Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 2nd, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Colleagues, welcome to meeting number 15 of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion passed by the committee on Thursday, October 22, 2020, the committee is continuing its study on vulnerabilities created and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Once again, to ensure an orderly meeting, I would encourage everybody to mute their microphones when they are not speaking and address comments though the chair. When 30 seconds of questioning or speaking time remains, I will signal you with this yellow sheet of paper. You will have interpretation services available through the globe icon at the bottom of your screen.

I would now like to welcome the first panel of witnesses.

From UNICEF Canada, we are hearing from Annabelle Bodmer-Roy, director of international policy and programs, and Rowena Pinto, chief program officer.

From Save the Children Canada, we are hearing from Tineka Levy, humanitarian advisor, and Taryn Russell, head of policy and advocacy.

Representing World Vision Canada are Martin Fischer, director of policy, and Lindsay Gladding, director for fragile and humanitarian programs.

Ms. Bodmer-Roy and Ms. Pinto, we will give you the chance to lead off with your opening remarks for five minutes. I will ask witnesses to please watch the timing closely as there are three organizations that are testifying in limited time. Opening rounds will be five minutes and Ms. Bodmer-Roy and Ms. Pinto will lead us off.

The floor is yours.

[Rowena Pinto, Chief Program Officer, UNICEF Canada]

Thank you to the committee for the invitation to contribute to this study and for this focus on children in conflict and crisis.

In these contexts, UNICEF and our partners are particularly concerned at the impact of COVID-19 on children's health, mental health, nutrition, education and protection. These concerns are expressed in our joint six-point plan. Today, UNICEF will focus on health and nutrition while our colleagues speak to the other areas of joint concern.

In conflict and crisis settings, the pandemic is adding massive pressures to already overwhelmed health and nutrition systems. Countless families are unable to meet their basic survival needs of food and essential medicines, leaving more children facing malnutrition and deadly disease.

Looking at malnutrition, in northeast Nigeria more than four million people now face acute hunger; in Yemen, over two million children are suffering from malnutrition; and in the DRC, we estimate this will affect three million children this year. This is the combined impact of the pandemic, underlying poverty, displacement and armed conflict, and in the case of the DRC, Ebola.

Canada's partners can tackle these combined challenges. For example, to reduce the number of people visiting clinics ever day in Somalia, UNICEF trained and supplied parents with the ability to screen and treat their children for malnutrition at home. This work must continue.

Heading into 2021, the UN's Nutrition for Growth year of action, Canada's support for nutrition for children in crisis will be essential.

Another major concern is access to health. UNICEF applauds Canada's long-standing leadership on global health, from maternal and newborn health to sexual and reproductive health, and its significant commitments to the “ACT-Accelerator”.

The key to ensuring the success of these initiatives is vaccine readiness. Countries in conflict and crisis had weakened health systems before the pandemic and they need Canada's support to be ready to deploy COVID-19 vaccines as they become available. This includes helping countries strengthen their cold and supply chains so that they have adequate infrastructure to safely store, transport and distribute vaccines from the minute they arrive in-country to when they are administered in people's arms. It includes training and equipping front-line health care workers, the majority of whom are women whose own right to health must be protected as they support others.

Last, readiness must include supporting local partners in developing and disseminating localized community engagement strategies to address vaccine misinformation.

Simply put, we can't wait for vaccines to reach these countries before we act. Readiness must begin now. While the focus on COVID-19 vaccines is absolutely necessary, we are increasingly concerned at the potential diversion from life-saving routine immunization, particularly in crisis settings where the needs are high and growing.

For example, without an urgent national measles campaign, UNICEF, WHO and the CDC predict a large-scale measles epidemic in Chad this year. In Yemen, close to 40% of infants are not receiving routine vaccination and the country is now seeing outbreaks of measles, diphtheria and other deadly diseases. Like death from malnutrition, these too are preventable deaths.

Getting vaccines to children is possible in the pandemic. In Syria, UNICEF and partners helped immunize almost one million children since the pandemic started, thanks to adaptations like physical distancing and the use of PPE.

Early signs indicate that Canadians are behind us on this issue and are coming to the table to support UNICEF Canada's efforts on vaccines and on other critical areas for children in crisis. There's a real opportunity for Canada to come to the table for children too.

First, Canada must stay firm in ensuring contributions to the new COVID-19 commitments do not come at the expense of existing commitments, including health and nutrition.

