Our Executive Director, Helen Scott, along with the entire CanWaCH team, would like to extend best wishes for a happy holiday season as we turn the page on another year. We are feeling very proud of our members as we reflect on your great work and on the privilege of working with all of you to advance women and children’s health around the globe. We’ve accomplished so much together in 2017 and we can’t wait for the exciting projects and initiatives that will come to life in 2018!
On November 16th, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, and Women Deliver President/CEO Katja Iversen spoke to hundreds of industry leaders gathered at the Vancouver Convention Centre for the Women Deliver 2019 official kick-off event. They urged leaders to come together around the Conference and act to champion the rights of girls and women.
Justin, Sophie and Katja were joined by British Columbia Premier John Horgan, and Adina Williams, a youth leader from the Squamish Nation. You can watch a full recording of the event on the CanWaCH Facebook page and learn more about the activities that will be held in the lead up to #WD2019 on our Women Deliver 2019 page. You can also submit your ideas and input for the Women Deliver 2019 Conference program.
This month’s Deliver for Good theme is Dramatically Reduce Gender-Based Violence and Harmful Practices, in line with the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, which ran from November 25th – December 10th. Women Deliver has a rich selection of resources available on their website, including policy briefs, infographics, partner resources and much more. CanWaCH is a Deliver for Good Campaign Ally and our members are invited to share any related content or information on the campaign’s monthly themes by emailing us.
Global Affairs Canada has launched a Preliminary Call for Proposals for Small and Medium-sized Organizations (SMOs) under its Development Impact Window. The pilot initiative seeks to engage Canadian SMOs in efforts to reduce extreme poverty and build a more peaceful, inclusive and prosperous world consistent with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. This announcement is one of three components of the $100 million funding announcement in support of SMOs announced in May 2017. Applications are due by December 21 at 12pm EST.
The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Every Woman, Every Child (EWEC) have issued a Call for Proposals for inspiring examples of collaborations across sectors designed to improve women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health, with particular emphasis on the EWEC priority themes (i) Early Childhood Development; ii) Adolescent Health and Well-Being; iii) Quality, Equity and Dignity in Services; iv) Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights; v) Empowerment of Women, Girls and Communities; and vi) Humanitarian and Fragile Settings. Twelve proposals will be selected for development as case studies that provide insight about what has worked and why in collaborating across sectors. The deadline to submit proposals is January 21, 2018.
CanWaCH co-hosted a Conference, Nutrition: Cornerstone of Gender Equality, with 10 other partners on November 21st,. The Conference served as the Canadian launch of the 2017 Global Nutrition Report, and featured discussions on nutrition’s role in achieving gender equality, the Sustainable Development Goals and the vision of Canada’s new Feminist International Assistance Policy. Women Deliver sponsored three Youth Rapporteurs to cover the event, including Joannes Yimbesalu, whose Conference Recap is featured on the CanWaCH website. There was also an important parliamentary reception held after the event, which you can read about on Nutrition International’s website.
CanWaCH and Global Affairs Canada convened Canadian organizations working on women and children’s health in Haiti during a webinar on December 7th. The webinar explored how we can strengthen the impact of the work being done in Haiti by bringing together experts, sharing best practices and communicating results. We invite members to suggest other countries for the focus of future webinars designed to strengthen collaboration and impact . Please feel free to contact us with your ideas.
CanWaCH’s new website has many unique features for our members to promote their work, including the ability to login and post their own content and global health projects. If you haven’t yet experienced it, check out this virtual tour of our new website with CanWaCH’s Andy Cragg.
On Monday, November 20th, 2017, the High Commissioner for Canada in Tanzania, His Excellency Mr. Ian Myles and the Tanzanian Minister of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, the Honourable Ummy Mwalimu, launched five Government of Canada-funded projects to improve reproductive, maternal and newborn health in under-served areas of Tanzania. The projects cover the five regions of Tanzania and will be undertaken through partnerships between the Government of Canada, the Government of Tanzania, the Aga Khan Foundation Canada (Mwanza), Amref Health Africa (Simiyu), CARE Canada (Tabora), Plan International Canada (Rukwa) and World Vision Canada (Kigoma). The full News Release is available from the High Commission of Canada in Tanzania.
