Evidence of meeting #41 for Subcommittee on International Human Rights in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was data.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Fayçal El-Khoury
Thank you.
Ms. McPherson, you have the floor for five minutes please.
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all our guests.
One thing we've heard today is that there is a need for better data, but there are solutions being done.
Mr. Faruqui, I think you were speaking about examples of what works, how it works and how it can be very cost-effective if it is done properly.
What it's making me think about is.... I assume that what's happening in Canada and the way we are talking about using our development dollars for inclusive education is happening in other countries as well.
How are we making sure that there is data, that we are sharing the data we are getting with other countries and that lessons learned, best practices and all of those things are being shared across the world? How are we are informing donor countries, but also using that to increase the effectiveness of the programming on the ground?
I'll start with you, Mr. Faruqui.
12:55 p.m.
Program Director, Education and Science, International Development Research Centre
Thanks.
That's kind of, in a nutshell, the purpose of this large initiative we have on education.
It does work sort of at the country level in terms of scale-improving innovations and adapting them to the local context. Often they are multi-country projects. There are three or four countries that we're working on. We're trying to scale things in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, for example. There's that knowledge sharing within the region.
As I said, we have these four regional hubs—one for each...sort of way we carve out the world; two in Africa, one in Asia and one in Latin America. We have up to 20 countries that come together to identify what their pain points are when it comes to education. What do they need to know? Where don't they have evidence? What works? They share it with the neighbouring countries.
In addition to that, we have some programs that are what we call global projects, which sort of ensure that we're capturing global public goods on education knowledge and education, and infuse that back into the local systems.
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
I would assume that even country-wide, the diversity of needs would be very.... I think about some of the work I have done in Nicaragua, where what's needed in Managua is very different from what's needed in the northern regions of the Mosquito territory. Even within a country, it can be very diverse.
I wonder if anyone online would have any other comments they'd like to make.
12:55 p.m.
Senior Advisor, Advocacy and Engagement, International Disability Alliance
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
To respond to the question around knowledge sharing, I do want to again bring to the notice of the members here that Canada is a member of the Global Action Disability Network, the GLAD Network, which is a body that brings together governments, donors and multilateral organizations on their common commitment to advance disability inclusion.
Knowledge sharing is one of the main objectives of this network as well. We have good examples, as Nafisa already alluded to, from the United States, the U.K., Australia and many of the Scandinavian countries. I think that Canada's role in contributing to that global public good in terms of knowledge is important.
I also want to flag the importance of working with the missions in countries, in plugging that gap of what is happening at the global level—what missions are doing at the national level is still quite significant—and also flag the importance of working with community-based organizations.
This also speaks to an earlier question about how you reach children with disabilities in far-flung areas, in remote areas of countries in Africa, in francophone countries. For example, in Niger, our members work extremely committedly on inclusive education. They have different projects that have been running, and currently we are working with the members in Niger to support the implementation of projects on education in emergencies for learners with disabilities.
The importance of working with community-based organizations and sharing the knowledge with them is quite critical.
1 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Fayçal El-Khoury
We will give the closing comments to Ms. Baboo.
You have one minute, please.
1 p.m.
Director, Inclusive Education, Light for the World
I would like to add to that.
It's really important to bring people along. Co-designing with experts in the country and co-designing capacity development programs is really vital, as is making sure that it also ensures there's ownership and there's transfer of skills. I think that is a really important investment moving forward: to ensure that we do work together with people in countries to make sure the products are culturally sensitive and that we are aware of some of the barriers that could exist in the rolling out of a particular program.
1 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Fayçal El-Khoury
Thank you, Ms. Baboo.
Thanks to our witnesses for their presentations, participation, sharing ideas and helping us in our important study for international disability-inclusive education for persons with disabilities.
We appreciate that you took the time to meet with us to share ideas, given your great and important expertise in this important subject. If you feel that some interesting additional information is needed, please feel free to contact or write to the subcommittee or directly to our clerk. I can assure you that we have an excellent clerk working with us.
On behalf of all members of the committee and the staff, we thank you very much for your presence, and we wish you a wonderful day.
That's all the time we have.
The meeting is adjourned.