Mr. Speaker, Global Affairs Canada delivers international assistance programming aligned with the Feminist International Assistance Policy through a diverse portfolio of bilateral and multilateral projects. These initiatives aim to advance gender equality while achieving sustainable development outcomes across sectors such as health, education, and humanitarian assistance.
Furthermore, Global Affairs Canada and its partners manage risks associated with all development projects. For example, fiduciary risks are managed via Global Affairs Canada’s Fiduciary Risk Evaluation Tool, while context-specific non-fiduciary risks are managed in coordination with implementing partners. In both cases, this requires identifying specific risks, assessing their likelihood of happening and potential impacts, identifying appropriate responses to those risks, and monitoring their evolution in order to avoid negative effects on project implementation. Global Affairs Canada’s new grants and contributions integrated management system will include a dedicated component to enhance risk management across all grants and contributions.
Next, Global Affairs Canada does not use a standard set of results indicators across all projects. Each development project funded by Global Affairs Canada must include a tailored, context-specific logic model and performance measurement framework. These frameworks use indicators that will also align with government priorities, such as the Feminist International Assistance Policy. This requirement applies to more than 2,000 development projects active at any given time, with larger projects using on average 40 indicators.
For example, in a typical health project, effectiveness is measured using quantitative and qualitative indicators such as quality of care, thenumber of people accessing essential health services, such as maternal health, family planning and nutrition, as well as the use of supplements like vitamin A, iron, and folic acid. These indicators help track improvements in health service delivery.
Moreover, the Office of the Auditor General’s 2023 report on the Implementation of the Feminist International Assistance Policy recommended that Global Affairs Canada measure both outputs and outcomes so that the department fully reports on the impact of funding against policy goals and priorities. Global Affairs Canada is committed to implementing improved solutions to address this recommendation, completing several actions to that effect. For example, the department refocused the International Assistance Report to Parliament to report on Feminist International Assistance Policy, policy-level outcomes. In addition, Global Affairs Canada’s new grants and contributions integrated management system will support results reporting and information management needs.
Moreover, the Department undertook an extensive preliminary search in order to determine the amount of information that would fall within the scope of the question and the amount of time that would be required to prepare a comprehensive response. The level of detail of the information requested is not systematically tracked in a centralized database. The Department concluded that producing and validating a comprehensive response to this question would require a manual collection of information that is not possible in the time allotted and could lead to the disclosure of incomplete and misleading information.
Due to the broad scope and volume of the data requested, and the time required to compile it in the format requested, Global Affairs Canada refers the member to a few publicly available resources for project-level information.:
First is a downloadable dataset that includes comprehensive historical data on international assistance projects funded by Canada since 2005, including those aligned with Feminist International Assistance Policy since 2017. It can be found at https://www.international.gc.ca/transparency-transparence/international-assistance-report-stat-rapport-aide-internationale/index.aspx?lang=eng.
Next is DevData, a data visualization platform that offers dashboards, charts, and maps to explore Canada’s international assistance by theme, country, and policy priority, including gender equality. It can be found at https://www.international.gc.ca/transparency-transparence/international-assistance-report-stat-rapport-aide-internationale/dashboard-tableau-bord.aspx?lang=eng.
Lastly, there is Project Browser, an interactive tool that allows users to search, filter, and export information on active and completed projects by year, country, partner, and sector. It can be found at https://w05.international.gc.ca/projectbrowser-banqueprojets/.
These platforms provide transparent and accessible means to explore project-level data, in line with Canada’s commitment to aid transparency, accountability, and open government.