Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's a pleasure talking to the committee today. I'm not going to repeat what has been already said in terms of the compounded challenges that humanitarian organizations are facing with the impact of COVID globally. Of course, we're dealing with more isolated communities cut off from their traditional support systems. Protective equipment and training are essential, and we're at a time when we have limited access to our global surge tools.
We're particularly concerned, of course, that the pandemic has not stopped natural disasters and conflict, so we're concerned again about the compounded effect of both COVID and ongoing emergencies.
Today I'm going to insist on two aspects: the necessity to support local actors and to grow our global response tools. Both aspects of that response are key.
I will say a few words about the Red Cross and its capacity.
The Canadian Red Cross is a member of an international network of 192 national societies of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, including the International Committee of the Red Cross. That gives us unique access to every location on the planet, even the most remote areas affected by conflict.
Among the most important lessons learned is that COVID-19 has highlighted and accelerated the need for localization. There has been a lot of talk in the past few years about localization and its importance to the grand bargain and so on, but at the end of the day, we need to strengthen the capacity of local organizations where they are trusted, have access and are there to stay in the response.
Thanks to the support of the Canadian government, we have witnessed first-hand the value of these investments in strengthening the capacity of local actors in a number of countries. One of our recommendations here is that as part of the grand bargain commitment to localization, Canada should continue to make investments in strengthening the capacity of local actors.
One of the challenges is that.... We know the value of local capacity. We know the response needs to be local, but the funding mechanisms don't recognize that. It's either an emergency or it's development, but building the capacity of a local Red Cross is not an area that's covered, so it's an essential part.
The second concerns the importance of a global response system, once again, thanks to the support of the Canadian government.
Through its response teams and mobile field hospitals, the Canadian Red Cross has provided responses in 55 countries. We responded to the Ebola and cholera epidemics. We are currently providing a response in more than 150 long-term care centres in Canada. We also provided support for Canadian travellers in isolation, and I would like to thank Doctors Without Borders for their help with that. All of that work is possible thanks to the expertise we have gained internationally.
The demand for emergency response and local infrastructure support will continue in the years ahead. We therefore recommend that Canada continue to invest in surge capacity and mobile field hospital capacity so that we can respond in emergencies.
In closing, there are two.... We know that unfortunately the pandemic was predicted in some ways, or predictable. We know we're going into an environment of more challenges related to disruptive climate events as well as epidemics, so the need is to look at the tools we have and the importance, again, of strengthening and investing in our local capacity, which is key. We don't have those tools presently in the tool box; it's not a part that's recognized, and I have a number of examples of how we strengthen that capacity. The second part, of course, is our surge.
On that, I will be there with my colleague to answer questions.