Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 16th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you, Mr. Tabah.

We next go to Dr. Fry.

You have six minutes.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you very much, Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses for coming to this first hour of our meeting.

The fact is that we're talking right now about the comprehensiveness of the whole sexual and reproductive health and rights spectrum. I want to suggest that you've just touched on one aspect. As adolescents talk about sexual and reproductive health, they're not talking only about contraception. They're also talking about information with regard to sexually transmitted diseases.

We know that in some countries young girls are married off to much older men, maybe because of poverty reasons, maybe because of cultural reasons. Many of these young girls do not necessarily have the autonomy or the say in whether or not they're protected from sexually transmitted diseases. We know that in some countries, with the taboo of HIV, the taboo of any kind of sexually transmitted disease, that girl may not have the opportunity to have autonomy, to have decision-making powers.

What are you guys doing to help that situation change?

[Joshua Tabah]

Mr. Chair, I thank the honourable member for a great question.

I would maybe take a step back. Since the development of the feminist international assistance policy, we have scaled up our support not just for sexual and reproductive health and rights, but also for gender equality programming. We are now recognized, by the OECD DAC, as the largest bilateral donor for gender equality initiatives. We're scaling up our SRHR such that we are one of the top two or three right now.

A cross-cutting issue for both is preventing child, early and forced marriages, as the honourable member has suggested. Very rarely is there adequate consent. Very rarely is that a reflection of effective bodily autonomy, and very rarely is that an expression of equality, which we would like to see in the countries that we serve.

There are both global and local initiatives where Canada provides both financial and policy support. These issues are inextricably linked: autonomy, empowerment and CEFM. You can expect to see Canada to continue to play a significant role on those issues.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

I want to follow up on something to do with this. I know about forced marriages, and I know that we have legislation here with regard to female genital mutilation. That is part of comprehensive sexual health. What is going on with that? Have we been successful? Is it successful in eliminating this particular practice? Are we having problems? What are the challenges?

[Joshua Tabah]

I would say we have been successful at fostering a global dialogue around both child, early and forced marriage and female genital cutting and mutilation. We work with a number of like-minded countries to shine a light on where these harmful practices continue. They have not been eradicated yet, and we continue to work with stakeholders in countries both to support the policy and legislative change that the honourable member refers to and to help shift social and cultural norms at a local level.

We don't do this by coming in with our own norms and values, but rather we seek to partner with the organizations themselves that are advocating for greater respect and autonomy for young women in these countries. Whether that's through support for these youth-led or women-run organizations or support for local organizations, while also advocating through our bilateral relations for changes in legislation, it's something that has been important for us.

Obviously, we have data about the spending we have done on these issues, and it is substantial. But I think more than anything, it is working with that new generation in these countries where these practices continue, to ensure that they are empowered so they can demand that their rights be respected from the duty-bearers in their countries.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you.

How much time do I have left, Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

You have a minute and a half.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

All right. I'll ask a quick one.

I just want to follow up on that issue, because I know that we are all globally working very hard—UNFPA and lots of countries—to try to deal with these practices of female genital mutilation and, of course, early and forced marriage. With early marriage, we're talking about those who are married off at 14, but we all know that medically a young woman who has a child before the age of 19 runs a very high risk of pregnancy complications.

What are we doing about contraceptive advice with regard to postponing their first child so that women don't have to face some of these complications of eclampsia, premature birth, and a fair amount of damage to the child and themselves if they have children very early? I don't mean at 14 and 15; I'm talking about relatively early. At the age of 17 or 18, as we know, there are still high risks associated with that.

[Joshua Tabah]

Thank you.

Perhaps as a framing statement, I would just say that we support the goal of ensuring that every pregnancy is wanted, that every birth is safe and that every girl and every woman is treated with dignity and respect. That informs our approach to SRHR more broadly.

As I mentioned, we take a comprehensive approach where we provide partners with support so they can deliver integrated services. Our family planning programming is largely focused on access to modern contraception. It includes activities to provide individuals with information, and then, of course, the methods to allow them to attain their desired number of children and determine the spacing of the pregnancies involved.

I'm happy to go into further detail, but I believe I'm at time.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you.

We will next go to MP Bergeron.

You have six minutes.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I thank the witnesses for being with us today.

In Canada's action plan for the implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions on women, peace, and security for 2017‑2022, Canada had set as a priority objective in Afghanistan to support increased representation of women in the Afghan national defence and security forces and to support women's rights organizations in advancing the Afghanistan action plan on women, peace and security 2017‑2022.

Given what has happened in 2021 and given the constraints of the Canadian Criminal Code, how can Canada ensure the implementation of the objectives it had set out in the 2017‑2022 national plan and how can we ensure a follow‑up on the ground given the situation?

[Joshua Tabah]

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank Mr. Bergeron for his excellent question.

To be more precise, I will speak in English. I apologize for that.

Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to provide a substantive or detailed answer to that question. We would be happy to come back to the committee in writing to ensure that the member has access to that information.

I think specifically what you're asking is, since the change last summer, how is Canada ensuring continued progress against the objectives of its women, peace and security strategic outcomes specific to Afghanistan?

We understand the question and we will come back to you in writing.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you.

With respect to Syria, in the national action plan, the objective was for Canada to share with Syrian stakeholders its priorities and positions on the objectives of Canada's National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, in order to increase their awareness of these issues.

As you know, the political and security situation in Syria is chaotic, to say the least, especially with the earthquakes. You also know that there are still Canadian citizens, including children, trapped in camps in Syria.

How is the implementation of Canada's action plan for Syria being monitored, particularly in the refugee camps?

