Canada’s International Assistance to Latin American Countries: Trends and Results

Broad regional and country trends

Latin America and Caribbean is the third largest regional grouping, behind sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, for Canadian international assistance from all sources over the 2000-2010 period. The region accounts for around 11 percent of total Canadian assistance, and in relative terms the regional share has remained steady through the decade.

Total assistance to the region (including multi-country and inter-regional funding) in absolute terms has grown steadily from around CAD$ 260million at the start of the decade to over CAD$ 800million by 2010. Total country focused assistance (excluding multi-country/inter-regional funding) similarly grew from CAD$ 215million to CAD$ 570million.

Fig.1

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In keeping with the broader trend in Canadian assistance the majority of funding is provided via bilateral channels. However ‘multilateral’ aid is often understated as bilateral initiatives are often channeled through specialized multilateral institutions (such as the World Bank or World Food Programme).

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The majority of the increase in assistance to the region can be explained by the increase in aid to Haiti, by far the largest recipient in the region (and the largest Canadian recipient overall in 2009-10). This is particularly the case in response to the natural disasters including the 2010 earthquake but also hurricane related flooding in previous years.

Canadian assistance to the L. American region is highly concentrated. The region accounts for 6 of the CIDA 20 countries of focus announced in 2009 as part of Canada’s aid effectiveness strategy: Haiti, Bolivia, Honduras, Colombia, Peru, and the Caribbean (regional programme). These are also the largest Canadian assistance recipients in the region and together account for over 60 percent of total regional assistance (2009-10). Haiti’s share has grown from around 10 percent of regional assistance at the start of the decade to over 40 percent.

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For most other recipients the regional share has remained fairly steady and absolute volumes have tended to increase over time. The exceptions are Brazil, Jamaica, El Salvador and Ecuador which have seen declines in their regional shares.

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Departments and channels

The majority of Canadian assistance to the region as is to be expected is provided via CIDA. However other departments and agencies are also important, especially in recent years. CIDA accounts for around CAD$ 600million of the CAD$ 800million in total assistance to the region in 2009-10. However assistance provided by departments other than CIDA has grown rapidly in recent years from around CAD$ 100million in 2007-08 to over CAD$ 200million in 2009-10.

Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (CAD$ 72million), a sharp increase in funding provided through the Department of National Defense (CAD$ 40million), and the International Development Research Centre (CAD$ 35million) were the major non-CIDA channels in 2009-10. Other important departments include Finance Canada, Health Canada, Royal Canadian Mountain Police, and initiatives undertaken by Canadian provinces and municipalities.

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Within CIDA, geographic country and regional programs (CAD$ 266million) and the multilateral & global programs branch (CAD$ 272million, both initiative specific and core funding) account for the majority of assistance provided in 2009-10, with a similar trend through the decade.

A large share of CIDA project-based aid be it strictly bilateral or otherwise, is channeled through civil society organizations. The largest civil society organizations delivering CIDA assistance in L. America in 2009-10 were the Canadian Red Cross Society (approx. CAD$ 59million, including International Federation of the Red Cross appeals), Oxfam-Quebec (CAD$ 9million), CARE Canada (CAD$ 8million), World Vision Canada (CAD$ 7.5million), Save the Children Canada (CAD$ 7.2million) and CUSO-VSO (CAD$ 6.4million).

Sectors

Classifying development projects and complex interventions into individual sectors is not always straightforward. Individual projects and initiatives are often best represented in multiple but related sector categories (e.g. an individual project can easily encompass each of heath, health infrastructure, health governance, health education making it difficult to classify in any one group). Often such projects are coded partially, with percentage shares across related sub-categories.1 While it makes for the most accurate representation it can make tallying up sector totals difficult. Therefore the picture provided below should be interpreted with caution. It does not aim to be accurate to the dollar and cent but rather to provide a general landscape of the most important sectors for Canada’s assistance to Latin America.

Until 2009-10 the main sectors for CIDA funded projects2 in L. America were private sector development, democratic governance and health (improving health outcomes, encompassing a range of health related interventions). In 2009-10 emergency assistance, dominated by the earthquake response in Haiti, was by far the largest sector (approx. CAD$ 151million). In fact a number of projects classified in other sectors such as private sector development (e.g. road infrastructure rehabilitation) can in effect be seen as part of longer-term emergency response. CIDA emergency assistance to Haiti jumped from approx. CAD$ 15million (2008-09) to over CAD$ 140million (2009-10). Peru, Colombia and Chile together account for the vast share of the rest of emergency assistance in 2009-10.

