June 19, 2012 - 4:25 PM
OTTAWA - A new report says Canada needs to reverse cuts to international aid and set out a clear vision for how it does overseas development.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development says a decade's worth of progress by Canada through doubling its aid spending could be reversed by the recent budget cut to overseas development.
The recent federal budget cut $380 million, or 7.5 per cent, from Canada's $5.3-billion annual aid budget.
The report urges Canada to adopt a plan to boost aid from its current 0.31 per cent of GDP to 0.7 per cent.
And it says that while Canada has done good things in Haiti and Afghanistan, it still lacks a "top-level" vision statement on development.
The six-month, peer-reviewed study of Canada's aid program was conducted by the OECD development assistance committee with the help of France and the Netherlands.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012