Second, Canada's welcome commitment to increase international assistance must include a clear agenda for children. Recognizing that children do not live siloed lives, Canada's agenda for children must take an integrated approach. Children in crisis cannot access quality education if they are not protected from gender-based violence, child labour or the mental health impacts of conflict or displacement. Girls cannot advocate for gender equality if they die of preventable diseases or malnutrition.

Before and throughout this pandemic, children in crisis have paid too high a price. They are counting on us to act. We look forward to further collaboration with the Government of Canada, our fellow Canadian partners and Canadians from coast to coast as we work to meet the needs of children in this pandemic.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you so much, Ms. Pinto, and thank you for being spot-on with respect to timing.

We will now turn the floor over to Ms. Levy and Ms. Russell at Save the Children. The floor is yours for five minutes.

[Taryn Russell, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Save the Children Canada]

Good afternoon, I'm Taryn Russell, head of policy and advocacy at Save the Children Canada, and I'm here with my colleague, Tineka Levy, who's the humanitarian adviser.

Save the Children works to address the needs and rights of children in more than 100 countries around the world, including in Canada. We thank you for inviting us back today to discuss the impact of the pandemic on children.

As my colleague from UNICEF outlined, we wanted to coordinate our approach today in order to give you a holistic view on how this pandemic has created a global children's rights crisis, and what's needed to respond. I will be speaking to two intersecting and urgent issues: the global disruptions in education and the rise of gender-based violence.

Over a billion children's education came to a standstill in the early months of 2020, and most were out of school for six months or more. Around 200 million children who were in school before the pandemic remain out of school, and that number continues to fluctuate, as we know well here in Canada. When children are out of school, their learning does not just stop, but is likely to regress. Save the Children did a global survey of 25,000 children and their caregivers and found that four out of five children felt that they were learning little or nothing at all while out of school. Girls, displaced children and children living in poor households were most likely to report that they had learned nothing during school closures.

To give you a sense of some of the challenges to keep children learning in many contexts, here's a quote from Ghinwa, a 12-year-old Syrian girl living in a refugee camp in Lebanon:

Online education is extremely difficult, and the teachers aren’t explaining the lessons well. Since most parents are illiterate, they can’t help their children in understanding the lessons. Because of the financial situation, families can’t buy stationary or books or devices and some families have only one phone so the siblings need to share it and sometimes the father needs to take it with him to work so the children miss their classes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Ms. Russell, can I interject for 30 seconds? Interpretation is asking if you could slow down a wee bit so they can keep up.

Thank you so much.

[Taryn Russell]

Sorry, interpretation.

I feel that her comments really highlight the complexities of implementing distance-based learning measures, particularly for families living in poverty and in crisis situations.

Save the Children has worked to employ innovative solutions to address many of these learning barriers, but it is vital that we get all children back into school as soon as it is safe to do so. We know the interventions that will be needed. These include things like financial support for the world's poorest families, catch-up classes for children who re-enter the formal education system, water sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools to make them COVID-19 safe, and national back-to-school communications campaigns to inform communities that it is safe to return to school, and especially those targeted at vulnerable groups, which I mentioned earlier, including girls, refugees and internally displaced children. Finally, it includes effective training for teachers to keep everyone safe during the pandemic.

The closure of schools and the increase in global poverty rates has also exacerbated another critical issue affecting children, that of gender-based violence. To give an example, in Uganda, despite some schools having reopened, more than 13 million children have remained out of school since the end of March last year, including 600,000 refugee children. In Nwoya District in northern Uganda, figures show that cases of both teenage pregnancies and child marriage doubled, and rates of child labour tripled between April and June last year while children were out of school. With reporting difficulties, the numbers are likely much higher.

Without urgent action, it's projected that over the next 10 years as many as 13 million additional girls may marry as a result of the pandemic, and we know that this will have immediate as well as lifelong impacts on them, including higher risks to disruptions of their education, life-threatening adolescent pregnancy and childbirth, malnutrition, mental health issues, and the inability to control their own future.

Arsema, a young Ethiopian girl, whose own child marriage was averted, thankfully, with support from a community safeguarding program, told us “I couldn’t be happier. Now I can study hard and become a doctor”. Every child has a right to plan for their own future in this way. What's so concerning is that the pandemic is already causing critical interruptions to GBV preventative interventions. This includes child protection and referral services for girls at risk of GBV, which is how girls like Arsema would have been identified and supported in their communities.

