On February 9th, the North-South Institute (NSI), in partnership with Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC), was pleased to unveil the 2011 Canadian Development Report (CDR). The event was part of International Development Week, which encourages Canadians to engage with Canada’s development community.
More than 200 people attended the launch of the report, Global Challenges: Multilateral Solutions. The report focuses attention on the multilateral aid system’s ability to address global challenges, as the landscape of world economic power shifts.
Margaret Biggs, President of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), delivered the opening keynote address, highlighting the changing face of the development community.
“This new ecosystem… will be an interaction among many different development actors,” said Ms. Biggs. “In my view, the future probably lies in… working for a common cause, on common objectives and shared principles.”
The 2011 CDR draws on NSI’s conference in June 2011, Multilateral Development Cooperation in a Changing Global Order, which broached the future of development cooperation. The report analyses the evolving aid landscape, proposes alternative models for development cooperation, and recommends reforms to the current system.
In his remarks, Joseph K. Ingram, President and CEO of the NSI, highlighted the importance of engaging emerging actors.
“It means taking into account the collective concerns of the key global stakeholders – the emerging economies, the low-income countries many of which are fragile, and potential threats to regional and global stability – as well as the so-called developed economies,” Mr. Ingram said.
The CDR – now in its fifteenth year – is the NSI’s flagship annual publication. It includes analysis and topical essays on international development, as well as a comprehensive statistical annex which provides important insights into Canada's relations with developing countries. AKFC has supported the national and international distribution of this year’s CDR.
Attendees also got a sneak peek of the Canadian International Development Platform (CIDP) – an online data platform hosted by the NSI. The CIDP gathers open-source data on Canada’s engagement with the developing world, not only in terms of development aid, but also on issues such as trade, investment, and migration. The CIDP aggregates and analyses the data, making it available to the public on an interactive web platform, which is due for official launch later this year.
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