World Renew Hosts Consultation on International Aid

About 45 people came together, either in person or through electronic means, last week to give input and feedback about Canada’s role in international development.

The forum was hosted by World Renew, the relief and development ministry of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, at the CRC’s Canadian office in Burlington, Ontario.

Participants included representatives from World Renew as well as other relief and development agencies, pastors, volunteers, and overseas development workers.

The forum was held in response to the Canadian government’s review of its approach to international assistance and development.

“We were able to identify some key areas in which World Renew works particularly well and could make recommendations to the government to adopt or consider,” said Melody Mendonca, one of the organizers of the forum, who works with World Renew as advocacy manager in the Good Soil Campaign.

It opened with a discussion about Canada’s current role in global development, as well as its strengths and possible priorities in this area. From there, participants split into three sessions, focusing on health and rights of women and children, and delivering results through innovation and partnerships.

“The richness of the discussion was a significant characteristic of this event because participants came from virtually every circle of relationships that World Renew has,” said Ida Kaastra Mutoigo, World Renew director for Canada. She added that participants “learned from each other and generated very helpful recommendations that we can take to Global Affairs Canada.”

The groups discussed questions such as:

• What strategic role is Canada currently playing in advancing sustainable development goals to improve the health of women and children?
• What are some key partnerships that will be necessary for success?
• How can Canada better engage all of its citizens in the work of international assistance?
• What have been some enabling conditions…for innovative programming?
• What examples of innovation have you found to be effective?

Recommendations included working through local partnerships and cross-cultural collaboration to bring about community transformation; supporting women’s rights through programs that strengthen their livelihoods; and encouraging organizations to seek out local collaborators so they can innovate together.

Kaastra Mutoigo said a suggestion that stood out is the need to pay attention to people’s spiritual and mental health so they can cope better with violence, trauma, and other challenging situations that can lead to poverty. She said World Renew is well-positioned with church partners to provide this.

“Another outcome of the discussion about innovation that I found helpful was the recommendation that Global Affairs Canada needs to consider better ways of managing the tension that exists between innovation and accountability, especially in the design of its monitoring and reporting systems,” she said.

Mendonca said the intention is to use what was learned at the forum to create a set of recommendations to submit to the government.