Canadian government should hike contribution to Global Financing Facility

By Letter to the Editor on October 3, 2018.

For too long our federal Liberal government has hidden the ugly fact of deeply inadequate aid funding behind sunny ways rhetoric, preferring parade snapshots of the prime minister instead of real changes from the ugly parsimony of the earlier administration.

Just recently the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publicly lambasted this government for having the worst assistance contribution of most developed nations despite a healthy economy, an aid budget less than half of what was promised years ago.

But it doesn’t have to be this way: The Global Financing Facility (GFF) was launched in 2015 with the goal of ending preventable maternal, newborn, and child deaths by 2030. It has proven a huge success in several developing countries, and is due for replenishment. Canada can truly “be back” on the world stage in a meaningful way by contributing significant new money to the replenishment of this critical fund.

Brian Poole

Saanich, B.C.