Membership with CanWaCH means unparalleled networking opportunities! Apply today to join our Canada-wide network as a member or associate! Please feel free to contact Leigha McCarroll ([email protected]) if you have any membership-related questions.
Canada’s College of the Rockies and Kenya’s Dedan Kimathi University of Technology wrapped up their five-year women’s and children’s health project, MAISHA, at an event in Nairobi on November 28th. At the MAISHA Symposium, stakeholders reviewed end of project data, noting that the project performed well with respect to its most informative indicator of progress – skilled attendants at birth.
Since 2012, MAISHA has helped reduce maternal and infant mortality rates in Migori and Nyeri Counties. It’s goal is to reinforce the health care system at the community level and increase the number of births attended to by a skilled professional. The logic of MAISHA is that if community health workers have the skills and simple equipment they need to provide women the services they require during pregnancy and childbirth, if community health messaging promotes the use of these services, and if women respond accordingly, lives will be saved. For more information on the MAISHA Project, please visit the College of the Rockies website.
Applications are now open for organizations interested in hosting an event at the sixty-second Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Committee on the Status of Women, New York (NGO CSW/NY).Every year, NGO CSW organizes NGO Consultation Day in preparation for the session on the UN Commission on the Status of Women that takes place in February/March for two weeks. The priority theme 2018’s is “Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls.” For more information and to apply, visit the NGO CSW website. Deadline is December 15th.
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: A Pathway to Realizing Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls was developed through a collaboration of 17 organizations and individuals and led by WaterAid Canada. It presents the business case for WASH as a critical pathway to realizing the ambitions of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy.
The Master of Public Health Program at Western University is seeking practicum placements for summer 2018. The 12-week placement enables students to obtain hands-on experience working on a public health project, gain exposure to public health in practice, and interact with professionals in the field. As a placement host, you will benefit from a highly educated MPH student working on a public health issue within your organization. Placements are from May to July and are typically unpaid. The deadline for postings is January 19, 2018. For more information, please contact Lisa Metselaar, Practicum Coordinator, at [email protected].
International Development Week (IDW) will take place from February 4-10, 2018. It celebrates Canadian contributions to poverty reduction and international humanitarian assistance. It’s also gives us all a chance to engage others in learning about, and contributing to, those efforts. For more information and resources for planning IDW events, visit the Global Affairs Canada website.
Annual Report, by CanWaCH
FP2020: The Way Ahead – 2017 Progress Report, by FP2020
Global Gender Gap Report 2017, by World Economic Forum
Out of Order: The State of the World’s Toilets 2017, by WaterAid
Tackling Inequalities in the Global Economy: Making Canada’s Foreign Policy Work for Women, by Oxfam Canada
Strengthening health systems to respond to women subjected to intimate partner violence or sexual violence: A manual for health managers, by the World Health Organization
Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Sexual Rights Database, by Sexual Rights Initiative
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: A Pathway to Realizing Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls, by WaterAid Canada
Why Canada’s international assistance gap threatens to undermine a new policy on feminist foreign aid, by Alyssa O’Dell, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
February 4: World Cancer Day
February 4-10: International Development Week
February 6: International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation
March 8: International Women’s Day
March 11: NGO CSW Consultation Day, New York
March 12-23: 62nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, New York
March 13: NGO CSW Reception, New York
March 24: World Tuberculosis Day
April 7: World Health Day
April 17-18: CanWaCH Conference: Beyond 2020: Canadian Global Health and Development , Ottawa
April 25: World Malaria Day
May 21-26: World Health Assembly, Geneva
May 23: International Day to End Obstetric Fistula