In keeping with Canada's ‘Aid Effectiveness Agenda,’ the Government of Canada is committed to making Canada's international assistance more effective, more focused and more accountable. Therefore, Canada's international assistance is focused on three priority areas of interest:

1. Increasing food security
2. Securing the future of children and youth
3. Stimulating sustainable economic growth

These priority areas address the challenges faced by partner countries and ensure that Canadian international assistance is achieving concrete results. These priority areas of interest are supported by three crosscutting themes:

1. Increasing environmental sustainability
2. Promoting equality between women and men
3. Helping to strengthen governance institutions and practices

As many as 2.6 billion people live on less than $2 a day. Countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have demonstrated that economic growth is the best way to challenge and stay out of poverty. A dynamic, growing economy creates jobs and higher incomes. This provides governments with more financial resources to provide better health and education services, and improve the well-being of their people. Guided by a new strategy, CIDA will focus on three paths to help developing countries grow their economies and provide new opportunities for their citizens. These are:

1.   Building economic foundations

a. Strengthening public financial management at national, regional and local levels
b. Improving legal/regulatory frameworks and systems to stabilize economies
c. Supporting governments and private sector companies to expand their business and integrate into regional and global markets
d. Building capacities to sustainably manage natural resources

2. Growing businesses

a. Strengthening support for micro, small and medium-sized private sector businesses, particularly those owned by women
b. Increasing productivity
c. Increasing availability of financial services (including microfinance

3. Investing in people
  
a. Increasing access to demand-driven skills training (including literacy and numeracy)
b. Increasing workplace learning opportunities (particularly in agriculture)
c. Supporting learning initiatives which lead to business growth, market expansion and increased productivity