Canada aid readjustment affects LatAm

In a move that affects some Latin American countries, Canada’s government is planning to limit the number of nations that receive most of its foreign aid.

Currently Canadian foreign assistance is spread across 69 countries around the world. The plan presented yesterday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government would shift 80% of aid to twenty countries. (As of now, Canada splits its $1.5 billion in aid roughly in half between individual countries and international organizations).

The move appears to be most detrimental to Africa who would have the number of countries on the list of twenty reduced from fourteen to eight. According to the globeandmail.com, Latin America and the Caribbean seem to be the biggest beneficiaries of Harper’s new plan:

The new pared-down list signals that Mr. Harper will put aid money behind his pledge to make the Americas a foreign-policy priority - an area where his government wants to develop trade ties and a strategic alliance with the United States.

It bumps up five recipients from the hemisphere - Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Honduras, plus the Caribbean islands - which were not among the top 20 countries that received Canadian aid last year…

Bumping up the place of the Americas in aid will bring criticism, however. Aside from
Haiti, the second-largest recipient of Canadian bilateral aid after Afghanistan, most countries in the Americas are considered middle-income nations on the UN Human Development Index, while many African nations are far poorer.

Not every country in the Western Hemisphere will enjoy increased Canadian aid, however. Nicaragua and Guyana were on the previous list created by Harper’s predecessor but removed from the new one.

Image- CBC (Canadian P.M. Stephen Harper along with ex-presidents George W. Bush and Vicente Fox toured the ancient Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza during a 2006 summit).
Online Sources- CBC, globeandmail.com, TheStar.com