OTTAWA - Defining a maternal and child health strategy for developing countries is the least of the G8's challenges on the aid front right now.
At a key meeting of G8 development ministers in Halifax this week, Canada's Bev Oda is confident she'll find enough common ground to announce progress on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's signature G8 agenda item.
"Development ministers are going to agree on a way forward," said Oda's spokeswoman Jessica Fletcher.
Oda is also expected to add some clarity to Canada's own approach to improving the lives of mothers and their young children in poor countries, amidst criticism Ottawa is trying to sidestep inclusion of abortion and family planning.
More problematic, however, is Canada's goal to make sure countries are living up to their substantial -- and expensive -- promises of the past.
The meeting, to prepare for the June summit in Toronto, comes at a time when government funding is in short supply around the world, and the very case for any international aid at all is being called into question by a growing pile of publications and high-profile critics.
Indeed, the effectiveness of international aid is high on the ministers' agenda this week, as is a review of last year's promises to improve food security.
"Critics argue that aid does not reach its intended recipients because it is siphoned off through corruption," Oxfam International says in a report obtained by The Canadian Press, to be published later this week.
Oxfam, like other aid advocates and international organizations, have found themselves on the defensive. They're arguing merely to maintain the flow of aid in the face of mounting pressure to prove that development assistance has real returns.
A recent report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development showed that many rich countries are scaling back their aid budgets as they try to deal with the fiscal hangover of the global recession. Canada, too, has frozen its aid budget going forward.
At the same time, some critics -- led by provocative Zambian author Dambisa Moyo but also including the likes of the Senate foreign affairs committee in Ottawa -- blame aid for causing corruption and poverty in Africa.
"Pulling the plug on aid now, even with the financial alternatives suggested, could result in huge increases in poverty," warns Oxfam in its report.
Oxfam as well as the World Bank have been compiling research to show the G8 that aid can actually work, and be highly effective when properly designed and delivered.
Aid driven by a donor country's political or commercial interests is wasteful, Oxfam says, as is aid conceived by "experts" in Washington, Geneva and London.
But aid can work well when it is targeted directly at poverty reduction, free of donor-country strings attached, and when it is transparent and predictable, the Oxfam report says.
The World Bank says the financial crisis has meant that 53 million more people will remain in extreme poverty for the next five years than would otherwise have been the case.
But the bank also takes pains to point out that the rich countries' concerted efforts in the past few years have shown significant results. Despite the setback of the financial crisis, the total number of extremely poor people in 2015 will likely be 920 million -- about half the number noted in 1990.
Maternal and child health are particularly vulnerable to the effects of the financial crisis, warns the World Bank. The institution projects that between 2009 and 2015, the global crisis and its related economic effects will mean 1.2 million additional deaths among children under five.
Canada has a unique opportunity to turn that situation around, as host of the G8, says Liberal development critic Keith Martin.
It would be too easy for G8 ministers in Halifax to push a plan that urges more study and data collection while supporting "world peace, motherhood and apple pie," he says.
It would be far more effective to define clear tasks to tackle maternal and child health, he said. Each country could make a financial commitment, and each country could also take a responsibility for a single task.
It's not enough to focus narrowly and simply promise to provide clean drinking water and nutrients for families, he added. The entire health care system of developing countries needs to be involved -- including family planning and access to safe abortions in countries where it is legal.
After tempers flared over the abortion issue earlier this year, the Harper government said it won't "close the door on any options that will save the lives of mothers and children, including contraception."
But ministers also said they will not re-open the abortion debate.
They haven't explained exactly what the implications of that statement are yet, but Martin believes it means Canada won't fund any initiative linked to access to abortions.
The G8 ministers' meeting at Halifax's Pier 21 will include representatives from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Russia. A representative from at least one developing country as well as officials from some United Nations organizations will also attend.
The meeting starts Monday night and wraps up early Wednesday.