It's clearly a time when governments should be investing in children, their education and their safety, yet budgets are being hollowed out by a recession, and the diversion of public spending to health care and economic recovery, which are important. Most of the world's poorest countries, especially in Africa, entered the economic downturn with limited financial space. The international community will be needed to step up and take action to help fill this gap through international aid, but also debt relief measures and providing technical assistance and political support for issues like GBV and education.

In our prior testimony, we provided recommendations that Canada should scale up its humanitarian assistance, that Canada should prioritize urgently needed attention to these neglected areas like education and gender-based violence, and that Canada should support calls for a global ceasefire. These recommendations still stand, and I would just echo my colleague on the need for Canada to be championing an agenda for children reflecting their needs as well as their voices into fora both domestic and global when discussing COVID-19 response measures. Children may not be the most directly affected by the virus itself, but as our testimony shows, they're bearing a heavy load of the indirect impacts and need our support.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much, Ms. Russell.

We will now go to World Vision.

Mr. Fischer and Ms. Gladding, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Lindsay Gladding, Director for Fragile and Humanitarian Programs, World Vision Canada]

Thank you very much, Chair, and members of the committee, for inviting us to elaborate on our November testimony regarding how COVID-19 is affecting the world's most vulnerable children.

I'll be joined in my testimony today by my colleague, Martin Fischer.

All six agencies that are appearing today have agreed to present different aspects of a comprehensive agenda for children. Our ability to realize the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and lay the groundwork for a better world depends on prioritizing girls and boys—tomorrow's leaders—today. Nine years from now, in 2030, it will be a 14-year-old South Sudanese girl and her peers influencing global change, not you or me.

Today we want to elaborate by addressing three very practical things that Canada can do.

Number one is to engage girls and boys more meaningfully in our international assistance efforts. Number two is to more closely engage with Canadian and local implementing partners. Number three is to take action to address the increased risks of child labour in our global supply chains.

On increasing children's participation, you don't need me to elaborate on the impacts the pandemic is having on girls and boys. They can tell you themselves. Fifteen-year-old Flore from Haiti says, “I heard that several girls were raped during the time of the confinement. Even in my neighbourhood, a girl was raped and is now pregnant. If there were no confinement and no COVID-19, she would have been in school, [and] she wouldn't be pregnant today.”

Girls and boys must be part of the solution. Sixteen-year-old Martine from DRC states it plainly when she said, “We want to be able to stand before people and speak about our issues, and talk about our rights and dreams.”

Many of you have youth councils in your own riding. You value young Canadians' opinions and experiences, so we urge you to intentionally seek out ways to integrate the voices of the world's most vulnerable girls and boys in Canada's response to COVID-19.

On more closely engaging with Canadian and local partners, the default for Canada, like most donors, is to heavily—and often overly—rely on multilateral partners for the delivery of our international assistance. There are simple reasons for this, which are scale, reputation and time.

Don't hear me wrong today. Multilaterals have a critical role to play. Please don't take this as a self-serving plea for more funds. The delivery of international assistance is an interwoven tapestry where civil society—from local to global, national government, multilaterals and donors—need to be recognized and equipped to do their part. Canadian partners have incredibly deep roots and long-standing partnerships with local communities, especially in crisis- and conflict-affected contexts. We are uniquely positioned to scale up and help. This is even truer for local partners that are often the only ones able to effectively deliver in crisis- and conflict-affected regions. Together, we're ready to do more and to work with Global Affairs Canada on the how. We recommend that Global Affairs Canada take concrete steps to enhance the way it engages Canadian and local implementing partners in its response to COVID-19.

[Martin Fischer, Director of Policy, World Vision Canada]

Let me conclude, then, by taking things in a slightly different, albeit very much connected and relevant, direction: reducing the risk of children being exploited in global supply chains.

COVID-19 is pushing millions of children into exploitive work as families' livelihoods evaporate and poverty increases. Whether boys mining metals for our smartphones in DRC, girls being sexually exploited on palm oil plantations in Indonesia, or migrant children being enslaved in the Thai seafood industry, this work is seriously compromising their health, safety and well-being.

There is a clear Canadian connection. In the last months alone, committee members have no doubt seen the media coverage of labour abuses in PPE supply chains, but the problem is much bigger and more pervasive.

