CBC: What does Canada's foreign aid buy? That's private.

[tuvor]

Canada's access to information laws make it hard to find out how billions of our foreign aid tax dollars are spent, says an Ottawa researcher.

Amir Attaran, a professor at the University of Ottawa, said part of the problem is Canada's foreign aid money is now funnelled through third party agencies in other countries — such as the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) — that are not required to release the information to the Canadian public.

This year, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), which administers 80 per cent of Canada's aid dollars, had a budget of almost $2.5 billion.

Attaran is conducting research to find out the progress of development projects in Afghanistan funded by almost $300 million from CIDA.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2006/09/21/foreign-aid-privacy.html