Unable to send aid workers abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Quebec international solidarity organizations have had to review their way of doing things … for the better.
The children were released en masse from detention centers to avoid contamination. Others have interrupted their schooling and increased their exposure time on screens, making them more vulnerable to online exploitation. Domestic violence has exploded around the world. More than 47 million women fell into extreme poverty in the first year of the pandemic, according to UN Women and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). In addition to climate change, which continues to escalate, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges to international cooperation.
“The pandemic has changed the work environment, but also, quite profoundly, the organization of work. [de la coopération internationale], says Guillaume Landry, Director General of the International Bureau for Children’s Rights (IBCR). The model was often associated with staff who own the keys and Southern partners seen as empty vessels waiting for knowledge to be poured out to them. A project that depends on people who come from Montreal is a risk; it is no longer viable as a model. [En raison de la pandémie], it was necessary to operate differently, to put more emphasis on our teams who are on site in the region and to use technologies to work in another way. “
This transition to a more horizontal model of international cooperation between the North and the South was already in motion within Quebec organizations. For example, farmers’ organizations in the South collaborating with the Union des producteurs agricoles Développement international (UPA DI) were already fully responsible for carrying out their projects before 2020. The pandemic has accelerated this trend.
“We are talking about the decolonization of aid and we were already in this movement. We had integrated South-South or national partnerships, but there was a limit to this type of volunteering with donors, explains Jean-Alexandre Fortin, interim director general and responsible for volunteering at Solidarité Union Coopération (SUCO). We can take advantage of these experiences to implement them in the longer term. We are trying to see, with the donor, how we can extend these COVID measures until the end of December 2022. Thanks to the virtual, we are examining how the South-South and national partners can make small audiovisual productions and help raise awareness among Canadians. “
“I think the changes are here for good,” believes Philippe Dongier, director general of the Center for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI). We transform the way of working and we localize more, which means that there is more power in the teams in the field. We learned that we can be very productive without being in the same room. We are talking about teleworking, we can talk about telecooperation. “
Banking on carbon credits
In Haiti, coffee farmers reforest degraded and wasteland with coffee plants and trees; the new plant cover is thus part of the fight against climate change. In Quebec, the UPA DI works with these producers to ensure that they can obtain international certification allowing them to have access to carbon credits, explains the director general of the UPA DI, Hugo Beauregard-Langelier. Like him, several members of cooperation organizations want carbon credits to finance more projects in developing countries in the future.
“It’s a question of climate justice,” says Philippe Dongier. In the Sahel countries, the vast majority of the population lives on subsistence agriculture, which is very affected by the effects of climate change. These populations suffer disproportionately compared to the countries which are the main culprits of global warming. It is important to tackle this climate injustice, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and invest more resources to help more vulnerable populations adapt to these changes. “
“There have been a lot of promises, but, in concrete terms, there are still very few funds being used in industrialized countries,” adds Jean-Alexandre Fortin. I think one of the challenges of the Glasgow Climate Change Conference is to make sure that the funds are made available to countries, organizations and people. Because it’s a climate emergency. “