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The supervising deputy foreign help said Canada must adopt a more effective and more visible approach to development and humanitarian assistance To argue to maintain aid spending as the United States withdraws.
“Those who remain the course must be more agile and must be more versatile,” said Randeep Sarai, Secretary of State for International Development, in his first major interview since his dispute.
Sarai has said that his main priorities in work are to ensure that Canadian aid dollars are spent effectively and give Canadians and helps beneficiaries of help a better idea where money is going.
“This does not mean that a bag of cereals must have a maple leaf on it,” he said. Although the brand image can play a role, said Sarai, the government can also disseminate its message via social media, awareness campaigns in recipient countries and perhaps through provincial manuals approved by the government.
“Canadians would be happier, and I think these beneficiaries have better value, better respect and better admiration for Canada and their aid,” he said. “It is therefore definitely a priority.”
Sarai said Canadians should know how their help helps work, for example, areas resistant to floods prone to natural disasters or offer farmers resilient climate cultures.
“A seed of potatoes from Prince Edward’s island to a remote part of the Philippines can take a family to barely support each other not only to eat, but also to pass their children to education,” he said.
Sarai worked as a lawyer in Surrey, British Columbia, before running at federal offices in the 2015 elections, when the Liberals of Justin Trudeau won a majority government. He became parliamentary secretary to veterans in the fall of 2023.
Although its current role is not at the level of a complete ministerial portfolio, it is responsible for supervising the Canada help budget and allows it to participate in certain firm meetings.
Ottawa spent 12 billion dollars on foreign aid during the financial year which ended in spring 2024, the last year entirely reported by Global Affairs Canada.
Half of basic foreign aid expenses, while $ 2.6 billion were intended for loans and development funding, mainly for Ukraine. $ 2.6 billion additional dollars went to services for refugees arriving in Canada, while others have largely gone to global projects such as United Nations humanitarian calls and preventive health projects.
Sarai said that knocking on the doors during the spring electoral campaign had convinced him that few Canadians know where their dollars are going.
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“This is my priority-how can I communicate and share this. And how can I get the best blow for your money, the most effective way to get our help for those who are most in need,” he said.
Sarai said Prime Minister Mark Carney told him “to cut administrative formalities” and to continue the continuous reform of global bureaucracy that she uses to finance development and humanitarian projects.
C charitable organizations have long said that the Canada help system is heavier than those of its peers, with abundant paperwork requirements that delay subsidies and freeze smaller aid groups.
The ministry said that it is trying to give clearer advice so that it can prevent aid from being used unscathed while allowing Canadian organizations to expand their scope by associating smaller basic groups.
Aid groups criticized Ottawa for having radically reduced development work in Afghanistan since the Taliban resumed the country in August 2021.
Several of Canada’s allies have issued general exemptions to the rules of terrorism financing to allow development workers to pay local staff without being accused of having financed terrorism thanks to the Taliban taxes on salaries.
Ottawa has rather opted for a complex license system that has been widely criticized.
Sarai said that his department is broader to ensure that Canadian organizations will be able to access Ottawa allocating to projects abroad.
Canadian non-profit organizations are preparing for worse since the United States began to reduce its aid budget.
On behalf of US President Donald Trump, billionaire Elon Musk has placed thousands of staff at the US agency for international development on paid leave and has frozen payments and assistance expeditions around the world.
Canadian non -profit organizations say that many of their projects have been carried out by systems exploited by USAID or United Nations agencies that were based on significant American funding.
The aid sector was still demoralized by the recent G7 summit, which Canada organized. The world leaders of the summit did not commit to important joint expenses to help populations with conflicts and hunger in places such as Sudan, Myanmar and the Palestinian territories.
Canada has promised G7 to spend $ 391.3 million “to catalyze private capital to develop economic and development in the world.” Ottawa has not yet said where and when funding is used.
The federal government also said that it had reserved “up to $ 544 million” in loans for “new development funding in Latin America and the Caribbean”.
During spring elections, Carney said he would not follow the example of the United States or certain European countries by reducing aid. He said that the Canada approach is “to be generous and to be effective in our support for those who are most vulnerable in the world”.
Sarai said Carney’s decision to maintain aid recognizes that diseases do not respect borders, that hunger and poverty lead to waves of refugees, and that countries receiving Canadian aid is more open to Canadian trade.
He said Carney’s message is likely that Canadian help needs “to be more agile, to be more creative, so we can do more with the same dollar amount”. The government has still not published a budget indicating whether the aid flow will remain stable or will see an increase or decrease.
Sarai is in Brussels this week for a promise top with Gavi, the Global Vaccine Alliance. Ottawa has not announced new funding for the summit alliance. He then went to Spain for a United Nations Conference on Development Financing with Private and Civil Society.
He expects to participate next month at the G20 meeting of development ministers in South Africa, and perhaps a summit in the Solomon Islands focused on climate change.
Sarai said his talks with ambassadors in Ottawa and that the dignitaries visited left him surprised by the depth and scope of the international reputation for Canada’s multilateralism.
“The world still sees Canada as in a very good day. We have no history that colonalizes other countries, “he said.
“We have already played important roles and we have to continue playing these roles.”
