Foreign Affairs Committee on June 2nd, 2016

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much, Ms. Harris.

We'll now move to Ms. Guindon.

[Evelyne Guindon, Chief Executive Officer, Cuso International]

My name is Evelyne Guindon.

First of all, I would like to wish everyone good afternoon.

Thank you for inviting us to appear before the committee.

I'm going do my presentation in English, but please don't hesitate at any point to ask me questions in either language.

I've had 25 years of experience as a development worker. I started off my career working in sexual and reproductive health. I've worked in environmental sectors. I started off in the volunteer sector. Working for Cuso has been a very meaningful part of my career. What's also very important is that my practice throughout my career has been framed by my steadfast belief in the power of partnership. I've worked in all sectors that are working at the forefront of development. Over the years, I've learned how important as well as how complex partnership and dialogue are, and how key and critical they are to addressing poverty and inequality. You'll hear that reflected in my presentation today.

Cuso International, for those of you who don't know it well, is a long-standing Canadian international development organization working to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality around the world. Since our inception in 1961, we've mobilized more than 16,000 highly skilled volunteers to build the capacity of local partners, governments, civil society, and private sector partners. We've done so in over 80 countries.

We're currently working in 19 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and now here in Canada in partnership with indigenous communities. We welcome the current government's commitment to review and refine bilateral development assistance so that it reaches those who need it most.

Today we have six key points in response to the pertinent questions that you presented for our consideration.

First, we believe that bilateral development assistance should focus on supporting poor and marginalized people and communities rather than just poor countries. We believe that the current country-of-focus model offers both advantages and limitations. Focusing narrowly on certain countries means that programming is confined by geography and is less responsive in times of crisis or in times of opportunity. Middle-income countries are home to five billion of the world's seven billion people and 73% of the world's poorest people.

I'll give you an example. Colombia is considered an upper-middle country, but it's also one of the most unequal countries in the world. More than 13 million Colombians live in poverty, and more than six million are internally displaced people. Colombia is second in the world after Syria in terms of displaced people. Therefore, we believe that poverty, inequality, and exclusion are the factors that should guide our efforts and should be considered outside the overly simplistic categorization of poor countries, which ignores the existence of pockets of extreme poverty and exclusion.

Second, effective development programming requires long-term vision and commitment. Meaningful and successful initiatives do take time. Our most successful partnerships with local stakeholders took years to develop and to yield results. The support we provided through technical assistance and volunteers allowed partners to become self-sufficient and to deliver on their mission and projects—which is what my colleague was talking about—rather than simply being beneficiaries.

Our recommendation to the committee is to make as few changes as possible to existing priority countries in the short term, thereby ensuring the stability of programs and partnerships in the countries where we collectively work.

Linked to this, we encourage funding opportunities and mechanisms that promote long-term accompaniment. Achieving sustainable results through international assistance requires a long-term approach, and it is important that funding cycles reflect this reality. This means honouring five-year predictable funding cycles, providing opportunities to access funding for subsequent phases of successful scalable programs, and, ideally, providing longer-term funding beyond the five-year cycle.

We must build synergies between aid, diplomacy, and trade, but we must avoid models in which trade defines aid priorities. As well, we must build synergies between multilateral, bilateral, and other funding tracks, such as the partnerships for development innovation branch.

Third, the Government of Canada should align its development agenda with the SDGs, the sustainable development goals, building on the previous thematic focus areas of food security, sustainable economic growth, and children and youth, but with a wider and more holistic approach to development programming.

Cuso's approach has been to build its expertise and programming in particular thematic areas where we feel we can be most effective, where we can create a robust body of knowledge and expertise, and where there are strong returns on investment. Today we focus on inclusive and sustainable economic growth, access to quality health services, gender equality, and social inclusion.

Putting women and girls at the centre of Canada's development agenda is critical. The promotion and protection of women's and girls' rights and gender equality is our priority. As an organization leading innovative programming in mental health, reproductive health, and midwifery and capitalizing on Canadian expertise to deliver that impact, we would really like to see the Government of Canada move beyond maternal, newborn, and child health programming to support women's and girls' rights for a more holistic approach.

We would also encourage increased resources and programming directed towards young people. Many of the world's 1.8 billion young people are concentrated in the countries in which Cuso International works. This creates both demand and opportunity for working with them to improve education, health, and employment opportunities and can constitute a dynamic force of political change and social transformation.

