Foreign Aid

Probe International works to hold both Canadian and international aid agencies, export credit agencies to account for the environmental, social, and economic harm they cause in developing countries. While Probe believes that public support for foreign aid begins with honorable intentions, its inevitable effect is destructive. More than five decades of state to state aid has given Third World governments financial freedom from their own citizens, thereby undermining political accountability and institutions in those countries.

By bankrolling unaccountable governments against their own people, agencies such as the Canadian International Development Agency and the World Bank have caused environmental havoc, financial ruin and social harm throughout the Third World. Despite "pro-poor" and "pro-environment" rhetoric, such agencies have financed hydro projects, hazardous mining operations, as well as road-building and forestry schemes that have led to widespread environmental damage and impoverished communities. Through it all, these institutions have shown a blatant disregard for the democratic rights of the citizenry and property rights of the people most affected by the projects they finance.

In the pages that follow, we lay out the evidence of 60 years of failed aid.

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	Why foreign aid to Haiti failed 02/01/2006 Although it proudly lays claim as the second oldest republic in the Hemisphere, and the only nation whose slave population defeated a colonial power to become free,Haiti is, and has been, among the worst governed and most undemocratic states. Few places in the world, and no places in the Western Hemisphere, are poorer than Haiti.This paper2 explains why, after consuming billions in foreign aid over three decades, and hundreds of millions specifically for governance and democratization programs, not to mention billions for other programs, Haiti remains politically dysfunctional and impoverished.  read more »

	Probe International's brief to SCFAIT on Bill C-31 10/18/2001 All spin and no substance: Bill C-31 is a devious bill drafted to convince the public that EDC is doing something to protect the environment while, in fact, EDC is frustrating efforts to stop its environmentally-damaging activities.  read more »

	In the Name of Progress: The Underside of Foreign Aid In clear, uncompromising language the book explains where progress went wrong and the remedies needed to prevent foreign aid from doing more of the same in the future.  read more »

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