Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 19th, 2020

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

To continue on this point, there's a consortium of organizations—the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the UN Children's Fund—that created the COVAX advance market commitment. I wonder if you could give your perspective on that. Do you think it will be effective in terms of a means of delivering the COVID vaccine to where it's going to be needed?

[Dr. Jason Nickerson]

Yes, this is the second time that there's been an advance market commitment, an AMC, that's been created for a new vaccine. The first one was for the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, and that was created about a decade ago.

The basic idea is that we pool funds together, and it demonstrates that there is a viable financial market that would allow manufacturers to scale up production because they know that there's going to be somebody who's going to purchase it on the other end.

The devil is in the details with all of these things. Going back to the pneumonia vaccine AMC, it lacked a clear mechanism for humanitarian organizations to be able to access the vaccine for populations that fall outside of the Gavi distribution and the typical health systems access mechanisms. We spent many years fighting for a humanitarian mechanism to gain access at an affordable price.

I think this is clearly a positive development, where we see the development of COVAX and the AMC coming together. These are positive steps, let's be clear about that, but it's also important that we get the details right to make sure that access is going to be ensured at an affordable price for everyone.

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

Thank you very much.

Ms. Grantham, I know that your organization welcomed the government's announcement of $400 million in new funding to address the impacts of COVID in some of the most fragile and vulnerable communities in the world. You also stressed the need to ensure that contributions are implemented as effectively and efficiently as possible.

I just want to get your take or recommendations on how Canada's contributions to the COVID-19 response globally can be made more effective and efficient.

[Barbara Grantham]

I'm going to ask my colleague Maxime Michel to answer that. She's our head of humanitarian and resilience programs.

[Maxime Michel, Head of Humanitarian and Resilience Programs, CARE Canada]

As Mr. Morantz said, we welcomed that announcement, and we really want to make sure those funds are disbursed this year. We understand that half of that funding will go to humanitarian needs. We're concerned that it might not be available right away. As you've heard today, for all of us, the urgency is to act now, before the situation gets much worse and it becomes a lot more expensive for us to respond. I know there's very limited time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Dabrusin, the floor is yours for six minutes.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank to all the witnesses and their organizations for the work they're doing on the ground.

We're focusing on vulnerable communities, and getting assistance to vulnerable communities. I was wondering if there have been any particular challenges in reaching members of the LGBTQ2 communities across different needs-based communities. Do you have any suggestions as to how we can best reach these communities?

[Conrad Sauvé]

For the Red Cross, I would ask Kelsey Lemon to comment on our programming in this respect.

[Kelsey Lemon, Senior Director, Canadian Red Cross]

Certainly, I'm happy to do so.

If we're talking about reaching these communities in situations of protracted crisis, violence and conflict, this is a challenge that we face even outside of the pandemic. It's incredibly difficult. We know that with COVID-19, particularly in the conflict context, those who face stigmatization and marginalization in communities...this increases even more for them, so they're harder to reach.

The best thing we can do is support the local actors in delivering an inclusive and accessible response to meet those needs. As we've seen through the course of the pandemic, international humanitarian actors have had challenges that have changed and adapted. Initially, one of our major challenges was access, which is why the role of local actors came forward so strongly. In terms of reaching those most stigmatized, most vulnerable populations, their role is critical.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I'm actually very happy that you brought it to there, because I'm going to go back to it perhaps a bit more.

Mr. Sauvé, you said you had examples of how we can better help local organizations. Can you give us some?

[Conrad Sauvé]

Yes, absolutely.

Building on the previous question, I would say that access to vaccines is obviously a challenge. Who handles the distribution? It is always local organizations. Local Red Cross and Red Crescent sections exist, but resources are not deployed to build programming or training capacity. The focus is always on the specific initiative.

Currently, we are deploying teams to support Honduras in response to the hurricanes that hit the country. A few years ago, investments were made in the country's emergency preparedness and response system, command centre and volunteer training. Those investments yield benefits.