While Canada may not focus on all 17 SDGs, we encourage the committee to consider key thematic priorities that work together to reduce poverty, inequality, and exclusion, all with gender and social inclusion lenses.

Fourth, as an organization that focuses on capacity-building, we believe that strengthening and building on existing country capacity is key to supporting an enabling environment for development aid to be effective. Enhancing local partners' capacity and fostering local ownership are good practices and reduce the risk of dependency on foreign aid. Even in cases of humanitarian crises and long-term, protracted emergencies, building the capacity of local partners, including civil society, to address long-term development needs has to be included in the plans, or else we see only short-term needs addressed while poverty, instability, and fragility continue.

Cuso International has a successful track record in building meaningful partnerships and mobilizing highly skilled Canadian volunteers from our rich mosaic. This includes diaspora volunteers and e-volunteers, people who sit in the comfort of their homes and volunteer by using electronic means. We encourage the prioritizing of initiatives that focus on building the capacity of local agents of change to design and deliver effective and innovative solutions to development problems within their own contexts and needs.

We also encourage the Government of Canada to complement humanitarian interventions with long-term initiatives that focus on building resilience and local capacity through strategic partnerships between organizations with different but complementary types of expertise.

Fifth is promoting stable, flexible, and innovative programming that recognizes the transaction cost and benefit of partnerships. Moving from supporting initiatives based on fixed models or program parameters towards funding mechanisms that are flexible and that promote piloting, testing, and scaling up of innovative cross-sectoral initiatives gives Canadian organizations like ours the space to collaborate, think, and innovate inside project life cycles. The Government of Canada should consider facilitating partnerships to ensure cross-sectoral innovation and contributions.

Canada's NGOs need funding to engage meaningfully in these types of collaborative efforts. My experience has shown that the impact is greatest when collaboration between sectors is intrinsic to the program, but it takes time and effort and funding to do it right. We can no longer collaborate from the side of our desk, which is what we do, and we’ve been doing it through organizations like the Devonshire Initiative and other wonderful initiatives that you might have heard of already today, but it must be central to our approach to delivering aid effectively.

Sixth, we encourage continued support to international volunteering as an effective tool to eradicate poverty, inequality, and exclusion. Volunteering is a primary and integral cultural value and is recognized as central to the fabric of a healthy and democratic civil society. It is a primary means of expressing local, national, and global citizenship. Canada is recognized the world over as having developed the most extensive and innovative models of volunteering in international development. We are two examples here with our organizations, and it's a reflection on the role played by Cuso International and many others.

Volunteers can contribute to the transformational delivery of the SDGs across all thematic areas, but I want to bring your attention to goal 17, which explicitly highlights that volunteer groups are critical for implementation of all the goals. Volunteering is an effective and cost-effective way to mobilize Canadian expertise and, as stated by Robert Greenhill, Canada's excellence to build the capacity of those local partners and obtain results.

Highly skilled volunteers embody Canadian values of global citizenship, openness, diversity, and respect. We recommend the volunteer co-operation program be central to Canada's international development programming. International volunteerism should not be restricted to north-south interventions, but it should encourage national volunteerism, south-south volunteerism, south-north volunteerism, as a means of maximizing the human resources available all around the world.

In summary, we recommend a focus on poor people and communities; a long-term vision and commitment to build sustainable partnerships for development; building on previous thematic areas and aligning with selected SDGs but with a more holistic approach and a focus on women and youth; supporting initiatives that build local capacity; prioritizing stable, flexible, and innovative programming; and continued support for Canada's leadership in international volunteering to eradicate poverty, inequality, and exclusion.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much for your invitation

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you, Ms. Guindon. We appreciate that.

We'll start the first round.

I want to get this out to the committee. Is it okay if we go with five-minute rounds so that we can get more people in, versus six-minute rounds? We could probably get six people in and get as much questioning in as possible.

We'll start with Mr. Genuis. You have five minutes, sir.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much to both of the witnesses.

I have a number of different questions. Ms. Harris, I really appreciated your presentation. I don't know if I heard specific recommendations about countries of focus in terms of whether we should have a bigger list, a smaller list, no list at all, or a more flexible list. In the context of the very important general recommendations you made, I wonder if you could comment on the list question.

[Wendy Harris]

I purposely didn't comment on the number because I don't think there is a right number.

