In June, the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized nations, including Canada, met in Italy to discuss global challenges at what they called "a crucial moment in history." Results Canada, along with our dedicated volunteers, kept a close eye on these discussions to ensure Canada took a strong stand on the needs and protection to #ReachEveryChild living in emergencies and set the stage for when Canada takes over the G7 Presidency in 2025.
The G7 is an influential moment to galvanize support and drive impact towards critical global issues. Historically, Canada has demonstrated strong and bold leadership as the G7 host. In 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper led the Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, and most recently in 2018, Justin Trudeau led the Charlevoix Declaration on quality education for girls, adolescent girls, and women. Each of these G7 Initiatives led to enormous impact in the world for child health and access to education for women and girls in emergency settings, with Results Canada volunteers and staff playing a key role in the advocacy that led to these critical outcomes.
G7 leaders met in Italy in June to discuss ongoing global challenges including tackling climate change, combatting the global food crises, and addressing major conflicts and humanitarian emergencies. In May, we mobilized volunteers to write to Canada’s G7 Sherpa, urging Canada not only to recognize the unique needs of children in emergencies settings and demand humanitarian protection, but also to support vital mechanisms to #ReachEveryChild with critical health services like Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
Thanks in large part to the efforts of our volunteers, Canada and the other G7 leaders responded to our call. In their joint declaration, they highlighted the dangers faced by children in conflict zones and other humanitarian crises in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Haiti. The leaders called for rapid and unimpeded passage for humanitarian relief for civilians, particularly women and children, in Gaza. We were also pleased to see leaders’ support for the upcoming replenishments of Gavi and the Global Fund in the final declaration.
The G7 Finance Ministers’ communiqué in May also reaffirmed the commitment of major donor countries, calling for increased investments in these life-saving global health programs. Additionally, the G7 pledged to support Gavi’s new African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA).
Prime Minister Trudeau announced that Canada will host the next G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta and underlined Canada’s continued commitment to working together with G7 partners on common priorities, such as building economies that benefit everyone, fighting climate change, and managing rapidly evolving technologies.
As Canada gains Presidency for the 2025 G7, we will continue to raise our voices for Canadian leadership and solidarity to #ReachEveryChild with life-saving vaccines and access to health services, the renewal and expansion of the Charlevoix Declaration to ensure children living in emergency and fragile contexts have access to quality education, and committing bold investment to address the malnutrition crisis by supporting the Nutrition for Growth Summit early next year.
As Canada gets ready to host the G7 next year it will be an enormous opportunity for us all to advocate strongly for Canada to step up once again and be the bold leader for impact in the world that we can all be proud of!
