Address by Minister Bibeau at the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC) Annual Conference

September 27, 2017 - Ottawa, Ontario

Check against delivery. This speech has been translated in accordance with the Government of Canada’s official languages policy and edited for posting and distribution in accordance with its communications policy.

Hello. Thank you all for that very warm welcome.

If I remember correctly, the last time we all met was on June 9, at the launch of the new Feminist International Assistance Policy.

Since then, a number of you have taken part in the consultations with civil society organizations on updating our policy.

And as we move forward with implementing the Feminist International Assistance Policy, you can count on me to keep the conversation going.

Because even though the formal consultation process is over, you are the ones with the extensive field experience and connections to local NGOs that will help keep the policy’s implementation relevant and realistic.

This is precisely why we needed to update our CSO policy. First, to incorporate the input we have received from many of you; and second, to redefine our relationship according to our new priorities, objectives and approach.

And today, I am proud to launch our new CSO Policy and a way forward to implement it together.

You are essential, independent development stakeholders who must operate in an environmental that supports your growth, here in Canada and around the world. 

It was thanks to our collaboration, among other things, that we launched the first feminist international assistance policy in history.

And it is with you, among others, that we will implement it.

Updating the policy allows us to better define the details of our feminist approach. It also allows us to define what we must do to achieve our common objective of eradicating poverty by 2030 by making gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls priorities.

During the consultation phase, you told me that we needed three things to achieve our shared goal of ending poverty: leadership, a good policy and money.

At the recent UN General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Trudeau said in his speech that Canada’s objectives, “are closely aligned with the SDGs—goals that apply to all of our countries, without exception.

“Our efforts include investments to help bring safe and clean drinking water to all Indigenous communities—part of SDG 6”.

He also related our work with those communities to SDG 11, making communities safe and sustainable places to live, and SDG 5, combatting gender-based violence.

That’s a form of leadership.

Wherever I travel, people listen to what Canada has to say. We have a unique opportunity in front of us to act as a global convenor.

A unique opportunity to bring people closer together on global issues.

That’s another form of leadership.

We have a clear policy to eradicate poverty and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

A good policy to which you all contributed.

Over the next five years, 95 percent of our assistance will go to initiatives that directly target— about 15%—or significantly integrate gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

To receive funding, all of our partners must consult women locally to identify their needs, involve them in the decision-making process and ensure that they take part in project implementation, including evaluation.

Together, we have also committed to ensuring that our actions on the ground are sustainable. This means achieving results, but also transferring knowledge to local organizations so that they will be able to ensure the projects’ sustainability.

Applying this approach systematically in everything we do requires significant effort and a lot of determination.

This is a major change to how we work together, and I am certain that we will be able to do it. 

Because we have a good policy.

And to make solutions happen, we need to allocate our money to where it supports the policy’s vision. We need to establish equitable, flexible and transparent funding mechanisms.

That is why we are investing $100 million over five years to see small and medium Canadian organizations pursue programming in the six action areas of the Feminist International Assistance Policy. And I am pleased to tell you that we will be launching a call for preliminary proposals later this fall.

That is also why we are supporting local women’s organizations through the new $150 million Voice and Leadership initiative.

But, although official development assistance from governments continues to be a key source for financing development efforts to reduce poverty, the challenge is more than governments alone can manage.

It would take between $5 trillion and $7 trillion a year in funding from the global community to achieve the SDGs, while global ODA represents around $140 billion. 

We must all think, work, finance and deliver development differently. You know this and many of you are leaders in generating creative solutions to these critical challenges.

Canada is engaged on issues related to development funding, and is working to develop innovative mechanisms that will allow us to take our investments further.

For example, Canada and Jamaica are co-leading a group of friends on SDG funding at the UN, where we are working with UN member states to unlock new sources of public, private and philanthropic funding.

And in May, we established Canada’s Development Finance Institution in Montréal to leverage other investments in order to access additional funds through blended finance and risk mitigation, in alignment with our new policy.

But every country—including Canada—has a lot of work to do to meet the SDGs.

Right now, we are working on a plan to publicly report on our progress in achieving the SDGs in Canada.

This will be an opportunity to communicate even more with Canadians on our work and progress.

And you play an essential role in making that happen. Working together creatively on new ways to reengage Canadians, including leveraging Canada’s investments and leadership, is crucial as we move forward.

Finally, we are also collaborating with multilateral partners, such as the World Bank.

The World Bank is working with us on a number of projects that have a gender focus.

With its gender equality strategy, this organization is a valuable partner in implementing our new feminist policy.

We already work together on the Global Financing Facility in support of Every Woman Every Child, as a way of leveraging funding toward women and children’s health. For Canada, this includes ensuring the GFF also focuses its interventions in support of sexual and reproductive health and rights.

We also support the GFF’s commitment to investing in women’s health in fragile settings. Having seen the challenges faced by women in the DRC first hand, it is vitally important that we continue to support this work.

Over the past several months, it has been my pleasure to get to know the World Bank’s CEO, Kristalina Georgieva.

Since then, my admiration for her has only grown.

Kristalina previously helped to shape the European Union’s agenda as Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. In fact, she tripled the amount of funding for the refugee crisis in Europe.

As the co-chair of the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, she has championed a more effective system to meet the needs of vulnerable people.

I can tell you from personal experience that she brings the same commitment and energy to gender equality.

Please welcome Ms. Kristalina Georgieva.

Contacts

Marie-Emmanuelle Cadieux
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie
343-203-6238
marie-emmanuelle.cadieux@international.gc.ca

Media Relations Office
Global Affairs Canada
343-203-7700
media@international.gc.ca
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