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House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee Reports on Canada's International Support to Democracy

2 August 2007

Under the leadership of its Chair, the Hon'ble Kevin Sorenson, MP, the Canadian Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development adopted its report on "Advancing Canada's Role in International Support to Democratic Development" on June 19 and presented the report to the House on July 11, 2007. The [report]contains 28 Recommendations that range from suggesting new tools for the enactment of a more determined bilateral assistance on democracy to engaging more profoundly at the multilateral level, especially through the United Nations. The Committee considers that "Canada should become among the world leaders in a growing field of international policy that is as necessary to the future of global order as it is challenging in implementation.the daunting global context for supporting democratic development, acknowledging that this context — and indeed the objective of “democracy” itself — remains historically contested and uncertain terrain."

The Committee recognizes that Canada cannot go it alone in this international field. It therefore considers support for democratic development delivered through international organizations and multilateral channels. At the global level, the Report gives particular attention to democratic development within the United Nations system, especially through UNDP and the Electoral Assistance Division, which are already strongly supported by Canada. However, the Committee "observes that Canada has not so far joined most of its G7 partners in contributing to the voluntary UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF), which was created as a UN reform initiative arising from the September 2005 UN Summit. As indicated in Recommendation 22 of its report, the Foreign Affairs Committee believes that Canada should consider whether to become a donor to UNDEF, overcoming its current policy of "wait and see".

The Committee further understands that "Strengthening Canadian support for democratic development is part of strengthening Canadian international development assistance as a whole. Moreover, our first recommendation argues for a Canadian approach to democratic development that is based on a broad conception encompassing governance systems, international human rights, conditions for the full participation of citizens, and the quality and sustainability of democracy in recipient countries." The report identifies five critical issues that donors must confront: local leadership and governance dimensions; the advancement of democratic development as a global, not Western-imposed endeavour (taking into account recent “pushback” against external support for democratic development in some parts of the world); the relationship of democratic to socio-economic development and poverty alleviation; the lack of coherence and coordination of democracy assistance, both within and among donor countries; the persistent deficit of policy-relevant knowledge and evaluation of the effectiveness of democracy aid.

Part III of the report aims to address this through a series of recommendations that call for significantly upgrading Canadian support for democratic development at the level of policy, funding, and institutional instruments. In Recommendations 12 through 14, the Committee provides the details for the establishment of an independent Canada foundation for international democratic development, which "should also be given resources sufficient to put Canada among the world leaders in the field.”