Canadian International Policies - Essay Example

Introduction The main aim of Canadian government is to combat global poverty. It is one of the developed countries and it has realized that it has anobligation to ensure that every country has economic, social and political stability. "A role of Pride and Influence in the world: Development" (Aileen Carroll international cooperation minister) was the international policy statement in Canada 2005 (CIDA). Economic development can be defined as efforts of seeking ways to improve the economic well-being and quality of life for a community by creating and retaining jobs and supporting or growing income and the tax base. Development, according to Canada, can be achieved by ensuring that the millennium development goals (MDGs) are realized by the developing countries. Poverty and how to reduce it has been a concern from the time of Adam Smith until today. My view is that poverty can not be eradicated; it can only be reduced to certain levels. To ensure that all countries globally are developed is ideal. Comments on the International Policy Statement The plan of the Canadian government, being one of the developed countries, is to aid the developing countries to eradicate poverty. There has been great improvement in human development through the implementations of the MDGs. A significant number of people are living on more than a dollar a day for example, the number of people who lived below a dollar a day decreased by 50% in East Asia and reduced by 7% in South Asia ( Canada International Development Agency). Prevalence of hunger has reduced by half in 57 countries in the last three decades. I believe that if MDGs are followed, the world will have fewer people suffering due to poverty and diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. Canada, joining other developed countries in fighting poverty, is a way of enhancing decency and fairness all over the world. With the MDGs implementations, literacy levels have been seen to increase. A majority of the women and young girls have attained basic education. Women play a vital role in developing a nation. Thus the high literacy levels show that developing countries will start experience high Gross National Product or Gross Domestic Product (GNP/GDP) as long as the women and girls are gaining from the education. Criticisms Regarding the International Policy Statement Trying to eradicate poverty globally has many obstacles. From the time of Adam Smith, economic, social and political policies have been a major source of concern. First of all, giving donor aid to the developing countries has been nothing but a failure since it started. There is no single developing country that has come up by being given grants and loans. The developing countries have had a challenge of repaying the money given to them by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank due to increasing interest rates and low or negative GDP levels. They are unable to pay the money because: The money is never used for its aimed purpose. The money usually lands in the hands of politicians who use the money for their own self interests and most countries cannot account for it. There is so much corruption in the leadership of the countries. Money does not trickle down to those who truly need it because the leaders take it and use it for their own personal needs. The money is given with strict conditions. The country in need ends up spending money to improve what the donors think they should improve and not what the people really need. For instance, a country will be told to prepare roads to enhance its transport system but what it really needs are boreholes to get water for its citizen's daily use. The money never trickles down to the citizens of the particular country. This is so because the donor country comes in with its machinery and workers leaving citizens of that particular country unemployed. The donor country ends up paying its own citizens instead of using workers and machinery in the developing country. Aid heightens the levels of dependency. The developing countries are economically and politically dependent on developed countries (international dependence theory). They rely fully on the developed countries. They can not make there own decisions partaking their development strategies. They simply do what they are asked to do by the developed countries because they feel like they do not have power over them. The debt crisis is another barrier. Developing countries are buried in repaying loans that they acquire from the IMF and the World Bank. Any revenue made goes straight to repaying loans making their annual budgets have constant deficit. More so, they also keep borrowing to sustain their annual budgets forgetting that the more they ask for the more the interest rates and debt to repay. Secondly, international trade policies are biased. They do not create markets for goods for the developing countries. They have very many regulations regarding technology that the countries can not meet. They ask the developing countries to use machinery that they cannot afford if not, they categories the goods as not having the best standards. They are highly taxed thus making there products expensive. The goods then become less competitive and the developing countries go at a loss. This shows that it is very difficult for global citizenship to be reached or acquired. Thirdly, with the current situation where food and oil prices are increasing it is seemingly becoming harder to fight poverty. All developed countries and developing countries are experiencing inflation. Revenues have gone down making it hard for all developed and developing countries. Oil prices have not been stable lately thus making energy costs increase leading to increase in prices of goods and services. All countries are now concentrating on coming up with alternative methods of fuels. Fourthly, differential in culture is a great barrier to the Canadian government aim of global development. It is hard to change beliefs and way of life of people. It is difficult to convince individuals that the MDGs are the best for them if it means doing away with there culture. Lastly, environmental degradation is increasing with time. Goods that bring about marginal social cost (diseases related to air pollution like asthma and lung cancer) have low production costs thus produced by most industries. Production costs for goods that bring about marginal social benefits are too high thus their production is ignored. These has led to environmental degradation causing green house effect, loss of regular rainfall and changes in temperature levels that affect crop yield. Suggestions Regarding the International Policy Statement Give the developing countries a chance to air