Thank you.
In terms of the top things that I would recommend, Canada's contributions to ODA have been basically stagnating for many years now. We still are coming in at well under the target of 0.7% that was set by the United Nations.
My bigger concern here is that, as we go forward and endeavour to pay off the trillions of dollars in global debt that's been accrued as a result of the pandemic, we're seeing that many countries, including the United Kingdom, are already looking at cutting their official development assistance through that process to be able to make up some of those gains. I would say that one of the most important things Canada can do is to continue to buttress its ODA contributions and to make sure that for those contributions it is really thinking very strategically about what kind of aid has the most impact. The kind of aid that has the most impact is locally driven, locally supported and longer term. It is targeting the structural challenges that exist within countries, including around education, access to justice—which we've heard a lot about today—and economic development, especially for women.
A lot of the issues we've been talking about—recruitment of young people into armed forces, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation—all come down to a lack of protection, a lack of protection infrastructure, a lack of justice, a lack of education and a lack of opportunity. If our aid dollars are being mobilized to go beyond short-term band-aid type solutions and if we're thinking about education as part of a humanitarian infrastructure and not as something that happens after food, water, shelter and blankets, but something that happens at the same time because it's so critically important and because it helps deal with children's vulnerability then we're going to see that we're able to make a long-term difference in the lives of these kids.
I've taken enough time and I want to pass the floor over, but that's what I would say. Let's not let aid be the first casualty of our deficit-cutting when we get to that day, because it's really important.