OTTAWA — The Conservative government will reduce aid to Ethiopia as part of its effort to slash $377 million in foreign aid over the next three years.
“Ethiopia has been identified as one of the countries where CIDA will reduce its bilateral programming,” the office of International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda said in an email statement. Oda’s office would not disclose the amount of the cuts.
In 2010-11, Canada spent more than $176 million in Ethiopia, making it our third-largest aid recipient after Haiti and Afghanistan. This year’s cut will be the second in a row and comes as the country continues to face food shortages following a devastating drought last year that saw more than one in 10 citizens receive some level of food assistance.
Cuts are also coming to 12 of the world’s poorest countries, Postmedia News reported last month. Benin, Niger, Cambodia, China, Nepal, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe are expected to lose virtually all Canadian aid funding.
The news comes as the World Economic Forum, which Oda attended, wrapped up Friday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. European financial woes are expected to slow investment across Africa, but oil-rich Middle-Eastern investors are looking increasingly to Africa, attracted by some of the world’s fastest growing economies, rapidly rising disposable incomes and relative political stability in many countries.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Canada+Ethiopia/6608020/story.html#ixzz1udw61Lw4
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