aid by 2013 has resulted in a far more efficient use of development dollars.

Despite this, the aid debate continues to be characterized by calls for more aid, as opposed to better, more effective aid.