Haiti is by far the largest recipient in almost all sectors (especially private sector development, and also health and democratic governance). Following Haiti, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador and Cuba have been important recipients of assistance aimed at private sector development (2006-10). Similarly Bolivia, Peru and Guatemala have been important recipients of assistance aimed at improving democratic governance; and Bolivia and Honduras have been important recipients of health sector assistance.

1 Another important consideration is that a large number of projects are coded “null” or contain no sector information at all in relevant donor databases. This is in fact the case for the majority of L. America focused projects (and quite likely other regions as well) for CIDA in years 2006 – 2009, with a sharp decline in 2009-10 commensurate with rise in “emergency assistance” in that year, primarily to Haiti. 2 Note: this (sector) information is only available for the CIDA funded share of aid projects and interventions. This accounts for the bulk of the CIDA portion (approx. CAD$ 588million of CAD$ 608million in 2009-10). Coverage is only available from 2006 to 2010.

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Canadian assistance to L. America channeled via multilateral institutions

Down at the CIDA project level a large share of CIDA funded projects and initiatives are channeled through multilateral institutions. This is because in most cases multilateral institutions have specialized expertise and country staff or offices that are better placed to deliver projects, even those that are otherwise classified as bilateral.

There are four important regionally oriented multilateral institutions that Canada channels assistance through to countries in L. America: the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Organization of American States (OAS). While these are not the largest multilateral institutions for Canadian assistance to the region all (except OAS) are in the top 10. The list below provides a general sense of the largest multilaterals Canada channeled assistance to L. America through in 2009-10. The World Food Programme, World Bank and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are the largest. In all approx. CAD$ 238million in projects were channeled through multilateral partners.3

Fig.54

The trend of Canadian assistance channeled via the four regionally focused multilaterals is also pointing upwards. Funding channeled both to (core) and through (responsive and directive) the IADB increased

3 Note: this number is different, and higher, than the bilateral/multilateral breakdown provided earlier because, as explained, much of what is classified as bilateral aid is in fact delivered either jointly or entirely via multilateral institutions. Using the above figure the CIDA multilateral share for L. America works out to around 40% (CAD$ 238mn of CAD588mn in total CIDA projects). 4 Amounts presented here are only the portion that translates into projects in the region and only CIDA projects. Any core funding etc is not included, which explains the difference with the amounts presented below (Fig.6) which are totals, including core funding etc.

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from CAD$ 6.6million to CAD$ 43million (2000 – 2010); Caribbean Development Bank CAD$ 1.9million to CAD$ 28million (2000 – 2010); PAHO CAD$ 5million to CAD$ 19million (2000-2010); OAS CAD$ 1mn to CAD$ 12mn. Canada is the second largest donor to the OAS and third largest to PAHO.

Fig.6

Private sector development, primarily infrastructure support was the most important sector for Canadian assistance via IADB (2006-10). Improving health, private sector development and strengthening basic education were the main sectors for Caribbean Development Bank (2006-10). Health, democratic governance and emergency assistance were the main sectors for PAHO (2006-10). Private sector development and democratic governance (for e.g. electoral monitoring) were the main sectors for OAS (2006-10).

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Results and evaluation

There are at least three official sources of evaluation information that help get at what results have been achieved with programming aimed at the region. These include CIDA’s Inter-American Regional Program page, the Evaluation of the America’s Strategy conducted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the CIDA results fields in projects database.

The Inter-American regional program focuses on issues that are regional in scope or need a regional approach such as increasing benefits from trade and controlling the spread of disease. It is part of the America’s Strategy and efforts to support inter-American institutions like PAHO and OAS. Stimulating sustainable economic growth and securing the future of children and youth are the two stated goals. Accomplishments include training in developing and implementing government energy policies, establishing funding mechanisms to install sustainable energy technology in indigenous communities to increase their productive capacity, modernizing of the criminal justice system and protection of human rights, and training health professionals and helping universities incorporate an Integrated Management of Childhood Illness strategy within their medicine and nursing faculties, leading to better health services and outcomes for children and youth.5

