Good morning, honourable chair and committee members and my fellow witnesses.
Thank you for this opportunity. On a purely personal note, I spend much of my time travelling to conflict countries, where most citizens don't have this opportunity to bear witness to a committee that is putting together a federal budget, so thank you for the work you do. It's extremely important, and we don't take it for granted here.
The Nobel Women's Initiative is a collaboration of six women who are Nobel peace laureates—I am not one. The organization uses the prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize to increase the visibility and power of women human rights defenders and women's movements working globally to bring about greater security and peace.
We work from the starting point that change happens from the ground up, and that to bring about more secure societies and sustainable economic change, we must support those doing the work on the ground. That is why we support Syrian women working to influence the peace process to end Syria's long and devastating war. We support Rohingya women working to end the war on their communities in Myanmar, and bring sorely needed help to refugee women in the Bangladeshi refugee camps. We support women in Guatemala working to bring an end to rampant corruption and human rights abuses, and women on the front lines in Asia and the Pacific working to mitigate the devastating impacts of climate change.
Today we are here to present you with one primary recommendation, and that is to invest boldly in women's rights organizations as part of Canada's international aid assistance, particularly direct aid to grassroots groups. We recommend an investment of $220 million per year over 10 years going directly to grassroots women's organizations.
We strongly believe that one of the primary ways Canada can help end war and conflict around the world and contribute to greater security and economic prosperity is to invest in such groups. We believe this is not ideological, but backed up by the latest and most compelling evidence from a range of sources, including the World Bank and academics like Valerie Hudson, professor and George H.W. Bush chair in the department of international affairs of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. The research she and many other researchers have done very clearly shows that the best predictor of a state's stability and security is the level of violence against women in a society. I think you all know and appreciate this, but it's important to remind ourselves of this.
Let me say this in another way. The larger the gender gap, the more likely nation states are to be involved in conflict and to use violence first in that conflict to resolve problems. The research also shows that the higher the gender gap is, the worse the relations with neighbours are. Focusing on the economy, the research shows that the larger the gender gap is, the lower the per capita of a nation state and the level of economic growth are, which is the concern of this committee.
Let's bring this back to grassroots women's organizations. Over a decade at Nobel Women, we have documented the very deep capacity of grassroots, small and national women's organizations working with quite meagre resources to broker local peace agreements, respond to crises with front-line services for communities, effectively lobby for legislation that reduces gun violence and successfully work with boys and men to prevent them from falling prey to extremist and violent ideologies that fuel so many of today's conflicts.
If grassroots women's organizations can do this with meagre resources, imagine what they could do with larger and more concerted investments. An investment of $220 million per year over the next 10 years is less than Canada's previous commitment on maternal, child and newborn health, and yet literally it will make a world of difference. This recommendation is very much in line with the excellent recommendation from the House Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development in its landmark 2016 study on women, peace and security. It also builds on the 2017 announcement of the women's voice and leadership initiative, and our government's current investments in peace and security.
In conclusion, Canada is doing important work to build peace and security around the globe, but it is imperative at this time in history that we do more. Having just come back from New York and the UN General Assembly, I can tell you that we are all looking to Canada for more leadership at this critical time.
Today, in this committee, I ask for your leadership. Supporting women's organizations and women's movements is a concrete and very cost-effective way to end conflict and build more peaceful, economic, viable societies.
Thank you for your work.