Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 23rd, 2021

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to both of our witnesses for being here today. This is fascinating.

I'm delighted to see your SDG pins. I have to show you that I write all of my notes for this committee in my SDG 5 notebook, because I need to remember how important it is that we fight for women and girls all the time.

Dr. Kanem, I share your deep concerns about the international community failing to recognize the vital importance for this investment.

For me, it's more the immediate concern I have, of course, with impacts on women and girls around the world, but also the long tail of COVID-19 and how we know it could take years or even decades to recover from COVID-19, and that while we might be able to convince governments to do what needs to be done in the short term, that long-term austerity and nationalization is a huge concern for me.

I want to make it very clear and get it on the record for our analysts: What do we stand to lose if the global community does not recognize how vital this investment is right now?

[Dr. Natalia Kanem]

Very briefly, and we'd be happy to expand even after the meeting, Canada, for example, is a key supporter to UNFPA supplies. We're the largest provider of contraception, voluntary contraception, that women want to be able to plan their lives. This also has led to unintended pregnancies being prevented, almost four million in a year due to Canadian funding, for example.

I also mentioned marginalized girls, the support that we have that allows marginalized girls to be reached by life skills programs approaching 400,000 a year. This wouldn't happen otherwise.

The most important thing that I can really say, though, is that in a world of COVID, we've seen how interconnected we all are and we've also seen how devastating discrimination, racism and the taboos against women being the owners of their own bodies can be. In line with Beijing+25, UNFPA is co-leading on bodily autonomy on sexual and reproductive health and rights, again to make it clear that when growing up, girls have to have an image and it has to become real that they are fully equal in every sense of SDG 5.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Very quickly, and then we'll go to Mr. Spicer, how do we ensure that women and girls are at the table in that decision-making process?

One of the big pieces of SDG 5 is that women and girls are part of the decision-making process. They are part of the development of the programs that impact them. How do we make sure that's happening?

[Dr. Natalia Kanem]

Here within the UN and also turning to the civil society, it's the idea that women can lead at every aspect of the spectrum, within her village, within her school, and certainly she can be a minister and member of Parliament, but the invitation to speak is something that we cannot take for granted. I gave a survey that we did on who decides whether you can even access the clinic. Ultimately, I think the understanding set in policy that gender equality means equality in every sphere and that the power dynamic of saying to a rural farmer, “You are a woman and you too should get that voucher or that investment,” is something we inculcate. We call it leadership training. In many areas, it's the nurse and the midwife who embodies that understanding, but we want girls to aspire to be fully equal in every way.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you.

Mr. Spicer, I would like to go to you now.

Perhaps you could comment as well on how you see the shortfalls that we worry about, that we all have deep concerns about, affecting populations. Perhaps you could touch upon the health aspects of some of the things we've seen in terms of fallback or fall down in terms of measles, in terms of malaria, in terms of other vaccinations, what we've lost during COVID and what we stand to lose if we are not bold and ambitious with our goals for the coming years and decade.

[Joel Spicer]

Thanks for the question.

I would say we are looking at some catastrophic outcomes. The possibility of losing 20 years of progress is very real in the nutrition world. We're looking at setbacks in equality even more. We're looking at the issue of governments moving a lot of their existing budgets, which are under significant pressure because of COVID, to responding to COVID and away from investments in the social sector.

My fear is that the economic disruption we're going to see—and I like your expression, “the long tail of COVID”, because that's where I think the sting will be, in the tail.... That's where some of the impacts are going to be even more significant than those we've seen elsewhere.

I think we're going to see governments spending more and more of their money on the treatment side and less on the prevention side. As countries move into crisis, as children move into crisis and are farther down the curve of severe, acute malnutrition, you're going to see the need to spend more money on more expensive treatments instead of investing in those community-level structures that are a critical part of the health system to help prevent some of those burdens. That's why it's key to lean in right now.

As I've said before and as Dr. Kanem has said, those impacts are falling most heavily on women and girls, and we have to understand that it's not just a single word score of damage; it's a double and a triple word score of damage. When a mother is malnourished, the child goes on to be low birth weight, with a higher chance of stunting. When that child who is stunted grows up and goes to school, their learning outcomes are known to be subpar, and the income they earn later in life is also much less.

We're talking about the need for a smart focus that can break intergenerational transfers of poverty. While we talk about the greatest transfer of wealth, from baby boomers to gen X, the greatest transfer of poverty we have ever seen is about to take place right now, and this is the time to lean in completely.

To address a point raised earlier about missed opportunities, the world is structured and financed, and so is the COVID response, to create missed opportunities. I hope what this committee takes away is the fact that while it's perhaps a happy accident that Dr. Kanem and I are on the same panel, the point that Canada and other donors need to take a “no missed opportunities” lens to what we're doing is essential.

There is no world in which investing in education without looking at nutrition or sexual and reproductive health makes sense. It's just a recipe for missed opportunities. There is a lot we can do by being focused and intentional, and there's a lot we can do as a country by picking our niches wherever we find areas in which Canada can lead.

Thank you.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

That's fascinating. Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Ms. McPherson, thank you very much for that exchange.

Colleagues, this takes us to the end of our scheduled time with our witnesses today.

I think all of us feel that we would have welcomed much more time with you to explore these very important issues. On our collective behalf, thank you for your time, for your expertise and most importantly for your leadership and service in making our world a better place. We're grateful.

There's always the possibility of colleagues asking in writing, or you sending us in writing, supplementary points that you wanted to make and haven't had a chance to make. We're grateful to have had time with you this afternoon.

Colleagues, thank you.

We stand adjourned until our next meeting.