Results Canada has been advocating for the government to invest CAD$500 million over five years to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) so that children around the world have access to quality education during and after the pandemic. It is disappointing that Canada only pledged CAD$300 million over five years at the recent G7 Summit. Canada can still lead in global education by topping off the GPE pledge at the Global Education Summit, happening at the end of July, and committing finances towards the Together for Learning campaign. Let's shift our focus to call on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of International Development Karina Gould to top up Canada's investment at the Summit.
Our #RaiseYourHand campaign focuses on the education crisis caused by COVID-19 that threatens a loss of learning for an entire generation of children and highlights the barriers to education in low-income countries. The pandemic has taken an especially devastating toll on girls’ education, threatening to derail progress made over the past 25 years. Prior to the pandemic, nearly 132 million girls were out of school and millions more were in school but not learning. Now, an additional 20 million girls who were in secondary school may never return once the pandemic subsides, with a damaging impact on their health, protection, and wellbeing.
letter to the editor (LTE)
: a letter written to a newspaper, magazine or other periodical about issues of concern to readers, usually intended to be published in the paper/periodical
Write a letter to the editor (LTE) about why girls’ education should be a critical component of the Canadian global response to the pandemic. Show how removing roadblocks and ensuring that girls can learn in a safe and supportive environment generates huge dividends for economic prosperity, gender equality, climate resilience, public health, and lasting peace and stability.
Use the anniversary of the Charlevoix declaration (June 9), the G7 Summit (June 11-13), or World Refugee Day (June 20) as a hook to emphasize how an educated girl will lift herself and everyone around her out of poverty and will lead change towards a more prosperous, just, and secure world.
The ask: Canada must invest CAD$500 million over 5 years in the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) so that children around the world have access to quality education during and after the pandemic.
Here are some ideas that you can include with your LTE. Be sure to post your photo(s) on social media, and tag your Member of Parliament (MP) and @ResultsCda:
Consider including the children in your life as part of this LTE action. Whether it is your grandchildren, a younger sibling or cousin, or a family friend, take action together to demonstrate your support for children’s education.
Use our instructions, tips, and resources below to get your LTE published in the media.
Canada must support equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine
Dear Editor,
Despite the slow vaccine rollout, about 20% of Canadians have received at least one dose while only about 0.7% of the entire continent of Africa has received a single dose. While Canada has staked their claim to 230 million doses, more than 3 times what is needed to immunize Canadians, estimates show that many countries will not have mass vaccination programs in place until 2024.
As new coronavirus vaccines zoom through clinical trials and approvals, wealthy nations have reserved millions of doses and global supplies of COVID-19 equipment and drugs creating an enormous gap in access for low-income countries. To bridge this gap, India and South Africa applied for a Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver at the World Trade Organization in October 2020 to temporarily waive IP rights enabling global manufacturers to produce generic versions of vaccines and drugs.
Waiving of IP rights two decades ago by several nations improved access to HIV drugs and cut costs. Similarly, this TRIPS waiver could boost the production and equitable distribution of COVID vaccines. It is important to note that this is not a silver bullet and many issues like poor supply chains, material shortage, capacity building and cooperation between developers and manufacturers need to be addressed.
On May 5th Canada must support the TRIPS waiver especially since it does not have a domestically produced vaccine. In fact, Canada stands to benefit from this waiver as India is scheduled to deliver us 2 million doses by the end of May. As PM Trudeau rightfully said, we don’t get through this pandemic anywhere until we get through it everywhere.
Jeena Mathew, Publication date: Apr 21, 2021, Inside Halton
See all our resources to help you write your LTE, along with key dates, hashtags, tags and keywords found on our campaign page.