In fact, tomorrow, World Vision is releasing a report revealing that imports of food products at risk of being produced by children totalled $3.7 billion in 2019. That's a 63% increase over the past decade, and nearly 10% of all foods coming into Canada.

We'd be remiss to not expect the companies at the top of these global supply chains to be doing their part, but governments have a key role to play here.

Other jurisdictions, including the U.K., Australia, France and the Netherlands, have passed legislation requiring companies to report and take action to prevent child labour and other human rights abuses. In 2018, this very committee tabled a report that recommended the federal government pursue such legislation.

Despite initial consultations, Canada has yet to commit or make this a priority. Now, Bill S-216 has been introduced in the Senate, but really, why wait on the Senate? If Canada is truly committed to championing a just recovery at home and abroad, common sense legislation like this needs to be part of that.

We urge members from all parties to make this legislation a priority.

Chair and members of the committee, we've worked with my colleagues here to ensure we provide you with a complementary overview of these impacts.

To conclude, then, all these issues are linked. That 14-year-old girl in South Sudan experiencing years of conflict and displacement isn't just facing economic uncertainty, food insecurity and increased violence in isolation. She and millions like her are experiencing this all at once, contributing to a vicious cycle. With the effects of COVID-19 layered on top of already dire situations, the consequences are devastating.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. We look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

I thank all witnesses for their opening remarks and for respecting the time limits carefully.

We will now go to our first round of questions, which will consist of six minutes per member of the committee.

First up is Mr. Morantz.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you all for being here, virtually speaking. Your work is literally a matter of life and death. I know all committee members take it very seriously.

One of the things I want to explore a little more, and the only witness who I recall touching on it was Ms. Pinto, is just the whole situation with vaccines in undeveloped countries and what plans are in place.

I know our Prime Minister had actually committed to sending any vaccine doses that were procured over and above the needs of Canadians to help in undeveloped countries. You know that we're having some difficulty with actually receiving those vaccines at this point.

Ms. Pinto, maybe I'll start with you. I wonder if you could share your concerns over what the world needs to do to get vaccines in the arms of the most vulnerable people.

[Rowena Pinto]

I think we already are making some great steps towards making this a reality. The global partnership that exists through the COVAX facility is a really great effort to ensure the equitable access to vaccines. I'm pleased to say that, first of all, Canada has played a huge role in contributing to that, and it's through that facility that they've also promised to donate any unused vaccines. What has happened is that the biggest players that are already coming to the table with experience, such as the WHO and Gavi, are key in terms of trying to figure out how to get this across.

UNICEF is playing a huge role in this. On a yearly basis, we actually deliver approximately two billion doses of routine immunizations to children around the world in some of the most difficult and hard-to-reach places. We've procured two billion doses every year. We are the largest procurer of vaccines. Therefore, even though children are not the primary receivers of the COVID-19 vaccine, we've been asked to really help with the procurement and with the logistics, by management and transportation, as well as vaccine readiness, which I spoke to you about in my opening remarks. It really does speak to the fact that, at this point, we can't really help children the way we need to help children unless we also get rid of the pandemic.

This is going to be a big thing. We actually have, just hot off the presses, the first 18 countries in the developing world that will be getting their vaccine. Unfortunately, I can't share with you which ones those are. They will be announced officially tomorrow in a press conference. The first step is really vaccine readiness.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Can you tell us who they are? Just kidding.

[Rowena Pinto]

I would get into big trouble, sorry.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

In terms of Canada's role or what Canada can do, I mentioned that the Prime Minister made a commitment to providing access to doses.

Has your organization received any assurances, written or verbal, from the Canadian government with respect to the provision of vaccines?

[Rowena Pinto]

This is all being coordinated through the COVAX facility, part of which is global UNICEF. That landscape is constantly changing. There have actually been a lot of funds already injected by Canada into not only the procurement and purchase of vaccines, but also the purchase of therapeutics, etc.

Right now, Canada is playing a leadership role, as are other major countries and foundations. It really is a global effort, and really speaks to the strength of multilateral co-operation.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

With respect to COVAX, I had a meeting with someone from Doctors Without Borders a couple days ago, and I asked about this. There were some serious concerns about the COVAX program, and how it's being rolled out.

Have you been hearing those things as well, or is it all going well? Are there issues?

