Canada's Ethiopia Women's Project Faces Criticism Over Poor Results

• The Carney administration is under attack for spending millions on a women's entrepreneurship initiative in Ethiopia
• The program, intended to strengthen women entrepreneurs, has not produced the results promised
• A combined $13.5 million of Canadian taxpayers' dollars has been pledged to the program since 2022

The Carney administration is facing criticism for investing millions of tax dollars in a women's entrepreneurship initiative in Ethiopia that has fallen significantly short of its expectations, with no transparency surrounding results or recipients.

According to Le Journal de Montréal, Global Affairs Canada has already spent $6 million on the "Accelerating the Growth of Women's Entrepreneurship" project since 2022 and intends to spend another $7.5 million by 2027 — for a total expenditure of $13.5 million. The intention was to use public money as leverage to secure $81 million in private sector investment for Ethiopian small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) that focus on gender equality.

Still, the results have been disappointing. So far, the program has brought in only $4.1 million in private capital — a paltry 5 percent of the target goal. This translates to only 66 cents of private investment for each dollar of taxpayer funds expended, far short of the hoped-for $6 return on a dollar.

Global Affairs Canada acknowledged the challenges, quoting Ethiopia's regulatory and investment restrictive framework. It, however, insists the program is in its broader vision to empower women and drive economic growth in the region. The department has, however, refused to divulge simple information, including the number of firms financed and how it chose firms to finance. Although the government said the program created 4,560 new jobs — 1,213 of them for women — it has never given an independent verification or audit.

At the same time, Global Affairs has also faced criticism for their extravagant embassy expenses. Records released by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation indicate the department expended more than $527,000 on embassy artwork in 2023 and 2024 — including almost $10,000 for a LEGO-themed work purchased mere days before the fiscal year ended.

Expenditures on art consisted of: $160,000 for 32 works on March 31, 2023, $291,000 for 71 works on February 9, 2024, $50,000 in further last-minute spending on March 26, 2024

Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, denounced the spending as tone-deaf: "It's supremely disrespectful to taxpayers to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on art they'll never see in distant embassies. We shouldn't be purchasing overpriced LEGO sets when Canadians can't afford to pay rent."