Global Affairs Canada slammed in audit for not tracking billions in foreign aid

Global Affairs Canada has no sense of whether development aid meant to help women and girls abroad is actually advancing gender equity, according to an audit tabled in Parliament on Monday morning.

“It was highly problematic that critical information, such as project progress reports, could not be readily found,” reads a report by auditor general Karen Hogan.

“The department could not use that information to monitor overall progress toward gender-equality outcomes.”

Hogan found Ottawa does not track whether an annual $3.5 billion in bilateral aid is actually meeting the goals of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, and she noted that aid for Africa has been diverted to Ukraine.

The audit found the department struggled to provide information on projects because of a lack of standardized record keeping and forms not getting filled out.

“Some of the required information had been stored on computers of staff who had since left the department, so officials were unable to find the required information,” the report says.

“The department missed an opportunity to demonstrate the value of international assistance.”

Last year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ranked Canada and Iceland first for their spending on foreign aid that contributes to gender equality.

But the audit says Ottawa can’t track whether money is helping improve the lives of women and girls.

Still, Hogan found that Global Affairs Canadatracks indicators — but not actual progress — on half of the projects covered by the audit.

In one case, this saw the department assessing how many people received food but not whether their health had improved.

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In another, programs meant to keep teen girls in school during menstruation did track whether Canada’s funding created separate bathrooms and handwashing facilities in schools, but did not assess whether this had improved school attendance.

These difficulties with measuring outcomes applied for 24 out of 26 of the…