Norman Paterson School alumna appointed as head of CIDA

Source: The Ottawa Citizen, Friday, June 13, 2008

PM appoints new CIDA boss: Move comes as agency under pressure to overhaul its programs

By KATHRYN MAY

Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed a new head of the troubled Canadian International Development Agency, whose operations have come under the spotlight of the Conservative government.

Margaret Biggs, a deputy secretary to cabinet in the Privy Council Office, landed the top job at CIDA in a shuffle of the senior executives announced yesterday. She replaces president Robert Greenfield, who is leaving the bureaucracy to become managing director and chief business officer of the World Economic Forum in Geneva.

Ms. Biggs takes over CIDA at a time when the agency is facing criticism from all sides and pressure to shift direction and overhaul the way it delivers its aid and development programs, a huge challenge for a first-time deputy minister.

A Senate report delivered more than a year ago called on the government to consider disbanding the $3-billion agency because it had failed to make a difference in Africa during the past 40 years. It criticized CIDA as slow, top heavy, “ineffective, costly and overly bureaucratic.”

The Conservative government wants to refocus its aid efforts to the Americas. Many also expect a new aid policy that will target fewer countries.