The Evaluation of the America’s Strategy was published in January 2011 by DFAIT. The key findings are that Canada has been successful in negotiating Free Trade Agreements in the Americas along with a number of important environment, labour, air and Science &Technology agreements. While progress has been made in the area of democratic governance the nature of the needs in the Americas requires much more effort if Canada wants to maintain its visibility in the region. Canada's influence in the region has grown considerably as a result of the increased diplomatic presence and strengthened bilateral and multilateral relations with key countries. In terms of weaknesses the lack of clarity on medium and long-term goals and objectives is one of the major challenges to effective implementation of the America’s Strategy. The current mechanism of coordination between DFAIT and other departments is not working as planned due to the lack of a forum to discuss prioritization across different departments. One of the weakest areas noted is communications; there is limited information on the strategy and priorities even within government departments. Growing international competition and changing influences in the region pose further challenges to the success of the strategy.6 Critics argue the strategy lacks focus and has resulted in a lack of credibility around the region, and that more effort is needed to help fragile states in Central America fight crime and drug cartels.7

Beginning in October 2011, and only for a limited selection of projects, CIDA has started making public information on results achieved and expected results. The latter part of this section uses publically available information on Haiti to discuss results achieved. While this is not comprehensive, given the dominance of Haiti in CIDA’s regional approach it does provide a sense of accomplishments.

5 CIDA’s Inter-American Regional Program http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/acdi-cida.nsf/eng/JUD-32712382-NPB 6 Evaluation of the Americas Strategyhttp://www.international.gc.ca/about-a_propos/oig-big/2011/evaluation/tas_lsa11.aspx?lang=eng&view=d#5_07 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/solid-americas-strategy-would-reap-big-rewards-for-canada/article2032365/

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Of the approx. CAD$330million in reported assistance to Haiti in 2009-10 from all Canadian sources, about CAD$250million translates into individual projects.8 This in turn translates into 208 individual projects and initiatives, including continuation or reorientation of past initiatives (such as from post-earthquake emergency assistance to governance, private sector development etc). In all assistance to Haiti was channeled through a little over 100 different organizations, including Canadian non-profits and civil society, Canadian for-profits (consultants), multilateral institutions, and directly though Haitian government institutions.

After emergency assistance, democratic governance and private sector development, followed by health, are the main sectors for Canadian assistance to Haiti. As mentioned results information, while being made public of late is necessarily patchy. A number of the largest projects are in fact delivered via multilateral institutions and are ongoing multi-year efforts for which results information is not available. Results information is available for only around CAD$25million or 10 percent of the year’s project funding to Haiti.

The largest project in 2009-10 for which concrete results are available is the restoration of semi-autonomous electricity supply in Les Cayes. Modernization of electrical facilities in Les Cayes has boosted the electricity billing rate significantly, from 44% to 61%. A 25% growth in electricity production at the Les Cayes power plant, along with a 50% increase at the hydroelectric plant in Saut Mathurine, has resulted in better-quality and more reliable services for users. Electricity availability has risen from 12 hours a day in January 2010 to 17 hours a day in Les Cayes and 2,300 users now have access to electricity. Electricity production capacity in Jacmel has been restored to 100%. The electricity centre in Jacmel is efficiently recovering its costs through the collection of user fees and is now semi-autonomous. In the areas of democratic governance and private sector development Canada has played a leading role in helping the central government begin modernizing its legal and administrative framework for land-use planning, local development and decentralization. Some 20 agricultural processing enterprises have been created in Saint-Michel-de-la-Attalaye, along with 80 direct and 1000 indirect jobs. The fishery sector in Bombardopolis has been strengthened through the formation of three associations of fishermen and merchants and the establishment of an input store. Sugar cane crops have rebounded in Gros Morne, as a result of the rehabilitation of several sugar cane mills and two secondary roads. In the health sector the Ministry of Public Health and Population has developed a human resources management policy (incorporating gender equality considerations) and a regulatory framework for basic and continuous training of Ministry staff. The project enabled the Ministry of Public Health and Population to implement a human resources information and management system using a database with information on the various categories of personnel in Haiti’s 10 provincial Health Departments. The State University of Haiti and the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy were able to offer an advanced graduate diploma in health services management. The Ministry of Public Health and Population now has

8 Assistance may take other forms for instance debt relief, refugee settlement costs or other imputed aid, or for instance may be channeled through departments other than CIDA, not all of which translate into individual projects. This explains the difference between the total and project level numbers. The largest other government departments for which project data is not included are Department of National Defense (approx. CAD$40million), RCMP (approx. CAD$12million), Finance Canada (including debt relief CAD$5.4million) in 2009-10.

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a fully operational management training program. To date, 25 students have received a Diploma in Health Services Management, and 16 students started their Masters degrees in Health Administration.

While this is invariably a selective sampling, it does provide a brief picture of what Canadian assistance has been funding and the sorts of results achieved.

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Annex

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