One of the things that's important is to be reliable as a partner, so in relation to the five-year funding cycles and things like that, to pull out of a country because of a change in a list is not something I would support. Pulling out of a country because we've been able to fulfill our mandate and have a strong exit plan, I think, is the way to go.

When CESO looks at who we are going to work with, we look for a level of readiness. We look at the local context. What's the level of engagement? Is there alignment with national priorities? Is there alignment with Canadian priorities? Is there enough commitment from our local partners that they're willing to have skin in the game and are willing to cost-share? That's the angle we would take.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you.

I wanted to ask you as well about the issue of bringing about economic development. Of course, one major potential barrier to economic development is policy issues. How should our government in the context of aid be engaged with other countries in trying to encourage policy change that is necessary to facilitate economic development?

[Wendy Harris]

I think that goes directly to the heart of the interconnectedness between private sector development and institutional strengthening. To have a strong and vibrant private sector, or one that is strengthening, is key for social and economic reasons. At the same time, you have to pay attention that those institutions build their own capacity not only to operate, regulate, and service their customers but to create policy that works in the local context.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

In practice, would you say it's important for us to be having conversations with other countries about policy reforms at the same time as we're providing assistance, just with those goals in mind?

[Wendy Harris]

Sure. Absolutely. For example, I have a roster of more than 700 volunteer advisers, experts from the public and private sector. I have many retired, high-level, very highly qualified public sector and CIDA retirees. They're in very high demand around the world for their knowledge not only about process and people but about policy.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Guindon, first of all, I really appreciated your comments about building synergies between different objectives. Our trade objectives shouldn't drive our aid objectives, but if I understood you right, we can kill multiple birds with one stone as long as we give priority to doing the best we can in the context of aid as well.

I wanted to dig deeper on the point you made about exclusion. You were saying that there's poverty in countries that themselves may not be the poorest of countries. I was just thinking about India. We have a close and important relationship with India, a country where there are significant issues of gender equality, high levels of early and forced marriage, high levels of poverty, and issues of caste and religion-based exclusion. Canada doesn't provide direct bilateral assistance, I believe, to India. There are a lot of issues there, but India is a growing economy.

Maybe just by way of example, with the frame you've set up, how would we engage India or a country like it, a country that's middle income but that has significant issues that deserve attention?

[Evelyne Guindon]

I can't speak to India specifically in the case of Cuso International, as we don't work there, but we did many years ago. In previous parts of my life, I have worked in India, and definitely India is a country where there are pockets of the population that are excluded and are in great need. What I've learned is that you need to have, in many cases, the support of government and the support of civil society. If civil society is not existing and thriving, then there are opportunities to build and help build a thriving civil society.

I gave the example of Colombia, and that's the one country where I've been recently where we really see all of those winning conditions. Yes, there are trade considerations in Colombia for Canada, where great Canadian companies are building and growing, but what there is in Colombia is a very important peace process. We understand and see that the country is very committed to the peace process and sees development as key to both the peace process and to economic prosperity.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Genuis.

We're going to move over to Mr. Sidhu now for five minutes.

[Jati Sidhu, Liberal, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, and it's good to see you again. Thank you for your testimony.

I like your approach: local and international help. Housing is a main issue locally and internationally. The question is whether Canada, instead of focusing on the countries, should focus on international assistance on a needs basis. That is, you touched on the eradication of poverty and inequality, promotion of gender, equality of women in Parliament, and advancement of good governance and global health. What's your view on that? What's the spin you'd like to put on that?

[Wendy Harris]

I think there are areas in which Canada has a competitive advantage. A focus on those areas will lead to greater impact, and CESO does focus on them.

We talked today about limited resources and having to maximize what we can do with limited resources. When I look at those Canadian comparative advantages, one I hear consistently from around the world is a softer skill: the ability to listen. When our Canadian volunteer advisers work with our clients, the feedback is “They don't come in and tell us what to do. They come in and listen. They figure out a solution that is culturally and contextually appropriate.” That generates not only great results but also a ton of goodwill.

I'm sure Evelyne will talk about gender and equality, which is a huge thing, but the tack I'd like to take on it is slightly different. That involves areas of our competitive advantage—the strength of our financial institutions and our tax system, the ability to use that expertise around the world to mobilize domestic resources and lower reliance on aid, and responsible natural resource development, something that Canada is known for around the world. It's not easy and not without some issues, but responsible natural resource management is something that Canadians can export proudly.