[Joshua Tabah]

That is an excellent question, again.

I thank the members of the committee for their patience, but as I am not responsible for the Women, Peace and Security Program, I am not in a position to answer this question in detail with sufficient information.

Once again, we offer to forward this information in writing on the achievement of our objectives under the Women, Peace and Security Program in Syria.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Thank you.

According to Global Affairs Canada, 45% of abortions performed worldwide are unsafe. This leads to the hospitalization of 7 million women per year worldwide, accounting for 5% to 13% of all maternal deaths.

In your opinion, what are the main factors contributing to these unsafe abortions around the world?

In what ways will Canada try to improve the situation for women who undergo these potentially life-threatening practices?

[Joshua Tabah]

This is a very good question.

Preventable maternal death is a driving force behind our comprehensive approach to SRHR. Women are dying unnecessarily because they can't get access to basic, essential health services.

The member has properly provided us with the level of severity of this incident, with seven million ending up in hospital and requiring hospitalized care for unsafe abortions. We have estimates of somewhere above 40,000 women dying annually because of unsafe abortion, and the actual figure is likely much higher, according to our partners. This is something that is certainly under-reported.

To be clear, the case fatality for these situations is much higher in sub-Saharan Africa than in other regions of the world. It's more than twice as high as the case fatality in Asia, three or four times higher. This is a problem that is particularly affecting women in sub-Saharan Africa.

The member asked what the drivers of this are. They are primarily a lack of access to effective reproductive health services, including safe and legal abortion services and postabortion care at a significant scale to meet the need. We are working with partners like Ipas and others to try to strengthen the capacity of national health systems to address these situations. I can note that this is something that ministers of health across sub-Saharan Africa and, in particular, in western Africa have underlined to me as among the highest priority areas that they are seeking reinforced support for.

I mentioned the Global Financing Facility before. The Global Financing Facility provides on-budget support to ministries of health in sub-Saharan Africa to help them develop and implement comprehensive approaches to SRHR that would include improved services for women. That's an important part of what we support.

The most vulnerable women, of course, are those who are marginalized, from diverse communities and, in particular, those outside of major urban settings, where they don't have access to adequate reproductive health services. This has been an important area of focus for us and will continue to be as we try to increase our investments, specifically for these areas of comprehensive SRHR that have traditionally been neglected by international donors.

There are—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you, Mr. Tabah. You're considerably over time, sir. I apologize.

We next go to MP McPherson.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

It's nice to see you here again, Mr. Tabah. I want to take a moment to congratulate you, and all of Global Affairs, on the funding that's been announced for public engagement for the Provincial and Regional Councils for International Cooperation. I was very happy to see that. I know that you may not be working on that right now, but you have been. You've been very instrumental in that work, so thank you.

Obviously, I'm delighted that we are starting this study. It's long overdue. This is work that I've been engaged in for most of my career. I think it's vitally important that we are doing this study.

I want to start with some of the information I received from an Order Paper question I submitted some time ago that talked about the spending on SRHR. As you will know, in 2019, at the Women Deliver conference in Vancouver, the government announced $700 million that would be spent annually on the neglected areas of SRHR. Now, from what I understand, we've significantly underspent every single year. In 2019-20, we spent only $450 million. In 2020-21, we spent only $498 million. We've never gotten close to that $700 million.

Why is that?

[Joshua Tabah]

Mr. Chair, first I'd like to thank the member for her recognition of some new programming from Global Affairs. I'll make sure that we pass that on to our colleagues responsible for that program.

In terms of SRHR, the commitment by the Prime Minister in 2019 was to scale up our support for SRHR to an average level of $700 million by the next fiscal year, 2023-24, and then to maintain that spending out to 2030. At the time the commitment was made, we were providing a much lower level of support than $700 million annually, so every year we have been building in our programming to increase. We expect to hit that target of $700 million for comprehensive SRHR next year, so we feel we are on track to deliver on the government's commitment. We are also on track to then maintain that level of spending out to 2030.

Furthermore, I would say it isn't just about writing big cheques to our largest international partners and doing the same thing. The commitment in 2019 really was about shifting to a comprehensive approach to SRHR. The investments that we're making to increase access to comprehensive sexuality education, to family planning services, and to safe abortion and postabortion care are investments that we're proud of and that we think are taking us in an important direction.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you.

What is the number, then? We don't have that in the Order Paper question. Do you know the number for the 2021-22 fiscal year?

[Joshua Tabah]

I do. Our formal financial reporting for 2021 is that we disbursed $489 million to SRHR. Again, that was a very significant increase above—

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

It was a decrease from the 2020-21 year, though, wasn't it? In fact, you were supposed to be at $700 million each year, so will you be catching those numbers up? Is there a plan for Global Affairs not just to catch up to the $700 for the final year of this but also to make up the money that was promised? The government did promise $700 million each year. To say that you need to scale up is completely understandable, but that would mean you would need to scale up quite a bit further than $700 million, because that was money that could be used for the sector, of course.

[Joshua Tabah]

I'm sorry if our communication on this hasn't been clear enough, but again, I do think the website is quite specific in noting that the commitment to reach $700 million is in fiscal year 2023-24, and that we are scaling up from 2019-20 to 2021. There has been an annual increase in our SRHR spending. We will hit that commitment of $700 million next year, as per the commitment made by the Prime Minister, and then we do expect to maintain that level of funding of $700 million from 2023-24 out to 2030.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

But you just told me that there was a decrease from.... In 2021-22, there was actually a decrease from what was spent in 2020-21.