Overview

Canada's Commitment
Looking Ahead

The Canadian government, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), has been providing development and humanitarian assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean region for more than thirty years.

In July 2007, Prime Minister Harper announced that "Canada is committed to playing a bigger role in the Americas". He said: "Three key objectives form the basis of our new Government's re-engagement in the Americas: to promote basic democratic values, to strengthen economic linkages and to meet new security challenges."

The past decade has brought dramatic change to the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Most have democratically elected governments. Volunteer and community-based organizations are active participants in national and regional development. Almost all countries have moved from state-run, protectionist economies to a more liberalized, free-market approach. The region is tremendously diverse, encompassing some of the world's most destitute nations, such as Haiti and some of the world's industrial powers, such as Brazil.

Despite the region's recent progress, poverty and inequality remain the primary development challenges. The greatest income gap in the world is found in the Americas: the bottom 20 percent of the population earns 5 percent of the national income, while the top 20 percent earns 50 percent. Over 225 million people live in poverty, with children, women, rural populations, and indigenous and black communities most affected. Unequal access to health care, education, and productive assets like land and capital, perpetuate this imbalance. The region also experiences a high level of volatility: political instability, rising crime and violence, environmental deterioration, climatic variability, and economic fluctuations all worsen poverty, inequity, and social tensions.

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Canada's Commitment

CIDA's support to the region focuses on reducing poverty and inequity.

CIDA is working with a wide variety of partners to:

• strengthen governance, democratization, the rule of law, and human rights;
• improve access to basic health care and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS;
• achieve universal primary education by 2015;
• create an enabling environment for private sector development;
• promote environmental sustainability; and
• increase equality between women and men.

Some examples:

In Peru, CIDA helped establish the national Ombudsman's Office and is now reinforcing its management and technical capacity to monitor the rule of law, promote and protect human rights, and foster alternative conflict resolution. This is helping improve the quality, effectiveness, and accessibility of services centrally and at the Ombudsman's regional offices.

In Bolivia, CIDA is strengthening the institutions responsible for monitoring and regulating the oil and gas sector, a key driver of economic growth in this country. The project provides technical assistance and training to improve industry standards and regulations. The project also strengthens revenue management and collection, and increases the domestic use and export of natural gas.

On the north coast of Honduras, CIDA is supporting the provision of safe water and sanitation facilities, hygiene and health education, and protection of micro-watershed areas for 16,000 people. The project is also helping municipalities to manage these services themselves in a financially viable manner.

In Haiti, CIDA is helping create or strengthen 60 savings and credit unions to revitalize Haiti's cooperative movement. This project should help to reduce unemployment and promote investment.

In Cuba, CIDA is strengthening the competitiveness of the local labour force by retraining and providing internationally recognized certification to Cuban electricians, machinists, millwrights, and instrumentation workers. This will encourage joint ventures between Cuban and foreign firms, creating jobs and income in Cuba.

In Colombia, CIDA is working with communities to reach out to youth at risk of joining the armed conflict, and providing these young people with other options. Schools are working with youth and their families to reduce violence and promote peace.

Among the small island states of the Eastern Caribbean and in Guyana, CIDA is helping governments introduce fiscal reforms and improve expenditure management systems. This will help them adjust to increased competition under regional, hemispheric, and global trade liberalization. CIDA is also helping build the Caribbean region's capacity to develop sound trade policies that will protect their future economic interests and help them to participate in important trade negotiations.

At the inter-American level, CIDA is supporting the reform of the criminal justice system in several Latin American countries. Canadian jurists will share best practices and encourage innovative approaches in solving problems.

The heads of state and government at the Québec Summit in 2001 recognized that the unique cultures, histories, and demographic, socio-economic and political circumstances of indigenous peoples in the Americas require special measures to assist them in reaching their full human potential. CIDA has established a four-year pilot Indigenous Peoples Partnership Program to advance the rights of the 45 million indigenous peoples of the Americas.

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Looking Ahead

CIDA's strategy for the Americas envisages a program that is more geographically concentrated, with greater sectoral focus, and emphasizes governance, broad-based economic growth, and social development (children, health, and education). CIDA is refocusing its development assistance in the Caribbean to strengthen democratic governance, economic renewal, and human capital formation in the region. CIDA will continue to work in fragile states such as Haiti, the largest recipient of Canadian assistance in the region, and review its maturing programs in countries such as Chile in order to move beyond the aid relationship and into partnerships for learning.

CIDA will support regional and sub-regional institutions and will follow up on commitments made in the Summit of the Americas process. In view of the growing need for all aspects of Canada's foreign policy-development, immigration, trade, defence-to complement one another, CIDA will also continue to deepen its working relationships with federal, provincial, and municipal government departments.