Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thanks. That's kind of, in a nutshell, the purpose of this large initiative we have on education. It does work sort of at the country level in terms of scale-improving innovations and adapting them to the local context. Often they are multi-country projects. There are three or four countries that we're working on.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much. Of course, we have to adapt to the local contexts and local cultures of each country we work in. Did I understand your question correctly?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There are also sometimes differences within the same country, because culture varies from region to region. That said, I don't think it's a big challenge. It's more a matter of how we work.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No. The Washington tool sounds fantastic to me. A lot of the innovations we're testing were developed by community-based organizations like World Vision. If there really is a proven innovation that can have an impact, that's the sort of thing.... We do these calls. What is working?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the other speakers spoke about the choices that people with scarce resources have to make and choices about which kids go to school—ones with disabilities, and maybe boys instead of girls—and that challenge. The other challenge I want to talk about in terms of poverty, which is kind of the subject of this committee overall....

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It goes beyond the education field. Data is one of those things that just doesn't seem as sexy to focus on, but it's critical. When we're talking about kids with disabilities, just like you said with women, violence against women and other topics, if you're not collecting data on it, then the issue is invisible.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think that's possible, but for a long time we've had open data for development programs. One of the benefits of all of these technological changes that we're seeing is that it's a lot cheaper to set up systems for collecting data using innovative methods. The idea of doing these big surveys and doing everything by hand and getting them into the systems, I think, is not as challenging as it was before.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I don't know if I have the exact figures, but the International Development Research Centre has been supporting French-speaking countries for a long time. At our Dakar office, we can respond to needs and see trends in this region. We also support a number of projects there. Around 50% of our budget goes to sub-Saharan Africa, and the West African region is well represented.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It's a good example, yes, because it presents more challenges for students and, especially, for teachers. In addition, there's a kind of exchange hub to encourage educators to talk with parent groups and teachers, among others, to pass on their knowledge and feedback on what's working and what's not in terms of improving education.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  This is a very good question. Our Knowledge and Innovation Exchange, the KIX program, is offered in 80 countries. A large percentage of the countries where there are such problems are threatened by war. Among the programs that are working well are those offered in Chad and Uganda, for example, countries where there are problems.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Actually, on a program that we're funding, which is called the knowledge and innovation exchange, we bring together stakeholders in countries, the ministries of education, teacher-training institutes, teacher unions and that sort of thing. We work with the important stakeholders, with the researchers and innovators to identify together what the problems are to ensure that whatever the solutions are, they're quickly taken up.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  On the question of feminist assistance policy and the importance of girls' education, I want to intervene briefly on that, because we know that some girls are out of school. On the challenge of getting them back into school, I want to point to one of our programs in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, which is sort of a boot camp for girls who are out of school to get them foundational literacy and numeracy skills.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you so much. Mr. Lake, to your question about why so many kids who are seven or eight are not being helped when they have disabilities, the point about early interventions is so important because sometimes you don't know, early on, that they have disabilities, and by the time they're seven or eight, it's too late, and they've dropped out of the system.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. The real importance there is that when the kids are out of school, referring to the kind of programs that I did before—because often in refugee environments, they're not in school—then relying on those innovations that can get them back in school and using game-based learning can be very effective.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the subcommittee, I'm pleased to be here. Thanks so much for the invitation to appear. My name is Naser Faruqui. I'm the director of education and science for the International Development Research Centre, or IDRC. IDRC is a Crown corporation that was established in 1970.