-A A +A
April 30, 2012

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) could improve its development aid impact by focusing on basic education, according to a report released today by the C.D. Howe Institute. In What CIDA Should Do: The Case for Focusing Aid on Better Schools, author John Richards documents the importance of universal literacy in enabling countries to escape from extreme levels of poverty and identifies specific types of projects CIDA could fund. Over the previous decade, CIDA’s budgeting has not reflected the very high rank afforded to education among the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, notes Richards.

 

John Richards

John Richards has written extensively on social policy in Canada and his current social policy focus is on Aboriginal policy. He is a Professor, Public Policy Program, at Simon Fraser University. He co-edits (with Henry Milner) Inroads, a Canadian policy journal. In addition, he has undertaken teaching and research in Bangladesh over the last decade.