The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is Canada’s lead agency for development assistance. Its aim is to reduce poverty, promote human rights, and support sustainable development. CIDA was established in 1968 to administer the bulk of Canada’s official development assistance program. CIDA works in concert with its development partners, fragile states and countries in crisis, selected countries and regions, and the Canadian population and institutions. The measure of its success lies in its contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and Canada’s broader international policy objectives.

Main activities

CIDA has made progress, as follows:

• Worldwide, from 1990 to 2004, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty fell from nearly one third to 19 percent;
• Progress has been made in getting more children into school in the developing world; and
• Child mortality has declined globally, and it is becoming clear that the right lifesaving interventions are proving effective.

Links to the health workforce crisis

African health systems are weak in part because of communicable and non-communicable diseases, poverty, and a shortage in the health workforce. CIDA is committed to helping to provide basic health care. At the G8 Summit in 2006, Canada promised $450 million in funding to the Africa Health Systems Initiative. This program focuses on giving support to train, equip and deploy African health workers to make basic health care more accessible to the most vulnerable. CIDA will support national strategies to address gaps in health systems.