Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 2nd, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much, Ms. McIsaac.

We will now go to our first round of questions, consisting of six-minute segments.

Mr. Diotte.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Thank you.

Thanks to all of you for being here. You do great work.

I want to start with a very broad question, and it's the basis for all of these questions, I guess.

We see survey after survey showing that most Canadians see foreign aid as being very low on the totem pole, especially now with COVID. Indeed, many would say that we should be spending less money because we're tight for money right now.

Starting with the first speaker, I'm wondering if you could tell me what you would tell somebody who believes that. How would you tell them this is money that would be a benefit to everybody in the world? As I say, it's a fairly broad question, but I'd like your input on it.

[Dr. Tanjina Mirza]

Perhaps I will start.

Thank you for that excellent question.

In this time of crisis, more than ever Canadians actually understand what it means to have—

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Ms. Mirza, perhaps I can ask you to hold your mike as close to your mouth as possible. I think there are still some challenges with interpretation. That would be helpful.

Thank you very much.

[Dr. Tanjina Mirza]

I'll try to speak closer to the mike.

It is true that during this time of COVID crisis, Canadians, more than ever, understand how the world is connected. Someone is [Technical difficulty]. Canadians are also seeing what it means to have kids at home, which we talk about at international development.... Many of these issues are, right now, playing out in our own backyard. In terms of that sense of connectivity and interconnectedness, that no one is safe unless everyone is safe, I think Canadians are understanding it much more than before. I think that COVID, in a way, is showing us that interconnectedness all around the world.

People, especially Canadians, are interested to know more about the results of the work overseas that is happening, understanding where the aid money is going, understanding the results. I think it's also a great opportunity for organizations like ours, Plan International Canada, and many around, my counterparts here, to showcase the work we are doing and the major impact that is having around the world, especially for those who are poor and marginalized.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Ms. Brusati.

[Annalisa Brusati]

Thank you.

I agree wholeheartedly with Ms. Mirza's comments. I think what this pandemic has done is really bring a strong realization of the impact of a change in circumstances, such as having schools closed in our own country, having schools closed in Canada, and what that means for a lot of people in this country.

Reflecting on the impact that COVID has on people who are also living through displacement, living through humanitarian crises, and helping and encouraging people to understand the double impact, the dual suffering that is COVID plus the humanitarian displacement, the humanitarian crises that these populations are living through, is extremely important. It's also extremely important in helping them understand the importance of Canada's place within the global humanitarian community, and the influence and the leadership that Canada can have in directing how humanitarian crises and humanitarian contacts need support to protect children in such a situation as a global pandemic.

Thank you.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Ms. McIsaac.

[Susan McIsaac]

I would say that I agree with both of the previous speakers.

I have a couple of quick comments.

One, we're more connected globally now than we have ever been because of this. I do think people are acutely aware of what is happening around the world. I think, also, that people, themselves, are feeling the impact of this much more broadly than the health impact, the impact on education and mental health, as well. I think there is an understanding of what is happening globally and the importance of it.

I also think Canadian values are such that we have a caring for the world's most vulnerable people and a responsibility. As difficult as this pandemic has been in the global north, it is exacerbated in the global south and in developing countries. It's very important to a lot of people.

When we reached out at the beginning of the pandemic and throughout, we saw our donations going up. People really understood the impact of this and wanted to help.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

That's interesting. I still find it curious. Polls don't lie. They say,“ Well, no, this is not the time to be looking it,” but it's encouraging that you're saying your giving is going up, which is interesting.

Ms. McIsaac, you talked about a billion children being out of school due to COVID, on top of the billion who are already out of school in Africa. What can be done about that? That is a huge problem. We all know it's probably very simply that schools are closed, as many are in other parts of the world, but is there any particular thing that can be done to tackle that massive problem?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Mr. Diotte, that's your time, but I'll allow a really brief answer, if that's possible.

[Susan McIsaac]

Actually, I'm going to ask my colleague Elias, who has joined us, to jump in, because he is runs our programming.

[Elias Ayoub, Global Director, Country Operations, Right To Play International]

Yes, sure, and I'll be really quick on this.

It requires a nimbleness on the part of organizations to be able to adapt their programming to engage not just teachers in education, but to look at engaging parents as well. A lot of the learning is going to happen inside the home, and that's your access point to be able to impact that learning.

Really quickly, on your previous question, as somebody who was born in Lebanon but lived in Canada for 16 years and then moved back to Lebanon, I think it's very important that we maintain the Canadian values of actually reaching out to other countries and helping them, and recognizing the interconnectedness that exists in the world today, which COVID has highlighted in a major way.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

We'll have to leave it there. I'm sorry, but these are very tightly timed allocations.

We now go to Mr. Fonseca for six minutes, please.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Thank you, Chair; and to the witnesses, thank you for your testimony.

When we look at how monumental an impact COVID-19 has had on the world, we look at Canada and we see where we have our gaps, but we have all these public institutions, levels of government, NGOs, and so on, everybody really working together to be able to address this crisis, this pandemic.

What I'm asking of the three witnesses is to give us some insight, give us a glimpse into when we go to these conflicted, fragile countries where there are so many displaced people, where children are finding it difficult to get an education, to go to school, and so on, and where you might not have really any control over those institutions, or lack of institutions, be it their education system, health care system, government or what's happening with testing, everything that has happened here that might not be happening in other places.

