Canadian International Development Assistance Policies: An Appraisal

Graeme S. Mount is a history professor at Laurentian University and the
author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable Kingdom.

This collection of essays studies Canadian government foreign-aid policy
between 1977 and 1993. Pratt argues that in 1977 such Canadian interests
as foreign-policy objectives and promotion of exports became more
important to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) than
humanitarian assistance. Thirteen contributors provide chapters on such
topics as multilateral and bilateral aid; government-to-government aid;
and the work of nongovernment organizations assisted by CIDA. The
assertion that, at least until 1988, Canada was, among OECD donors,
second only to Austria as a practitioner of tied aid may come as a
revelation. Although food aid and human rights are addressed in the
book, the environment and emergency situations are not. Only specialists
in the field would want to read this book cover to cover, but crammed as
it is with facts and figures, it is an indispensable reference work.