December 21, 2022
Dear CAIDP Community,
I hope this message reaches you in good spirits as we come off the heels of a much-welcomed return to in-person engagement with the Day of Dialogue, organized by Global Affairs Canada and a fabulous International Cooperation Festival by our colleagues at Cooperation Canada.
Over the course of the week, Canada’s development community came back together with newly-minted and shared experiences of covid-induced isolation and recurrent lockdowns, refreshed outlooks to longstanding problems and a unified purpose to respond to the growing global development, humanitarian, and trade challenges brought on by the pandemic and its uneven vaccine rollout, the outbreak of several national and regional conflicts in Asia, Africa and now, Europe and significant climate change-induced disasters in Pakistan, Nigeria, Florida and the Horn of Africa to name but a few.
This all sets against a backdrop of a degraded economic outlook. Economists and policy makers painted a dire picture at the recent IMF / World Bank annual meetings, noting a sharp and protracted decline in global growth, trending downward from earlier projections for 2023 from 6.1% to 3.6%. Outside of 2023, growth is projected to further decline to 3.3 percent, pushing tens of millions further towards extreme poverty and likely inducing significant increase in irregular migration.
For the foreseeable future, governments the world over will confront an ever-present set of tough choices, balancing protections for the most vulnerable, against forward-looking fiscal prudence and delivering substantive support to entrepreneurial and economic growth at home. The trade-offs continue to impact the development sector, notably in the UK with a further hollowing of its aid commitments and creating a C$7B gap between the UK and tens of millions across the globe.
Despite the enormity of the challenge, the message delivered by Canada’s development community was clear. We will respond. Our approach will draw on the depth of capability, experience, and insight from across civil society, the private, public, non-governmental and education sectors. Our commitments to inclusive and equitable growth, rights-based and rules-driven global engagement will serve as foundational elements to a renewed commitment to impact-driven climate action, poverty reduction and sustainable and inclusive economic development.
Building from this momentum, CAIDP-RPCDI will continue its policy advocacy with Global Affairs Canada and the Sector on key priority issues for the sector. Our programming committee is now conceptualizing our forthcoming conference as demonstration of our commitment to achieving the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals.
On behalf of the Board of Directors of CAIDP-RPCDI, I invite you to contribute to our dialogue with the Government and with our Canadian and global development peers and to engage with us on the challenges and opportunities you face as development practitioners.
We are here to support you and look forward to seeing you for an exciting CAIDP-RPCDI conference. With warm regards,
Abbas Sumar
President, Canadian Association for International Development Professionals