When we participate in programming, we gain access, and we know who the different communities are and how they administer their programs. It's important to invest in that dimension as well, not just the response. Response after response will be provided, but investment in capacity is needed.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

If you look at what we are doing as a country, do we have special funding that is distributed through an organization like yours?

Conversely, do we endeavour to reach out to communities directly?

How does it work?

[Conrad Sauvé]

It's always done through local organizations. Right now, we rely on specific programs, but there is no recognition for building organizational capacity. It takes time and investment in the systems.

As I said earlier, we struggle with having to provide increasingly complex responses, as Ms. Lemon pointed out. Either we have money for the emergency response, or we have money for long-term development, but we don't have any resources to build local capacity. It always comes back to the capacity of local organizations, their mechanisms, their training and the time it takes to build a lasting organizational culture that takes into account people from different communities and volunteer training.

All of that takes time and falls under local organizational capacity. It does not fit into a program. It requires a long-term effort.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Ms. Grantham, I believe you also mentioned the importance of building local community capacity. I was wondering if you had any suggestions about how we can best do that. If you look at our country's programs, for example, what can we do to make sure we strengthen that local capacity building?

The other part of that is whether you think that could have a gendered impact on the ground, as well.

[Barbara Grantham]

Who was the question for?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

It was for you.

[Barbara Grantham]

I'm so sorry; I didn't hear the first part of your question.

Maxime, would you answer that, please?

[Maxime Michel]

Yes, of course.

Thank you, Julie, for your question. I can echo some of what Mr. Sauvé said.

Really, it's going beyond program delivery funding. Funding exclusively to deliver on programs does not give us the time and the space to be able to build capacity with local partners. We work with women's organizations around the world. It takes a lot of very creative ways for us to be able to build in that capacity building.

To very quickly answer your question, fund local organizations directly, but also fund mechanisms that go beyond program delivery and actually allow that capacity building, like Mr. Sauvé said.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you so much.

That's your time, Ms. Dabrusin. Thank you very much.

Mr. Bergeron, you may go ahead for six minutes.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As a French-speaking member, I don't often get the chance to hear the language—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Mr. Bergeron, I think you're on mute.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

No, that's impossible, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Madam Clerk, can we activate his audio?

Mr. Bergeron, you may go ahead.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As a French-speaking member, I seldom get the chance to hear witnesses speak the language of Molière. I would like to thank Ms. Grantham and Mr. Sauvé for granting me that pleasure. I also appreciate Ms. Dabrusin giving Mr. Sauvé an opportunity to add his remarks. I was very glad to hear that exchange.

My question is for all of the witnesses.

The United Nations Secretary-General called on the international community to abide by a ceasefire during the COVID-19 pandemic. In June, some 170 countries joined the Secretary-General in his appeal to respect the global ceasefire.

You are out there on the ground, working with vulnerable populations. Do you feel as though the appeal was heard and is being respected? If not, are the conflicts that were under way prior to the call for a ceasefire continuing or have new conflicts erupted?

[Conrad Sauvé]

That's an important question. Unfortunately, in many cases, conflicts are ongoing. COVID-19 has exacerbated the challenges of responding in some situations. A pandemic adds another layer to a conflict or natural disaster, which can be interconnected. Unfortunately, the needs in that regard still exist. As I mentioned in my opening statement, we live in a world where certain events occur over and over again. Instead of always putting out the fire, we need to build the fire station.

I'll give you an example that left an imprint on us. In 2004, we all heard about the tsunami that hit Indonesia, and the international community responded. A few years ago, another tsunami hit, but this time, the country provided 90% of the response. It had built its own capacity with a focus on its specific needs. The same thing happened in Kenya, which had also engaged in capacity-building.

We need to start paying attention to how countries are restructuring their approaches to see how we can help them differently. That means supporting their efforts to build capacity and local resilience. Instead of always relying on programs to put out fires, we can actually build the fire stations.