The Official Development Assistance Accountability Act

The new ODA Accountability Act came into force on June 28, 2008. The Act applies to all federal departments providing official development assistance, including the Canadian International Development Agency.

The Act lays out three conditions that must be satisfied for international assistance to be considered as official development assistance under the Act.

These conditions are that assistance:

• contributes to poverty reduction;
• takes into account the perspectives of the poor; and,
• is consistent with international human rights standards.

Ministers must be of the opinion that these conditions have been met in order to report the initiative as Canadian official development assistance.

The Act identifies three groups (governments, international agencies and Canadian civil society organizations) that must be consulted at least once every two years as part of the decision-making process relating to official development assistance as defined in the Act.

To facilitate transparency in reporting on official development assistance, the Act requires Ministers to report on official development assistance, including through an annual report to Parliament beginning in 2009.