Evidence of meeting #13 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 41st Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was crescent.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Are you providing infrastructure for the establishment of camps as well?
Director, Emergencies and Recovery, International Operations, Canadian Red Cross
We have not in this context because the UN and other agencies have set up the camps. However, for example, in a camp in Jordan, we as the Canadian Red Cross with three other Red Crosses in Europe are providing the medical facilities. We have set up a field hospital in one of the big camps in Jordan.
We look at needs, we look at gaps, and we look at what we can provide.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
You're talking about Lebanon. Tell me about inside Syria, with the dangers your people are facing.
Director, Emergencies and Recovery, International Operations, Canadian Red Cross
Briefly, inside Syria we work primarily through the Syrian Red Crescent. They lead on the ground. They are the lead agency in the language we use and they send their volunteers and convoys and so on. Our support to them has been by providing them with either material or cash to buy the supplies they need. So we've either bought the food for them or bought the medical supplies, and they take care of the rest.
Robert Young Senior Delegate, International Committee of the Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross
To add, within the Red Cross and Red Crescent family....We have a couple of more minutes, Mr. Chairman?
Senior Delegate, International Committee of the Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross has about 200 staff on the ground in Syria. It's a diverse mix of international staff but it's predominantly Syrian. We have a presence in Damascus and field offices around the country. With the Syrian Arab Red Crescent we're able to negotiate our way through various checkpoints on a good day and get to different regions of the country and deliver food, medicine, and other kinds of assistance. But it really has to be emphasized that the situation on the ground is dire in terms of security, and if there's one word we could leave you with today, it's “access”. Humanitarian access is the biggest challenge in Syria today, and clearly, security for humanitarian workers, national and international, is a huge part of that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Anderson.
We're now going to move to Mr. Garneau. Sir, you have seven minutes.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for your testimonies today, and congratulations for the work you're doing in this very difficult region. You said there's not enough money and that doesn't come as too much of a surprise. What about personnel to do the work you do, given the money you have? Is that a challenge for you to carry out your work?
Director, Humanitarian Assistance and Emergency Team, CARE Canada
That's one of the lesser challenges for us, especially outside Syria where safety and security issues are not as concerning. You have a highly educated population across the region, including in Lebanon and in Jordan, so our local staff are amazing. All have expertise in the areas in which they're working and are highly competent leaders within their communities.
We also are working with Syrian refugee volunteers who help us to do outreach to communities. They are the ones who really make the connection with Syrians to be able to access our centres because Syrians are so dispersed throughout cities in Jordan and Lebanon. And those Syrian volunteers are amazing. University graduates, young students, really dynamic young people, and we have more volunteers than we can retain.
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Red Cross
I think that for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement it's the same point I made a little earlier. We're relying on strong institutions. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent, notwithstanding the fact that 34 of its members were killed, is recruiting hundreds of volunteers every day, and so is the Lebanese Red Cross, which is very active, and the Turkish Red Crescent. We have strong institution organizations there. We've been putting a lot of emphasis on supporting them as an institution, as well. It's not just about delivering programs, but it's their own capacity in these difficult times.
A tremendous amount of support has been given by the International Committee of the Red Cross on the principles in terms of working in these areas. You can appreciate that working in Syria for an organization, for a Red Crescent, or working in Lebanon in an area of civil war and having access to different areas is very sensitive. It requires a lot of training, and it requires total neutrality and impartiality. There is a lot of emphasis there. There's been no challenge in recruiting in all of those situations. Actually what we're seeing, especially in Syria these days, is a willingness for hundreds of Syrians to join an organization that is providing some good work in the face of this civil war.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
That's good to hear.
Canada has made quite a contribution in terms of the amount of humanitarian funding that it has provided. I'm interested in how that money makes its way to CARE and to the Red Crosses. Is it a cheque you receive and you decide how best to use it? How does it make its way to you?
Director, Emergencies and Recovery, International Operations, Canadian Red Cross
In the past two years, we have received, as the Red Cross movement outside of the ICRC, about $9 million in support that we have channelled to inside Syria and the surrounding crises.
Liberal
Director, Emergencies and Recovery, International Operations, Canadian Red Cross
Yes. It comes as a funds transfer to the Canadian Red Cross and we manage those funds based on specific projects, and so on. It's pretty straightforward and a pretty efficient way. We work through our partners in the region, which are the local Red Crosses.
Director, Humanitarian Assistance and Emergency Team, CARE Canada
It's the same for us. We sign a grant based on a proposal that's written with very clear deliverables. Very clear results are articulated in our proposals, and we're held accountable based on those commitments that we make to deliver on those results. Once that proposal is approved, and the grant is signed with the Government of Canada, the funds are transferred, and then we work with the country offices directly to support those funds and spend them in an accountable way, in a way that is impactful, and in a way that we can report back to the Government of Canada on our results.
