CIDA’s Land and Food-Security Policies : A Critical Review

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) allocates vast sums of money each year, providing vital assistance to countless individuals across the developing world. Yet many observers and insiders have sharply criticized CIDA for its lack of concrete results.

Presenting a range of work by scholars and practitioners, this collection offers the most comprehensive examination of CIDA’s efforts in over a decade. Contributors explore recent trends in Canadian foreign aid, including topics such as its place in Canadian politics, gender and security concerns, advocacy and public engagement, the complexity of CIDA policies, and CIDA’s relationship with non-governmental organizations. The perspectives assembled in Struggling for Effectiveness bring clarity to the issue of foreign aid while judiciously gauging Canada’s record and offering concrete suggestions for strengthening CIDA’s efforts to help people living in poverty.

Extensively researched and comprehensive in scope, Struggling for Effectiveness will be indispensable to anyone interested in Canadian assistance abroad and Canada’s place in a rapidly changing world.

Contributors include Stephen Baranyi (University of Ottawa), David Black (Dalhousie University), Elizabeth Blackwood (Simon Fraser University), Stephen Brown (University of Ottawa), Dominique Caouette (Université de Montréal), Adam Chapnick (Canadian Forces College), Denis Côté (Canadian Council for International Cooperation), Molly den Heyer (Dalhousie University), Nilima Gulrajani (Oxford University), Hunter McGill (University of Ottawa), Anca Paducel (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva), Rosalind Raddatz (University of Ottawa), Ian Smillie (independent scholar and consultant), Veronika Stewart (Simon Fraser University), and Liam Swiss (Memorial University of Newfoundland).

Stephen Brown is associate professor of political studies at the University of Ottawa.