there views when it comes to international trade policy issues. It will give them a chance to explain the issues that they are facing thus give suggestions on how they would like there goods to be treated and given a priority in the international market. Create a market for all goods globally. It can be done by bringing about the free market policy where there are no interferences in the market. Some economists, (Milton Friedman and other Laissez-faire economists), suggest that there is a direct relationship between economic growth and economic freedom. An individual pursuing his own self-interest tends to promote the good of his community- principle of invisible hand (Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations). He goes on to emphasize that if an individual maximizes his or her own revenue they also maximize revenue for the whole society. Fight environmental degradation by trying to promote production of goods that increase marginal social benefits. It can be done globally by negotiating globally on property rights by trying to reduce pollution caused by one country that affects another country. It is possible to reach at an optimal solution through bargaining as long as the negotiation costs are negligible (Coase., Paper; The Problem of Social Cost). Instead of offering donor aid to the developing countries, investment must be the first priority. Companies should be encouraged to invest in developing countries. This will bring about employment opportunities in the developing countries. If employment increases there will accessibility to income that will enable individuals to have purchasing power of medical services (reducing mortality rate). There will be control of diseases like HIV/AIDS because immoral means of acquiring income (prostitution) will reduce. Try to understand a people's culture so as to come up with ways of establishing the MDGs using their culture. It will bring better understanding of the MDGs by the people. It is much easier to capture the people and implement the goals by using the people's culture. Ensure that the right people have access to aid. It can be done by ignoring the poor governance of the countries by publicly not supporting them. For countries that are members of the UN, such leaders should be banned from attending the meetings unless they step down. Any corrupt leader should be banned from traveling unless they agree to step down and these should be done by all countries. Giving aid and investing in countries that allow democracy to be practiced. Countries that will give an ear to its people should be supported by encouraging investments and donors to aid the poor. The aim should be to teach people who are truly affected by poverty on how to depend on themselves. It could be done by teaching them on how to invest and not just giving them money to sustain them. Donor aid's aim must be opening schools that train on technical courses. This will also encourage technological transfer because the schools will have educational ways of the developed countries. Donor aid must also aim at giving scholarships to the poor students whose potential can be seen. It can open a university that aims at only educating children from poor backgrounds. Privatization of most government business should be encouraged. This will lead to better organizational structures as competition will be encouraged. It will ensure better distribution of resources within regions because favoritisms will be minimized. How Canada should implement Development Globally Canada is facing a huge obstacle of dispersion limiting it to be effective in enhancing global development (CIDA). The sheer number of programs and countries receiving aid form Canada makes it difficult for the Canadian government to clearly establish its presence in one country as a means of ensuring that aid is being used effectively. For this reason, it has to at least come up with ways to ensure that it does not lose its economies of scale in small-scale projects. It has to join up with other developed countries in supporting particular projects as one but not as an individual country. It should bring partnership with Canadians in order to project a clearer image of Canada to the world as an innovative, dynamic, diverse and globally engaged nation. This will help retool and revitalize the multilateral system's ability to address global issues such as climate change, over fishing, poverty and disease. It can help bring up development through ensuring that there is peace in developing countries and human security. Canada will realize this goal through the Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force (START) established in Foreign Affairs to give Canada a rapid reaction capacity to respond to crises. It is not wise to just donate money for the projects. The Canadian government must use strategies of funding but ensuring that they encourage the people being funded to rely on themselves (teaching people how to fish so that you can stop fishing for them). By ensuring that the projects are successful, the Canadian Government will then demand a small percentage of the profits made by the implementation of these projects, thereby, making the individuals ensure that the projects are carried out in the manner specified so that debt may be repaid. When the debt payment is complete, it will leave the individuals relying on themselves and the Canadian government will also have some return to use within Canada. Indeed, the practice of giving without receiving any returns is not economical. By the Canadian government supporting SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), the developing countries can improve their economical situation. The SMEs have played a very big role in the economy of developed countries such as the UK (Curran, 1999). The SMEs have offered employment opportunities to many thus increasing the tax base of the nation leading to high levels of GDP. Funds should be given to support such business. They should be given to ensure better business. Creation of international markets for them will be useful too. To merge some of these companies with the big companies will create a market for the goods and these will lead to increase in profits thus increase in income for the workers thus the vicious circle of poverty is reduced within the developing countries. Bibliography Curran, J. (1999): The role of the small firm in the UK economy: Small Business Research Trust Report, Milton Keynes. Harris J. and M. Todaro (1970): Migration, unemployment & Development: a two Sector Analysis American Economic Review; 60 (1): 126-42 Ronald Coase. (1960): Paper- The Problem of Social Cost. UNDP: Millennium Development Goals. - www.undp.orp/mdg/basics.shtml CIDA.2002- www.acdi-cida.gc.ca Read More