International Development Week 2022: Celebrating Canada’s contribution to a more healthy, equitable and resilient world

Save the Children Canada joined Global Affairs Canada, civil society and the Canadian public during International Development Week, February 6^th to 12^th 2022 (#IDW2022) to celebrate the contributions Canadians are making to a more healthy, equitable and resilient world.

During #IDW 2022, Global Affairs Canada called upon Canadians to #GofortheGoals by renewing their support for the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs) and by taking action in their daily lives to contribute to a sustainable future.

Canada’s international development priorities include a focus on gender equality, education, health, economic resilience and climate action. However, the impacts of COVID-19, conflict and the climate crisis are threatening hard-won development gains. For instance, COVID-19, along with conflict and climate change, is escalating global food insecurity and more than 45 million children are suffering from severe malnutrition.

Despite these and other global challenges, we are optimistic that we can make significant progress with determined leadership from Canada.  

During IDW2022, Save the Children Canada joined other international organizations and called on the government to invest $1.5 billion to help end the COVID-19 pandemic, take faster action to ensure vaccine equity in the global South, help children return to school, and advance the fight against climate change. Together, we had unprecedented engagement opportunities with parliamentarians and called on Canada’s leaders to support international assistance to address these critical global challenges.

Save the Children’s President and CEO, Danny Glenwright, joined Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development, Anita Vandenbeld, and students from the Centennial College International Development Post-graduate Program in productive discussion. Students posed critical questions and shared their views about Canada’s current development priorities and response to today’s global crises. Students also inquired about opportunities for them to support Canada’s development priorities now and as future international development professionals.

At Save the Children Canada, we will continue to #GofortheGoals and work to ensure positive change for children as promised by the SDGs. In the year ahead, we will focus our efforts to:

• Advocate for funding and policies to address the global hunger crisis and avert wide-scale famine. We believe that urgent action on funding and access will help humanitarian partners address famine and provide a life-saving front-line response. As well, we will advocate for Canada to address the global hunger crisis through action on climate change and support for better governance.
• Advocate for policies to ensure children living in emergencies, including refugees, are still able to receive a quality education. We will draw on our program evidence to increase recognition of education in emergencies as a critical life-saving response.
• Ensure that the needs and rights of children—including girls and Indigenous children—are meaningfully reflected in Canada’s international climate policy. We will work to ensure that Canada’s international climate finance commitment of $5.3 billion over five years is sensitive to the rights and needs of children.

In 2022, we look forward to working alongside the Canadian public in creating positive change for children. We will continue to work for and with children in Canada and around the world. We are committed to providing them with the knowledge needed to educate and inspire and the tools required to take action to build a sustainable future.

You can help by writing a letter to your MP  referencing an increase in aid for the next federal budget.  Also, to support Save the Children’s response to children in crisis, please click here.

By: Samiera Zafar