[Rowena Pinto]

As I said, it's a constantly moving target. As you know, the whole vaccine landscape is constantly changing, which vaccines will be available and where. I'm sure this is not surprising. It's an incredibly complex process. When you're talking about vaccine readiness, you're talking also about ensuring our whole supply chain is in place.

In certain countries, certain vaccines might work more effectively just based on their infrastructure. There's a lot going on. I don't think we have all the information. That might be part of the frustration, that all of the information in terms of how exactly this will all roll out is as complicated as what we hear in Canada. It's very similar; it's constantly changing.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

One of the witnesses, and I don't recall which one, expressed some concerns over Canada's percentage of GNI going to international development. I can't recall who it was, but could that witness expand on those concerns?

Just generally, does anyone have a view on that?

[Taryn Russell]

I don't think I said that specifically, but the case that we're trying to make, as a civil society in Canada, is that these are unprecedented times. We have the opportunity to not only stop the scaling back of a lot of progress we've made in areas of health, education, and other issues but also address the global pandemic. The resources needed are higher than what we're currently providing. There's a lot of opportunity for investment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you.

We'll now go to Dr. Fry, for six minutes.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you so much to the witnesses. You are highlighting something that has been going on for a very long time, and most countries in the world have not paid a lot of attention, especially, to displaced children. We know there are 33 million displaced children globally right now, and all of the things you say that are happening have been exposed by COVID.

The thing about it, though, as you actually said, is that they're not getting COVID—that's not the issue. The issue is nutrition, sanitation, access to food, access to health care, access to education and, more importantly, the sexual slavery and the labour slavery that we see going on with these kids being exploited and/or disappearing.

I know when we talk about this we talk a lot about Africa, the Middle East, those kinds of conflict zones, but actually this is a humongous issue in Europe. Displaced children in camps are not getting any help. They are not even seen, are not heard, and are disappearing.

I think COVID has exacerbated this, and I am hoping we're not just going to look at what the impact of that is, but at the opportunity COVID would have given us to actually begin to understand this issue and the lost generations that are going to come as a result of conflict and displacement for children around the world.

My question is simply this. I know Canada is interested. Canada is...with COVAX, and Canada is doing all of these things, but how do we get countries of the world to actually pay attention to displaced children?

UNICEF, you did a survey in 2020 that said that 159 countries were surveyed and it showed that displaced children are excluded from national pandemic responses, from strategies, from recovery plans, and they're not even documented. Nobody knows who they are, where they are in so many places.

What are the essential services that we need to do, and how do we get migrant children the help, the care and the documentation they need? I am really concerned about migrant children.

Secondly, what factors do you think have contributed to the plight of migrant children, and to the fact that most nations have ignored their plight? We just tend to look at kids who are actually in the conflict zones and not the ones who have been displaced and are trying to migrate.

What are the things you need to do? I would like some real recommendations to get this on the agenda and to make sure that countries continue to look at this, even after COVID has gone away.

I don't know who wants to start, but I think maybe UNICEF, because you did the survey.

[Rowena Pinto]

Annie, do you want to take this one?

[Annabelle Bodmer-Roy, Director, International Policy and Programs, UNICEF Canada]

Yes, sure.

Thanks so much for that question and for the focus on refugee and displaced children.

I think one of the first steps was articulated by colleagues from World Vision, which is really listening to children and young people themselves. All of our organizations do work directly with refugee and displaced children and youth who have told us over and over again what their needs are. Some of those needs are, in fact, in areas that are chronically underfunded.

If we are to listen to displaced and refugee young people and children, they will tell you that the needs that they prioritize over anything else are education and protection. These are areas that, in emergencies, are chronically underfunded.

A first step would be to listen to children and young people themselves. What are they saying they need? What is the most important thing to them? That is the critical first step, and then to take action based on what they are saying.

When Canada is looking at an added international response to COVID, but also longer-term recovery, how can we ensure an inclusive recovery that really looks at supporting the refugee and displaced youth in what they are saying they need, not just today but over the longer term?

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

I just want to quickly flag that when I am asking this question I am trying to find out how we keep track of those kids. How do we identify them? How do we make sure they are on the radar, because talking to them is one thing. You have to be able to pay attention to them.

I know that specifically in Europe many countries have just ignored them, locked them down, seen them as a nuisance, and are not paying attention to them during the pandemic.

I think this is what I'm trying to get at. How do we document where they are, who they are, when they are...? How do we make them real people? They're invisible right now.