Canadian aid to sub-Saharan Africa, however, has declined at a far greater rate during this period. These sobering facts were brought home to participants at a public meeting organized by Partnership Africa Canada and Alternatives in Ottawa on November 5, 1998. The meeting addressed issues surrounding Canadian responses to crises in African countries.
Canadian aid remains much valued and respected.
However, most people would argue that its decline must be significantly reversed if Canada is going to continue to play a leading role in helping to meet the new challenges faced by African countries. An Orientation to Canadian Development Cooperation with Sub-Saharan Africa Achieving progress in ending poverty will only result from bringing the cumulative impact of all our policies to bear on creating opportunity for those who have been marginalized by globalization and domestic economic and social structures. Hence we cannot speak about aid alone. In our view, the results of aid in development cooperation should be measured as much by the standards and values it brings to the ensemble of foreign policies, as by the efficacy of its programs on the ground. Aid is clearly important as the primary external resource flow for many Sub-Saharan African countries.