How Misinformation Is Threatening America’s Biggest Foreign Aid Success

Mark Dybul knows the ins and outs of PEPFAR, America’s long-running effort to fight AIDS in Africa, intimately. As a staffer at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, he was one of only two non-White House experts to help draw up the original outline of the program early in the George W. Bush administration. From 2006 to 2009, he served as the program’s chief as U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator.

Now two decades old, the program is credited with saving more than 25 million lives. Dybul, however, is worried it may not continue much longer, as misinformation peddled by opponents of abortion rights threatens congressional authorization of the program. 

Trudeau calls UN goal to boost aid spending ‘too ambitious’

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — whose rookie government likes to boast “Canada is back” — is scaling back Canada’s support of a key UN goal to boost international aid spending, calling it “too ambitious.”

In an exclusive interview with the Star just hours after he pledged a new unbudgeted $785 million boost to Canada’s contribution to the global fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, Trudeau acknowledged Ottawa has no intention of meeting the international goal to spend .70 per cent of gross domestic product on foreign aid anytime soon.

Netanyahu, Seeking $5 Billion a Year From U.S., Hires Man Who Called Obama a Muslim Hate Sympathizer

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed West Bank squatter Ran Baratz to be his director of communications on the eve of his procession Monday to Washington to demand a vast increase in annual US aid to Israel, which includes civilian as well as military grants of some $3 bn. a year.  Netanyahu wants $5 bn. now, or $50 billion over the next ten years.

One wouldn’t even complain about this aid if Israel weren’t using it in part to occupy the stateless Palestinians.  But it is worth noting that the US doesn’t give such sums to NATO allies like France or Britain or even Turkey.  Israel is a wealthy country.  It already receives special access to the US market and technology.  But there is no point in complaining about this tax on American households for Netanyahu’s brutal policies toward Palestinians.  As long as Congress is bought and sold, this sort of thing will continue inexorably.  In fact, in the terms of Washington debate, it cannot even be brought up as an issue.  It is after all a minor piece of corruption, in a political system that is among the more corrupt in the world.

Obama Administration Is Cutting Aid to the Palestinians by $80 million

The State Department has notified Congress of its intention to reduce economic aid for the West Bank and Gaza Strip from $370 million to $290 million in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to the website Al-Monitor. As violence in the region escalates, congressional sources describe the move as a “message” to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

From Al-Monitor:

The news of the 22% cut from the department’s initial request follows mounting criticism from Congress about Palestinian “incitement” in the rash of stabbing attacks that have left at least 10 Israeli civilians dead over the past three weeks.

“We need to dial up pressure on Palestinian officials to repudiate this violence,” said Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

UN Text Messages Over 200,000 Syrian Refugees: Food Aid To Be Cut Off

More than 200,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan learned via text message that the U.N. food aid they rely on to survive is getting completely cut.

The World Food Program has been warning since as early as last summer that a funding crisis has stretched the organization thin, and has caused the group to cut back on resources it can offer Syrian refugees in Jordan. But refugees say the latest announcement caught them completely off guard.

Canada's foreign aid commitment to contraception low despite great need

There are many things Margaret Simon lacks in her job as a health professional. First, there's no running water at the hospital where she works in Tanzania. She could also use a proper light in the exam room, so minor procedures could be done there rather than having to squeeze into the operating theatre between surgeries.

But she also needs a more reliable supply of contraceptives. Specifically, Depo Provera, which she says her patients prefer because they can take it even if their husbands don't approve of birth control.

Federal Budget 2015: Aid Agencies Urge Foreign Aid Increase

OTTAWA - Canadian aid agencies are fearful that after five years of cuts and freezes, Tuesday's federal budget will fail to reverse the country's continuing decline in foreign aid spending.

Their fingers may be crossed, but any hope they might have is being trumped by politics and math.

They realize an increase in aid spending is unlikely, because foreign aid isn't known as a vote-getter in an election year.

Canadian Foreign Aid Spending Among Lowest Of OECD Countries

OTTAWA - Canada ranked in the lower half of the pack in a world survey of foreign aid spending released Wednesday.

The annual ranking by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said Canada's aid spending dropped to 0.24 per cent of GDP in 2014, down from 0.27 per cent the previous year.

That's well below the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent of GDP, a goal that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged all OECD countries to meet when he shared a podium with Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year in Toronto.

ISIL Mission Not Expanding When It Comes To Aid

OTTAWA - There will be no new Middle East aid packages unveiled to accompany the proposed expansion of Canada's military mission against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, government officials said Wednesday.

Instead, Defence Minister Jason Kenney pointed to some $67.4 million already earmarked for relief efforts in Iraq, plus several hundred million more spent in Syria, as proof of Canada's humanitarian and development commitment.

"We really are a leader," Kenney said. "We'd like to see other countries step up to our level."

Harper Government, PBO Clash Over Foreign Aid Report

OTTAWA - The parliamentary budget office is defending itself from a government attack on its latest report on Canada's plunging overseas development spending.

The Foreign Affairs Department accused the parliamentary budget watchdog of relying on "inaccurate financial information" in a report that said spending on poverty reduction shrank 23 per cent in the first six months of the last fiscal year.

Canada's Foreign Aid Spending To Hit Record Lows: PBO

OTTAWA - The parliamentary budget officer says Canadian foreign aid spending is set to plunge to record lows in the coming years, prompting pleas to the Harper government to halt the slide.

