Canada will pledge 1 billion for maternal health

In a story that came out over the weekend, Canada announced it's development goal as host of the G-8 and G-20 meetings. The host country usually sets the agenda and a goal it would like to achieve during the meetings. Canada has said that it would pledge one billion dollars to fund maternal and child health, and will ask the other member countries to pledge big money as well.

From the Globe and Mail, we read more about the proposal and what may keep it from becoming a reality.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced in January that improving the health of mothers and their children in developing countries would be his signature initiative as host of the G8 summit next month.

Initially, the pitch was well received around the world. Concerns are on the rise that maternal health issues have been pushed aside in development assistance packages over the years.

But after Ottawa spent weeks sidestepping questions about whether the government would allow funding to go to groups or projects that encourage better access to safe abortion, Canada's maternal health idea lost momentum.

When G8 development ministers finally met in Halifax last month, they agreed on vaguely defined goals for the initiative, and made no mention of a target for funding.

Then Greece’s sovereign debt crisis spilled over its borders and dragged down Europe. The burgeoning deficits of G8 countries have now become a policy priority, prompting many anti-poverty advocates and experts to question whether the leaders would find the wherewithal to support a new aid project in poor countries.

“There’s nothing on the table. How serious are they about this?” NDP foreign-affairs critic Paul Dewar said last week.