Podcast: CIDA pays for corporate social responsibility

In September 2011, Beverley Oda, minister of international cooperation, announced pilot projects to support partnerships between mining companies Barrick Gold, IAMGOLD and Rio Tinto Alcan with NGOs such as World Vision Canada and World University Service of Canada.

Catherine Coumans has prepared a brief against CIDA's new project for a House of Commons committee.

While CIDA says the project will help reach out to the poor and support Canada’s corporate social responsibility, human rights advocates question the government’s intentions in partnering with mining companies.

But others are applauding CIDA's investment in business and local mining communities.

In Burkina Faso, the project between Plan Canada and IAMGOLD will train girls and boys aged 13 to 18. Through the CIDA-funded project, the children will receive job skills training in the mining sector and sub-sectors.

CIDA announced more than $5 million to the project while Plan Canada will contribute less than $1 million and IAMGOLD will contribute $1 million.

As CIDA's International Development Week comes to a close, this podcasts asks experts to analyze what could have led to the move to offer Canada's tax dollars to mining companies and NGO's and what may be coming next as a result of these projects.

Guests

Catherine Coumans, Ph.D, is the Research Coordinator and Asia Pacific Program Coordinator at MiningWatch Canada. Coumans has prepared a brief entitled "CIDA’s Partnership with Mining Companies Fails to Acknowledge and Address the Role of Mining in the Creation of Development Deficits" for the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development’s study on the Role of the Private Sector in Achieving Canada’s International Development Interests.

Penny Collenette is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa. Collenette teaches on topics of governance, corporate responsibility and the ethical and legal intersection of business and human rights. From 2002 to 2004, Collenete was the Senior Fellow at the Center of Business and Government, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Collenette was the Director of Appointments in Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's office for four years.