That's something we can do internationally as well as here at home. We've been working with Mushkegowuk Council with regard to the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario, bringing multiple communities together to build strong enough governance so that they can engage effectively in the economic opportunity that is before them in a culturally and environmentally appropriate way. The other industry sectors are agribusiness and agriculture and hospitality and tourism. I also mentioned the strength of experience and knowledge around public sector governance.

Those are the themes on which I suggest a focus would be appropriate.

[Jati Sidhu, Liberal, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

If I have it right from the last time we talked, your funding is all private sector. Is the assistance funding all private sector?

[Wendy Harris]

No. The majority of our funding comes from the Government of Canada on the international side and the national side. We also work directly with the private sector and directly with foreign governments.

[Jati Sidhu, Liberal, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Going back to the question—

[Wendy Harris]

Sorry.

[Jati Sidhu, Liberal, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

—let's say you do focus your work on where the work is needed and not where the country is. How do you measure your success, and how does the money transaction work? How do you measure the efficiency of your work if you don't go with a country of focus for Canada?

[Wendy Harris]

We're involved in the partnership branch, a volunteer-sending program involving multiple countries. From an evaluation perspective, the same robust evaluation process happens, whether it's a country of focus or not a country of focus. At CESO, whether we're funded by the Government of Canada or, honestly, the Government of Kazakhstan, our internal standards of monitoring and evaluation are the same. That's what we use to judge whether we are making a difference and whether the investment makes sense.

The transaction is different, depending on the funder. I'll use Kazakhstan as an example, as I just came back from there; I'm still a little jet-lagged.

They haven't a diversified economy. They have a heavily oil-based economy that is fragile. The government is committed to investing in their SMEs so that they can start having a more diversified and robust economy. That level of government commitment, the local context being conducive to the type of support that CESO provides, catalyzing SME development and aligning with Canadian priorities, would all factor into whether we do that transaction.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Sidhu.

We'll move over to Mr. Aubin, please, for five minutes.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank both of you. We didn't ask you whether you were comfortable taking and answering questions from each member for five minutes at a time, as it requires you to make your answers even more succinct. Thank you for doing this.

I have two questions. I will ask them and then give you time to answer. In your opening statements, both of you spoke of the importance of a holistic approach. Intellectually, I understand very well what that approach entails. I'd like you to take a few minutes to outline a holistic experience that was successful on the ground, so that we may delve into it for a few moments.

My second question may be more for Ms. Guindon, but please feel free to jump in, Ms. Harris.

We talked about volunteering. Lord knows how difficult it is, for all organizations, to retain volunteers. We don't have a natural tendency to think that international aid, especially when it comes to long-term and stable development, can function with volunteers. Could you describe a typical volunteer you work with?

[Evelyne Guindon]

I will begin with an example of a holistic approach. We have a really interesting partnership program in Nigeria. It's a development program for small and medium-sized businesses, and youth.

We also have a broader bilateral program that's built on that program. This larger program provides the most disadvantaged youth with small business training.

With these two programs, we are able to help the most excluded communities and, above all, work on gender issues. As part of our gender-issues programming, we work not only with women, but also with boys, men, and fathers. These are integrated programs.

We could call this an economic development program, but it's really a holistic program. It's been an all-round success.

Your question on how to retain volunteers is a good one. Many of us are so busy these days. But, more and more, we're seeing a whole new generation open up to the idea. The average age of volunteers working in our organization is 42. Very few of them are in their thirties. Most of them are in the middle of their careers and are ready to make the move, often for three months, but sometimes for up to two years. A lot of our volunteers leave for one year but end up staying for two. More and more volunteers are getting involved after their retirement, like my colleague.

[Wendy Harris]

On the first question, as an example of a holistic approach, I'll go back to the national context, as it illustrates it well.

I talked about working with Mushkegowuk Council, a group of first nations, on their ability to strengthen their governance structures. Very frequently if not always when we're working in the national context, there is an economic goal related to our project. In this case it's the supply chain around Ring of Fire, but there are more social issues that are a preoccupation of the local community, whether it's weak governance, weak financial management, or inadequate health planning and management. Sometimes, honestly, it goes down to working on team-building skills to bring a group together to function properly. For us the holistic approach means recognizing that there's an end-game economic goal, so you have to start investing early in a holistic way in the community so they have not only the skills but the attention to shift to engaging in that economic activity.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you. That's all the time we have.

We're going to move over here to Ms. Romanado.

You have five minutes.