International Development Week: Achieving Gender Equality with Young Canadians

Today I have the privilege of meeting with young Canadians to discuss how international development can play a role in achieving gender equality around the world. The event organized by Plan International and Global Affairs Canada is part of International Development Week, a week when organizations like Save the Children take the time to talk to Canadians about why international development should matter to them.

I am looking forward to hearing from young Canadians and the solutions they see for us to achieve a just, peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world where everyone has a chance to reach their potential and contribute regardless of who they are, where they come from or whether or not they have wealth.

In one way or another, I have been involved with international development for more than 25 years. I had the privilege of working for the Right Honourable Joe Clark when he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Like the Trudeau (senior) government before it, Clark understood that to be effective on the global stage, Canada had to play an active role in building and supporting multilateral institutions as well as commit substantial support to international assistance. I later volunteered for Save the Children and similar organizations like it, because I had witnessed the positive change Canadians were making for children and their communities.

In Canada, both our government and our people have played a significant role in helping children in times of crisis. Through our funding and expertise, we have protected children from abuse and improved the access and the quality of education in communities around the world. Together, we are ensuring that every last child has access to health care – extending the Canadian belief that everyone should have access to health regardless of wealth around the world.

Some may still wonder why Canada should invest in international assistance when we still have so much to do at home. I would say that it shouldn’t be an either-or choice. Just like addressing climate change, to address poverty/prosperity, refugee crises, pandemics, child exploitation, peace and security requires us to have a global and sustainable approach to development. Indeed addressing climate change will itself require global solutions to human development problems.

From my government and volunteer experience and now as the CEO of Save the Children, the world’s leading independent organization for children, I know that the world welcomes Canada’s engagement as a builder of multilateral institutions and an international assistance donor. They welcome us because Canada was never a global colonial power. Frankly, we don’t have the baggage of European powers and of the United States.

Canada may not have been a colonial power abroad, but we have been a colonial power within our own borders. This too could be an opportunity for Canada to be an even stronger global partner to developing countries. It will require our government, our institutions and our people to truly engage in the Truth and Reconciliation process and to actually make progress on a new relationship with Indigenous people across Canada. If we do this, we can apply what we learn to make our work with international partners even better and stronger.

Canada is already a leading voice on gender equality at a time when the #MeToo movement has galvanized public discussion around the world. Canada needs to go further than policy and rhetoric and increase investment in initiatives that will promote gender equality at home and abroad. Canada needs to ensure these initiatives respond not only to the needs but also the assets of the most excluded women and girls, those who face multiple layers of discrimination due to intersecting identities such as being Indigenous, of a certain race or religion, a certain age or ability, or because of whom they love, or their gender identity. Equality is the goal we pursue through equitable measures aimed at recognizing individual capacities, and ensuring that no one in a situation of vulnerability is left behind. For Save the Children, this means that identity based barriers, particularly gender-based barriers, are removed for all, and that those who need additional support to achieve their potential can do so. When we achieve this, Canada will fulfill its potential as a compassionate, strong, and just global power