ENGAGE FOR CHANGE Shaping Canada’s role in international development

Outline  Aid, development and engagement  Five w’s of engagement  What do we engage for?  How do we engage?  Activity

 What is development?  What is Aid? Development and Aid

 International Development: a process which aims to produce positive social, economic, and environmental changes in countries considered “developing”  Aid: resources supplied by governments to facilitate and expedite development  Intro to CIDA??

Canada as a leader in development 5 w’s of engagement

Political Engagement: 101  Who: Everyone! All Canadians have the right and responsibility to engage the government  What: dialogue with our government to learn about and change Canada’s role in the world  Where: at home, in constituency offices, parliament, newspapers... Everywhere!  When: anytime! Especially during important issues  Why....?

Why engage the government?  We believe that Canada can become a strong leader in international development and aid efforts  Will the government carry Canada there on its own?  Canada is currently involved in development efforts through CIDA – are we doing the best job we could be?  Canada has a history of contributing to the international community

Why engage the government?  Currently the Government of Canada spends approximately $4.7 billion on aid $3 billion of this is spent by CIDA  This is a sizeable resource for development efforts  Consider NGO’s and non profits who have much smaller budgets

Canada’s Parliament

Why Engage the Public  As a chapter we can only carry so much political weight.  It is essential that we engage Canadians so that they become aware of Canada’s role in development and take action to promote change  Dialogue and engagement with Canadians will contribute to changing Canada into a global leader!

Why Engage the Public  We engage the public to encourage them to take action on political engagement!

New Strategies for political change EWB UCalgary’s Engagement

Our focus  The UCalgary Chapter has decided to focus its advocacy efforts on one goal: aid effectiveness  Aid effectiveness relates to the planning, delivery, and evaluation of Canadian aid programs

Canadian Aid Effectiveness  From CIDA “Aid effectiveness means aid that yields concrete, sustainable results-aid that makes the best possible use of resources and maximizes benefits. The Government of Canada is improving its programs to achieve this.”  The government has made aid effectiveness a priority. We are not working in opposition or protest, but rather to hold the government accountable to their goals and share perspective!

Barriers to effective aid  Lack of coordination between the donor (Canada) and recipient  Lack of including local resources and procurement systems in aid delivery  Lack of continuity in area of focus or nation of focus (shifting priorities)  Lack of awareness offield realities

The Aid “Pizza Pie”  Imagine this situation: three people are planning a meal for eight people  This pizza can feed all eight people with no problem, but in order to do so the pizza has to be planned effectively Person 1: “There are eight people, if we use this pizza well then we can all eat! I say we go with toppings that everyone can eat.” Person 2: “NO WE MUST GET A PIZZA WITH ANCHOVIES!” (this person loves anchovies!) Person 3: “NO! WE MUST BUY TWO PIZZAS!”

Do we need two pizzas?

Aid Effectiveness NGO 1 NGO A “Let’s advocate for effective aid!” “Let’s advocate for aid to be spent in the area we work!” Let’s advocate for MORE AID!”

Why Aid Effectiveness?  Unique messaging – other NGOs typically take a resource, country, or program oriented approach  We believe effective aid mechanisms are an essential catalyst for good development programs  Aid effectiveness is an issue that MPs can lead to deeper engagement

ACT SLIDE HERE  In 2010 EWB announced the ACT  The ACT is a framework for improving aid effectiveness in Canada  ACT stands for “Accountable, Creative, Transparent”

Accountable  Accountable aid means:  We are accountable to meet our international promises around aid  We hold ourselves accountable to assessing the results of our aid by committing to sharing a rigorous assessment to a “triple bottom line” of stakeholders – the Canadian public; partner governments that receive our aid; and citizens in partner country governments.

Creative  Creative aid means:  Investing in innovation by piloting and scaling up promising ideas. Important is the distinction between innovation and invention – invention is about testing ideas, while innovation is about applying the most promising ideas and bringing them to scale.  Modeling a portion of our aid on venture capital principles and is flexible enough to find the higher-risk and unexpected solutions to difficult problems.

Transparent  Transparent aid means:  Making information about aid more accessible to inspection from others, which is key to enabling constructive dialogue and improvement.  The cornerstone of a democracy is the availability of information – full disclosure of this information will keep our institutions honest and go a long way in strengthening public trust. Results must be published, not locked away so that Canadians have no idea what is going on.

UCalgary’s approach to aid effectiveness How do we engage?

 What is Engagement?

Engagement  Engagement is two way communication between one or more parties – it is the sharing of ideas, beliefs, and values.  “Engagement is the pursuit of influencing outcomes — including public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions — that directly affect people’s current lives.”  If we are going to engage we must be willing to be engaged back

Engage for Change  The Engage for Change Campaign focuses on three types of engagement:  Youth Engagement  Community Engagement  Political Engagement  Senior Engagement??  It’s not enough to simply talk to politicians – engaging a variety Calgarians can set the stage for longer term change

Activity: developing engagement  Today’s workshop focuses on people to people engagement. This occurs on street corners, on c- trains, on buses, and in parks.  It can happen everywhere and is very versatile.  Split into groups and brainstorm what makes engagement a success or a failure

Guiding Questions to begin  “We’ve all been approached by a representative of some group who was either looking to raise funds or awareness. What are some techniques you have seen that have worked well?” (What are good practices we’ve observed. Greetings? Approaches?)  “When have been approached by a representative of another organization what have they done that has caused you to not want to listen?” (what are things we should avoid doing?)

Ten tips for good engagement 1. Introduce yourself! 2. Be polite 3. Be articulate and speak at a common level 4. Have a clear position 5. Personalize your message 6. Don’t exaggerate or lie 7. Try to sync your message up with current events to make it relevant. 8. Be informed 9. Advocate simple actions people can take 10. Ask questions and answer questions.

Speed Dating / Roulette Activity – Practice Engagement!