A Heated Debate

As support for global deal cools, Canadians need to hold leaders feet to the fire


Recently, I found myself sitting on the sidelines of a heated debate on climate change.

This was not a clash between scientists and climate change deniers. It was a group of environmental activists and development workers arguing the merits of the terms “climate change” versus “global warming.” It was a war of words, both sides desperate to ensure Canadians would understand the peril we face — hoping, beyond hope, that the right words would inspire action.

From where I sit, the peril could not be clearer. In my eight years with Canadian Crossroads International (CCI), I have witnessed the impact of drought and floods on Southern partners and the communities they serve.

In Swaziland, many go hungry. Nearly half the population is reliant on food aid. Seventy per cent of the population is engaged in subsistence farming and food production has been steadily falling for the past decade. Erratic weather, soil depletion and drought persist as problems for today and the future.

Niger, too, has struggled with food security due to uneven and unpredictable rainfall that has only worsened in recent years. CCI supports local partners’ work with subsistence farmers to increase their income and food security through adaptation strategies such as community grain banks. Here women like Fati Hassan reap the benefit. “Before, it was us the women who travelled. We travelled a distance of nine kilometres to get food and now it is close by.”

In Niger and Swaziland, as in many poor countries, women are disproportionately affected. Globally women produce up to 90 per cent of the rural poor’s food. They gather food, work the land and walk long distances seeking water and other staples. Because of their poverty they are at greater risk of violence and disease — AIDS, cholera and malaria. Women are charged with the use and preservation of the land, but exert little control of natural resources and are barred from owning property in many places.

I could go on. In recent interviews with Southern partners, each partner — no matter the focus of their work — raised the issue of climate change as a key challenge. Poor communities around the world bear little responsibility for the degradation caused by excessive carbon emissions, but they feel its impact most harshly. Combined with the current food and economic crises, climate change threatens to undo decades of development gains.

At Crossroads we’re in the business of poverty reduction. We are working with local partners to increase their resilience and capacity to adapt. We are supporting rural producers. And we are increasing women’s participation in decision-making in their communities and in government. We are not experts in climate change, but we do know that we can do something to reverse this terrible trend. It is just too important to sit on the sidelines. We can all do something.

We can change our own behaviour and consumption here in Canada to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We can support poor countries disproportionately affected with funding for mitigation and adaptation. We can press for women’s increased political representation and access to and control over resources.

Perhaps most of all we can join with others to raise our voices. As headlines declare that global leaders have abandoned concrete goals for the UN summit in Copenhagen, hope is fading. It’s time to tell our leaders that we expect more from them.

Collaboration across borders to address global problems is hard. We get that. But reaching an agreement that is fair, ambitious and legally binding is within our grasp. We need our leaders to lead at Copenhagen.

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A Cause for the Century

A Cause for the Century


If the world invests in women and girls, women and girls will take care of the world, so said American activist Jane Roberts. The connection between women’s human rights, gender equality and social and economic development is well documented.

At Crossroads we’ve seen this first hand — from West African women who have moved from subsistence to making a living wage through CCI supported cooperatives producing shea butter, soap and textiles, to members of CCI supported Bolivian communal banks where women like Martha Ali reflect “my children study with what I earn.” The investment is modest, but the difference made in lives of women and their families is almost incalculable. Five years ago, Canadian Crossroads International focused its resources in part to strengthen women’s rights. It became clear that to achieve our goals, from building local economies, reducing poverty and to fighting AIDS a common thread linked our strategies — the empowerment of women.
Now after years of talking about of gender equality, some are calling the fight for the rights of women and girls, the cause of the century.

On September 14, 2009 the United Nations passed a resolution to establish a powerful new UN agency to advance the rights of women. A week later Plan International released a report that makes a convincing case that investment in girls will break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and failure to do so could cost the world poorest countries billions in economic growth.

Yet, over the last decade, funding for women’s organizations has decreased in quality and quantity. The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), which tracks funding for women’s rights, attributes this to a global trend of “gender mainstreaming” which has resulted in diluting specific objectives on women’s equality amid broader development objectives.

In Canada too, it is increasingly evident that despite our strong policy guidelines, both the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and many Canadian Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working internationally have reduced commitments to gender equality programming over the last decade. A number of organizations, Canadian Crossroads International among them, analyzed CIDA’s recent evaluation of its policy on gender equality between 1998 and 2005 in a report entitled Strengthening Canada’s International Leadership in the Promotion of Gender Equality. While the organizations were impressed with the rigour of the evaluation, and in fact whole heartedly support the policy, it is clear that increased investment — both in the way of funds for women gender equality specific programming and in political will — is required.

And the timing might be right. Globally, momentum is growing. In 2008 the Dutch government launched the MDG3 Fund in part to make up for a dramatic decrease in funding for women’s programs. That same year NIKE foundation launched the influential girl effect campaign backed up by more than $100-million in financial support for girls programs. This year, Spain kick started UNIFEM’s Fund for Gender Equality with $65-million in funding. And last week, Canada’s Belinda Stronach announced that the Belinda Stronach Foundation, with the Clinton Global Initiative, will bring together leading national and international organizations with a goal of elevating the advancement of girls and women to the G8's agenda.

The case for support is strong. According to the World Bank, when 10 percent more girls go to secondary school, the country’s economy grows by three per cent according to the World Bank. And when a girl earns income, she reinvests 90 per cent in her family.

This is a bandwagon worth boarding. Already many Canadian and International organizations are redirecting resources to invest in women and girls. Canada should do the same. As host of the G20 and the G8 in June 2010 Canada has unprecedented opportunity to reassert itself as a leader in human rights. The lives of more than 500-million girls and young women depend on it.

Learn more about how your gift to Canadian Crossroads International’s women’s right projects can make a world of difference.