I'm going to ask the three of you, the three who are presenting, to give us a global scan as to how you've reallocated or what you've done with your resources to address how you can have the greatest impact on the ground. I heard a little from Ms. McIsaac in terms of what you're doing in Mali, but what I'm asking now of the three witnesses is to take us right onto the ground. What are you doing with those dollars? How have you reprioritized to address COVID-19 where you might not be able to even get into some of these places?

We can start with Ms. Brusati.

[Annalisa Brusati]

COVID was a shock and an opportunity for us to rethink all our programming, the way we design our programs and the way we implement them.

It required very quick adaptations. We lost the opportunity to...obviously, schools, as we all know. Also, with schools came the loss of contact with children, the ability to identify children who needed support and the ability for us to work to bring children together for psychosocial support and mental health services.

The way IRC has adapted its programming has been—as one of our colleagues said—very much working through parents and caregivers and them to provide support to their children. We provided social and emotional learning packs to parents. We provided support through different countries in different ways, such as through radio, community focal points, local organizations and the local partners we've always worked with that had feet on the ground to really provide that support to the caregivers within the home.

We also worked through community focal points to identify children who needed support. There are certain services that we strongly advocate that are life-saving services even with containment measures, such as case management and child protection services. These must continue even with the containment measures. It was a question of how we could provide those services in the households to the child directly, while protecting our staff, the child and the family they are with.

It was really adapting our approaches to ensure that we respect the containment measures, but also that we continue to reach those children who are most in need.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Thank you, Ms. Brusati.

Ms. McIsaac, I know that Right To Play has a big focus on physical education, which improves mental health, etc. I would like to hear from you on how you have been able to adapt to that on the ground because of COVID and the restrictions, etc.

Maybe we can have Mr. Ayoub from Lebanon tell us a little bit about how it's really happening on the ground. What have you had to change and how have you had to adapt to this steep learning curve?

[Susan McIsaac]

Thank you.

I am actually going to turn it to Elias.

I'll just say that we had to immediately make all kinds of adjustments to reflect the current context and the new reality.

He's living it there in Lebanon and also works closely with our colleagues across Africa and the Middle East. Elias, do you mind offering some tangibility?

[Elias Ayoub]

Definitely. I think it builds upon a previous response, as well, in terms of being able to provide that support and aid directly into the household.

We work in a variety of different contexts. For example, in Tanzania we relied on radio in a big way to be able to disseminate the messages required from a health perspective. We even used pickup trucks with speakers on them and had one of our coaches with a microphone drive around the village and disseminate positive health messages.

In Lebanon, where tech is more possible, we did rely on different platforms through technology to be able to also reach the children and their parents.

In Jordan, we worked [Inaudible—Editor] around physical education, like you mentioned. We were able to actually to reach all children inside Jordan.

There's a variety, depending on the context. They're not always easy, but we've managed to respond in a good way.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Bergeron, go ahead for six minutes.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I would once again like to thank the witnesses for being here. Their testimony is certainly informative for our current study. I also thank them for the work they are doing with vulnerable populations around the world.

We have been discussing education, access to drinking water, and health care with you and with previous witnesses. As one of you pointed out, these are problems that predate the pandemic, but they have been exacerbated by it. Among other things, we have discussed the difficulty in bringing young people to school, especially those who are living in conflict zones. Once again, this situation is exacerbated by the pandemic. As one of you said, interest levels are dropping even among our students owing to distance education. In places where those conditions are non-existent on the ground, the level of disinterest must be even higher.

Before the pandemic, young people were probably already being driven to move toward the labour market or engaged in human trafficking networks. We can assume that the pandemic will have exacerbated all that, as well. Ms. McIsaac was talking about the situation in Mali.

How can we deal with the closing of schools, young people's disinterest in education, the knee-jerk reaction to get a job or the fact that some are caught in human trafficking networks, given the pandemic and even more difficult conditions it brings with it?

[Annalisa Brusati]

Thank you for the question.

Yes, the COVID pandemic has taken us back. We have many programs that have been working for years to get children into school—children who are out of school back into school—and really support that reintegration into education. There are a lot of options that we can look at to generate that interest in returning to school and to work to address the social norms around education, especially for girls but for children in general.

I think, in a situation like this, it also needs to be coupled with work to support family livelihoods where families have either lost their livelihoods completely and are relying on their children's labour and the work that the children are doing, or are subsidizing the reduced livelihoods with their children's work.

It's looking at a holistic approach where we're supporting the family in increasing...and supporting them in their livelihoods and in their opportunities to meet their basic needs, while also addressing and supporting reintegration into school, looking at accelerated learning programs and other support, including non-formal education opportunities for children who may have been out of school for a very long time and need that additional support to be able to reintegrate into the formal education system.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Would any other witnesses like to comment?

[Susan McIsaac]

I'll make a quick addition.

One of the things that we did do immediately when the pandemic started and we realized that we'd be teaching remotely, or working with teachers remotely, was to move to a lot of different approaches that were more interactive and peer-based. We looked for ways through technology, but also with whatever material was available, to engage children in as interactive a type of learning as possible.

We're always focused on play-based, child-centred learning. This took it to the next level because we understood that children would become disengaged, so it became a priority for us to make it as engaging as possible. I think it's a great point that you've made, sir.