ONE Reacts to Canada FY 2015 Budget

Ottawa, Canada – ONE applauds Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Joe Oliver for maintaining current levels of funding for foreign aid in the 2015 budget.

Stuart Hickox, ONE’s Canada Director, said:

At just around .24% of GDP, Canadian foreign aid is achieving real results in the lives of people living in the poorest places. From providing life-saving vaccines and treatment for deadly diseases to investing in agriculture and farming to fight poverty and hunger, it is making a massive difference and demonstrating leadership in the world that Canadians are proud of. Just this week, Engineers Without Borders released a new poll that showed that 94% of Canadians think foreign aid investments reflect our values and are important.

With that said, Canada’s spending on international development has been frozen for some time. The United Nations goal of .7% of national income being used for foreign assistance was pioneered by Canada in the 1960s. It is ONE’s hope that reaching the target of .7% remains a serious goal for the government.

Additionally, ONE noted with interest the establishment in Budget 2015 of a new development finance initiative and welcomed the openness to new forms of innovative development financing in an evolving world. Such initiatives need to complement a continued robust support for foreign aid in order to be effective.