Tag: Canadian International Development Agency

MITACS Accelerate Project: the Lebanese Special Measures Program (1975-1990) and The Life of Lewis Perinbam (1925-2008)

May 12, 2021 / Sean Eedy

by Elizabeth Reid

*Featured image: Lewis Perinbam, 1987 (Source: Unknown photographer/LAC e999919839-u).

Public history is about taking history beyond the traditional academic setting and applying it to real-world challenges. It is history that is aimed at being accessible to the public. This is exactly what Anna Kozlova, a PhD Candidate at the Department of History at Carleton University, has been doing over the past several months in her MITACS-funded research project “Two case studies in the public history of international development policies in Canada: the Lebanese Special Measures Program (1975-1990) and The Life of Lewis Perinbam (1925-2008)”.

A Samaritan State Revisited, Book Launch, November 19, 2019

February 24, 2020 / Sean Eedy

by Greg Donaghy

This article is cross-posted with the permission of the Bill Graham Centre of Contemporary International History.

On November 14th the Graham Centre marked the launch of A Samaritan State Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Aid, a University of Calgary Press publication, edited by Centre Director Greg Donaghy and David Webster of Bishop’s University. The launch took the form of a lively and well-attended panel discussion that featured two contributors to the volume, David Black of Dalhousie University and Stephen Brown of the University of Ottawa, as well as Margaret Biggs, former President of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the 2019-2020 Graham Centre / Massey College Visiting Scholar in Foreign and Defence Policy. The discussion and an invigorating Q & A was moderated by Donaghy.

David Black’s opening remarks highlighted the historic relationships between Canadian aid policy-makers and the university community. Early aid, dominated by technical assistance programs, drew regularly on university researchers for expertise. From the 1960s to the 1980s, universities also provided a supportive if not uncritical constituency for ODA.

Treasures of CIDA’s 30-Year-Old Photography Collections: A Visual Perspective on Canadian International Aid

December 2, 2016 / Sean Eedy

by Sonya de Laat & Dominique Marshall

This blog has been prepared ahead of the workshop on the archives of CIDA on December 12 in Ottawa, held by the CNHH on the occasion of the Conference “A Samaritan State Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Aid, 1950-2016” hosted by Global Affairs Canada

This article is cross-posted with Active History as of December 9, 2016.

Rights and Realities Exhibit; Slide Number: 730-487-04; A woman repairs shoes in a tiny kiosk on the sidewalk in downtown Lima, Peru, 1995; (c) Global Affairs Canada/Stephanie Colvey

The ways in which the former Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has visually represented its projects and people to the general public has greatly informed public perceptions of aid and international affairs. From the end of the 1960s, CIDA’s photographs have been used in the communications products of the Agency and of partners (NGOs, schools, publishers, etc.), or in travelling exhibitions, publications and teaching materials. They also represent a resource for scholars and practitioners interested in exploring and sharing CIDA’s multifaceted histories. For forty-five years, CIDA administered the nation’s official development assistance (ODA). From large-scale mining and electricity projects to smaller scale education and health programs, CIDA was Canada’s main response to a global surge in international development initiatives that started in the 1960s. Simultaneously, CIDA was a vehicle for extending Canadian economic and political interests as well as its social values abroad. It became a key entity in defining Canada’s caring and helpful identity domestically and internationally.