In its submission to Ottawa’s 2018 Legislative Review of the Export Development Act, Probe International calls for a repeal of the Act and the privatization of Export Development Canada (EDC). Probe argues the federal government’s export-financing agency shares many of the same characteristics as China’s controversial state-owned enterprises (SOEs), characteristics that ensure market distortion and stunt private development.
U.N. finally apologizes for cholera in Haiti … but omits one point
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s “sorry” last week for the organization’s role in Haiti’s deadly cholera outbreak, called a “half-apology” by some for omitting to mention the likely source of that outbreak: Nepalese UN peacekeepers. Ban Ki-moon’s statement nevertheless marks the first time the organization has publicly acknowledged its role in the spread of the cholera epidemic in Haiti that killed at least 10,000 people after the 2010 earthquake.
Chalillo Dam dispute goes before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has given the government of Belize three months to respond to allegations filed 12 years ago by BELPO, an organization representing the Maya people and affected communities.
IACHR considers human rights violations regarding Chalillo dam
More than 10 years after its completion in September 2005, the Americas’ official human rights watchdog has opened a case against the government of Belize to consider the impacts of the country’s long controversial, Canadian-owned Chalillo dam.
World Bank caution to Tanzania criticised
These comments by Tanzanian economics professor Humphrey Moshi serve as quite an indictment of the wayward World Bank. When China — no stranger to poor practices itself — is your “saviour” from bad World Bank policies … The Daily News reports.
The resource curse comes to Mozambique
Hidden foreign aid to an incompetent and dishonest government is set to rob Mozambique of its gas treasure as no one can explain what happened to billions of dollars the country borrowed for a series of price-inflated, murky projects. The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) reports.
Aid is best spent in poor, well-governed countries. That isn’t where it goes.
This Economist piece doesn’t mince words: foreign aid, it says, “is a mess in almost every way”. Hard-won transparency in aid over the past decade has actually revealed “just how badly things are going”.
Oil-rich Nigeria is ready to implode. There’s one way to stop it
Nigeria doesn’t need bailouts; it needs to change its governance. Lawrence Solomon reports for the National Post.
Obama’s global anti-corruption cops should call Internal Affairs: Column
Last week’s anti-corruption summit ignored how western governments and international financial institutions fuel corruption through foreign aid, writes USA Today contributor James Bovard.
Public has more trust in foreign aid than government – survey
An international survey finds Ghanaians have more confidence in outside agencies and companies operating within the country, than their own government. Ghana Pulse reports.
After Mozambique’s spending, the reckoning
The Africa Report looks at Mozambique’s economic crisis — a crisis that has still to reach its peak.
Do Liberals have a foreign aid strategy?
Is there a coherent foreign policy strategy behind the huge sums of money the Trudeau administration has been quick to pledge in foreign aid spending since taking office or is the government’s foreign aid focus more a reactionary stance to what the Conservatives did or did not do?
The negative effects on Haiti of too much foreign aid
Haitians know how to fish but they need access to a boat buoyed by property rights, rule of law and greater access to world markets. Nevertheless, some bright spots have emerged in a move away from the “over-aid” model: mangoes and the reopening of a wheat flour mill destroyed by the 2010 earthquake.
A taxing new era
As foreign aid dries up in the age of austerity, low-income countries are being asked more and more to generate their own funds for development. One recommendation is taxation. Taxes produce revenue and taxed citizens are more likely to hold their governments to account for how development funds are spent. Developing countries say rich nations need to pay their share of taxes too.
Red Cross raised half a billion dollars to help Haiti rebuild … six homes
Publicly it has celebrated its work but, in reality, the Red Cross has repeatedly failed on the ground in Haiti. An investigation reveals damning insider information that exposes the group’s dubious claims.
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