There’s rarely been a Canadian aid initiative more controversial than the Harper government’s plan to make some of its foreign aid work hand-in-hand with Canadian mining. But the head of the United Nations Development Program, Helen Clark, says it’s okay to put your money where your mine is.

The Conservatives are eager to re-focus a substantial part of Canadian aid around its so-called “extractive industries,” arguing that building an aid initiative around a business project can create benefits that will be more lasting. But critics have derided it as a PR plan for the overseas interests of Canadian mining companies.