The PBO report, issued earlier this month, offers a contrast to the high-profile big-ticket aid projects touted by the Harper government, including its multibillion-dollar commitment to the health of children and mothers in poor countries.

The report says that in the first six months of the last fiscal year, spending on poverty reduction shrank 23 per cent.

Foreign Affairs Lets $125M In Aid To Poor Countries Lapse

OTTAWA - Almost 14 per cent of the money that Canada's newly amalgamated Foreign Affairs Department planned to spend alleviating poverty in poor countries in the last year has been returned, unspent, to the Finance Department.

Foreign Affairs managed to spend just shy of $792 million on aid to low-income countries in 2013-14, but had $917 million available, leaving more than $125 million in lapsed funding.

Austerity protestors barricade Cabinet Ministers' office with canned food

Yesterday morning six young people used approximately 300 cans of donated food to barricade the entrance to the Conservative Cabinet Ministers' regional office. The action was taken in protest of the federal budget which failed to meaningfully address economic inequality. The gap between rich and poor is now accelerating at a rate higher than it is in the United States, forcing 23 per cent more people to rely on food banks than in 2008 and leaving 4 million Canadians without adequate access to healthy food. The majority of the protestors were 35 and under, a demographic that is experiencing an unemployment rate nearly double the national average.

Christian Paradis: Foreign Aid Efforts Will Avoid Budget Cuts

OTTAWA - Foreign aid advocates are fearful the Conservative government is planning to make even deeper cuts to foreign aid in next week's budget.

A coalition of non-governmental organizations, including the Canadian chapter of Engineers Without Borders and the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, has launched an online petition urging the government to spare foreign aid from the chopping block.

Hundreds of millions in foreign aid unspent last year, federal records confirm

OTTAWA — The Harper government is being accused of failing the world’s poor after federal financial documents confirmed that nearly $300 million earmarked for foreign aid went unspent last year.

That represents nearly 10 per cent of $3.1 billion that was supposed to have been distributed by the former Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to fight poverty in the developing world, and is on top of other cuts already being implemented.

In contrast, $25 million went unspent in 2011 and only $2 million in 2010.

The rape victims Canada won’t help

Last week, not long after Foreign Minister John Baird denounced sexual violence in a speech at the United Nations, the Conservative government announced it would not fund overseas projects that help war rape victims and child brides get abortions. The policy, announced by International Development Minister Christian Paradis, flew under the radar, virtually causing no ripples.

The government is absolutely within its rights to decide who gets its aid dollars, but decisions have consequences, and it is important to shine the spotlight on the kind of people our government has decided it is not in our interest to help.

These are essentially victims of sexual violence, and their numbers beggar belief. The World Health Organization estimated that in 2002 alone, 150 million girls and 73 million boys experienced “forced sexual intercourse” or other forms of sexual violence across the globe.

Here's What The Egyptian Military Has Been Buying With Your Tax Dollars

WASHINGTON -- As the number of civilian protesters killed in clashes with Egyptian military forces continued to climb this week, members of Congress began to question the $1.3 billion dollars a year in U.S. foreign aid the Egyptian military receives every year.

On Sunday, both Democrats and Republicans said the deaths of hundreds of supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi were unacceptable. "We need to exercise our influence by saying we're going to [suspend aid] until you restore democracy,” said New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Aid-for-Leverage Failed in Pakistan—It Won't Work in Egypt

As the Egyptian army continued its violent crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood this week, White House officials said that the United States can't cut off its $1.3 billion a year in aid to Egypt. To do so would cause Washington to lose "influence" with the country's generals. Vital American security interests are at stake, they argued, and keeping the torrent of American aid flowing gives Washington leverage.

If that argument sounds familiar, it is. For the last decade, the United States has used the same logic in Pakistan. Washington has given $11 billion in military aid to the Pakistani army in the name of maintaining American "influence" in Islamabad. From new equipment to reimbursements for Pakistani military operations, the money flowed year after year, despite complaints from American officials that the Pakistanis were misusing funds and inflating bills.

Canadian foreign aid: Clever politics, poor statesmanship

Canada, like all civilized countries, needs a stable world to nourish its prosperity and civility. International turmoil drains governments of opportunities to improve the lives of their citizens. This is why intelligent, prosperous governments invest in development in less fortunate parts of the world.

When I was chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, Conservative and Liberal members alike were adamant that Canada needed the military strength to both defend itself and contribute to maintaining international stability. But we also published reports arguing for an increased foreign aid budget. While wars sometimes have to be fought, they are incredibly costly in both blood and treasure. Which is why investing taxpayers’ dollars in ameliorating the conditions that breed conflict is so important.

As the UN pleads for aid for Syria, Canadians should help

Syria’s agony knows no end. After two years of civil war, one of the Arab world’s great countries has been shattered. More than 70,000 people are dead. Some 8 million people, a third of the population, need aid. Millions have fled their homes. And the conflict shows every sign of growing worse.

President Bashar Assad’s vile regime is fighting with every weapon it has, from tanks and rockets to ethnic cleansing. He is supported by imported Hezbollah militants sponsored by Iran. The fractious opposition Syrian National Coalition, in turn, relies on Islamist fighters with affinities to Al Qaeda. Both sides have committed war crimes. Meanwhile, the European Union has just given its blessing to shipping weapons to the opposition. And, ominously, Russia is supplying Assad with sophisticated S-300 missiles.