For 25 years Canadians have argued whether the Canadian International Development Agency is the primary vehicle for helping basic human and development needs of the poorest countries and people, or a tool for commercial exploitation and foreign policy. Contributors from the government, development organizations, and academia analyze the components of Canadian aid, the issues the agency has to deal with, and the pressures it responds to. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

An analysis of the ever-evolving nexus of ethics, security and international relations. Organized thematically, the chapters include theoretical and policy-relevant commentaries on Canadian nuclear policy, democratization, human rights, economic development, peacekeeping, and more.

Why do aid agencies from wealthy donor countries with diverse domestic political and economic contexts arrive at very similar positions on a wide array of aid policies and priorities? This book suggests that this homogenization of policy represents the effects of common processes of globalization manifest in the aid sector. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative analysis of policy adoption, the book argues that we need to examine macro-level globalizing influences at the same time as understanding the micro-level social processes at work within aid agencies, in order to adequately explain the so-called ‘emerging global consensus’ that constitutes the globalization of aid. The book explores how global influences on aid agencies in Canada, Sweden, and the United States are mediated through micro-level processes. Using a mixed-methods approach, the book combines cross-national statistical analysis at the global level with two comparative case studies which look at the adoption of common policy priorities in the fields of gender and security. The Globalization of Foreign Aid will be useful to researchers of foreign aid, development, international relations and globalization, as well as to the aid policy community.

In the 1990s, a shared conviction emerged among aid donors that their policies should be more coherent. The drive towards increased policy coherence came as a response to a state of policy incoherence. The shifting grounds of policy coherence in development co-operation are outlined in this volume.

This book contributes to a “rethinking” Canadian aid at four different levels. First, it undertakes a collective rethinking of the foundations of Canadian aid, including both its normative underpinnings – an altruistic desire to reduce poverty and inequality and achieve greater social justice, a means to achieve commercial or strategic self-interest, or a projection of Canadian values and prestige onto the world stage – and aid’s past record. Second, it analyzes how the Canadian government government is itself rethinking Canadian aid, including greater focus on the Americas and specific themes (such as mothers, children and youth, and fragile states) and countries, increased involvement of the private sector (particularly Canadian mining companies), and greater emphasis on self-interest. Third, it rethinks where Canadian aid is or should be heading, including recommendations for improved development assistance. Fourth, it highlights how serious rethinking is required on aid itself: the concept, its relation to non-aid policies that affect development in the Global South, and the rise of new providers of development assistance, especially “emerging economies”. Each of these novel challenges holds important implications for Canada, for its development policies and for its declining influence in the morphing global aid regime.

Annotation A collection of essays in honur of the man who encouraged and participated in shaping a Canadian contextual social ethics.

Doing Ethics in a Pluralistic World is an apt title for this collection of essays in honour of Roger C. Hutchinson who, over many decades, has encouraged and participated in shaping a Canadian contextual social ethics. His abiding interest in social ethics and in religious engagement with public issues is reflected in his life’s work — seeking the consensus and self-knowledge required to achieve cooperation in the search for a just, participatory, and sustainable society. One of Roger Hutchinson’s many notable accomplishments is his development of a method of dialogue for ethical clarification in situations of diversity. Some of the essays collected here apply this method to specific issues, while others discuss how religious persons and organizations can and do co-operate in a pluralistic world to achieve social and ecological well-being. All essays are of keen interest to those concerned with the role and function of ethics at the matrix of religious conviction and social transformation. For nearly three decades Roger Hutchinson has been based at Victoria University in Toronto, first in religious studies, then at Emmanuel College, where he completed his teaching career as professor of church and society while serving as principal from 1996 to 2001.

The success or failure of economic assistance programs is a shared responsibility of recipient countries and donors. The negative attitude about aid prevalent today underscores a perception the aid has failed. Critics often blame corrupt regimes, weak governments, or poor economic policies. However, the poor track record of aid is also due to donors' inability to allocate limited funds effectively and poor coordination of their aid efforts. Declining aid budgets have led to fundamental questioning of foreign aid's allocation and utility, while the apparent ineffectiveness of aid has shrunk aid budgets and turned public opinion against providing it. This edited collection containing pieces written by leading development specialists evaluates these emerging questions of allocation and efficiency. Development economists, policy makers, and development specialists will benefit from reading this work. Chapters examine the optimal and intertemporal allocation of aid, the role and accountability of NGOs in allocation, the importance of untying (a new perspective on low levels of aid), and links between the allocation pattern of donors. Additional chapters deal with the impact of aid on economic growth, democracy, wage inequality between skilled and unskilled labor, and the role of governance and institutional capacity in aid effectiveness. An effective balance between theoretical and empirical models is offered to better illustrate the issues involved.

Canada's thirty-four million people and trillion dollar GDP don't occupy much space on a planet of seven billion whose economy is now worth forty trillion dollars. The country is not a lightweight yet, but certainly its position as a power is shrinking. What does that mean for the country's foreign policy and its various players? What room is left, and for whom? In Canada Among Nations, 2007 a team of specialists explores the space that Canada currently occupies in the global policy landscape and considers the bureaucratic players who manage this "occupation." Looking at trade, the environment, development, defence, intellectual property rights, and, the biggest file of all, the United States, they examine the various games involved, from the relationship of the Prime Minister's Office with the foreign policy apparatus to the constraints imposed by Alberta's and Quebec's particular interests and takes on foreign policy. Contributors draw a subtle portrait: there are huge barriers, clearly, but most can be transcended and even leveraged. Much policy space remains and, with proper action, much more can be carved out.

An up-to-date analysis and assessment of the evolving relationship between Canada and the Commonwealth Caribbean, this volume focuses on three dynamic and important issues. By presenting a current picture of the Canadian-Caribbean relationship, the book not only fills a void in academic contributions to the topic but serves as an invaluable reference guide for policy analysts, non-governmental representatives and public and private decision-makers.