3Click: Canada

Readers of this blog will know that I am a fan of Stephen Lewis. Here, Stephen does what he does best - takes a country to task for it's track record and continued waffling on a firm commitment. That country? His and mine - Canada.

U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis on Friday told a meeting of the Public Service Alliance of Canada that it is "shameful" that Canada and other Western countries have not pledged to set a target date to commit 0.7% of gross national income to foreign aid, including aid to combat HIV/AIDS, the CP/Edmonton Journal reports. Lewis said foreign aid from Western countries "isn't keeping up with the AIDS crisis in Africa" and is a "major barrier" to distributing antiretroviral drugs in affected countries, according to the CP/Journal. The United Kingdom and Spain have pledged to meet the 0.7% funding goal by 2013 and France plans to meet the goal by 2011, according to Lewis. However, Canada, the United States and Japan have not committed to target dates. Lewis, who is Canadian, said Canada should commit to a date of 2015 or sooner (CP/Edmonton Journal, 6/4). Speaking to the Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists on Saturday, Lewis said Canada's pledge of $100 million for HIV/AIDS treatment and its doubling of its contribution to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are "laudable," but the country's foreign aid budget still is "woefully inadequate" and is a "black eye" for the country internationally, according to the Edmonton Journal. Lewis said that because of budgetary surpluses in Canada, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's refusal to set a target date to achieve 0.7% in foreign aid "makes no sense" and could be "undermining other good work the country is doing on the world stage, particularly in the fight against AIDS" (Jeffs, Edmonton Journal, 6/5).

(From Kaiser Network.org)

Why Ralph?

Meet Ralph Goodale, Canada's Minister of Finance. As the one in charge of the budget, Ralph has a lot of say over how the government spends federal dollars. He is widely considered tightfisted - keeping a tight grip on money for new much-needed social programs, and using billions in extra tax dollars for corporate tax cuts and for paying down our long-term debt.

It's time for Ralph to get a wake-up call from Canadians. We need to convince him to shift priorities and put the eradication of poverty at the top of his list, not at the bottom.

And he will listen. Why? Ralph is concerned about more than hoarding Canada's pennies. We know he shares Paul Martin's idea that Canada has a responsibility to help the rest of the world.

How do we know?

Here's what Ralph said to the Diplomatic Forum last year in Saskatchewan:

"Canada should do its share to bring the world's poor out of the vicious circle of debt and into the virtuous circle of sustainable and continuous economic growth."

And here's what he said last fall to the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund:

"We are at a critical juncture. Given the long lead times between program and project approvals and their impact on reducing poverty, we need to increase our efforts now in order to ensure that we meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 � Little more than a decade remains until 2015. Scrutiny of our actions and policies will only increase as we come closer to the deadline for meeting the MDGs."

Ralph co-authored an important report that was released last month: the Blair Commission for Africa received wide support for its focus on ending poverty in Africa. It courageously calls for debt cancellation for the poorest countries in Africa, and for donor countries to achieve the accepted target of allocating 0.7% of their national income to help poor countries.

So we believe that Ralph knows what to do. He's been talking about it to audiences around the world. Now he needs to get the message - and fast - that his actions are indeed under scrutiny. And they are falling short.

Click here to check out some suggested text for your email, then click here to send it. Send Ralph a message reminding him to take the lead in ensuring Canada lives up to its promises to do more to fight poverty.

UPDATE: If you email Ralph and are so inclined, perhaps you could leave us a comment... just to encourage others to get in on the fun. Thanks.