Senior Delegate, International Committee of the Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross
I was going to add that for the International Committee of the Red Cross, as Hossam mentioned, we have a direct funding relationship with the Government of Canada. It's actually a wire transfer to Geneva. Before you send us the money—because people sometimes wonder about money going to Switzerland—we issue annual calls for funds every fall, and we tell our donors—who are primarily governments, by the way—what we hope to do country by country, program by program, and activity by activity. Governments and others respond, and we indicate which funds we'll share and do programs jointly with Red Cross or Red Crescent societies on the ground.
Subsequently, as Conrad mentioned, conflicts, in particular, change. We often will do what's called a budget extension—
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
We won't go into details, because I have one more question, and my time is limited.
It is very clear that this conflict is going to last a long time. You said so. Moreover, that is what we hear in the news.
Since this conflict is not going to be settled tomorrow, but will be lasting a long time, how can you approach these problems? Knowing that this may last for years, will you adopt a different approach?
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Red Cross
Yes indeed. Jessie made the same remark. We have to look at long-term planning, and support capacity. The local organizations of the Red Crescent have to meet emergencies, but this emergency situation may last. We have to support them so that they can maintain this sustained effort. That is the context.
As for the other aspect, even if this situation lasts for a long time, there can be some rather rapid changes. For instance, we want to set up an operation for refugees in a given country, but since the border is blocked off, those people find themselves in another country. Consequently, all of the planning has to remain relatively fluid and flexible. We made that point before. We are not in a development context where we can have a five-year plan and plan the funding for the first, second, and third years. In reality, the context evolves and the needs vary. If there is an explosion and there are a lot of casualties, we then face a more acute emergency situation.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you very much. That's all the time we have for this.
We're going to move to Ms. Brown for the second round, starting with five minutes, please.
February 24th, 2014 / 4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Lois Brown Conservative Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
As I said, I'm sorry that we have to have you here under these circumstances; it's sad that Syria is not seeing its way back to health.
We had the Mennonite Central Committee here a couple of weeks ago, and of course they talked about many of the same types of programs that you're involved with, in water and sanitation. They talked about the need for education, and the need for helping women and girls.
I wonder, since we have seen the situation in Haiti where a massive number of NGOs flooded onto the ground when the earthquake took place.... Can you talk a little about how the coordination takes place and who does what? That's one of the things I think Canadians are concerned about, when they ask who's doing the job. I think it would be good if we could have a little discussion about that.
Director, Emergencies and Recovery, International Operations, Canadian Red Cross
It is not like Haiti where you have this flood of NGOs for various reasons: security, lack of funds, proximity. It's not easy to get to that region. Also, Syria is very controlled inside.
The Syrian Red Crescent—being almost the only relief organization that is functional and that has retained its integrity as other government institutions fragment in the country—has become the coordinating mechanism for pretty much everything that is happening all over Syria.
Within Syria it is not a huge problem. The border areas with Turkey can be, because that is a porous border and many groups, both humanitarian and non-humanitarian, are filtering through. In Jordan, there are coordination mechanisms within and outside the government, and maybe Jessie can speak a bit more on that. In Lebanon, there are coordination mechanisms through the Lebanese Red Cross and with other larger agencies as well that meet regularly to take care of the issues, the needs, and the gaps.
Conservative
Lois Brown Conservative Newmarket—Aurora, ON
We had a witness two weeks ago who talked about how Syria has splintered into several different regions. You have the Kurdish people who are fighting in the northeast, you have different sects who are fighting in other areas. Is there more access to a single area that you or the Red Crescent are able to get into? Are there certain areas that are able to be serviced, or do you generally face the same issues all across Syria?
Director, Emergencies and Recovery, International Operations, Canadian Red Cross
The way the Red Crescent is structured in Syria, with 14 branches and 70 sub-branches, they're present on the ground all the time, pre-conflict and post-conflict, in all those affected areas; the volunteers are there, the system is there. They may not have the supplies, and perhaps the training to respond to the changing nature of the conflict, but as soon as these things open up, as soon as there is access, supplies are trucked in. This is what you often hear in the news, that this area has had access. It's not that they've had access in the sense that they're not there; they're there on the ground, except now they have more goods to distribute and relief items to work with.
This is the nature of the situation for the Syrian Red Crescent. Volunteers are coming in each day, but they have to be trained to be neutral and impartial and so on. You don't just show up at the door and all of a sudden you're working for the Red Crescent.
Conservative
Lois Brown Conservative Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Ms. Thomson, you spoke for a moment about being 13% funded. Was that what you said?
At one time, I heard that the refugee situation was only 27% funded. Countries have made pledges, they've been at pledging conferences. What kind of money flow are you seeing? Is 13% all that has come in? And from whom has it come? Canada always says that we call on other countries to pay what they pledge because when you're making business decisions on purchases, or the World Food Programme, for instance, is making...they're buying futures, essentially. So if you're dealing with only 13% of the money that's coming through, how do we have the conversation with those other donors to say let's be realistic about what's available, and how do we move forward?