Influencing Governments

Here in Canada, World Vision advocates with our government to create policies and support programs that:

• empower and protect children from the worst kinds of harm: violence, abuse, exploitation, and neglect
• ensure that children and mothers can avoid deadly diseases and enjoy good health
• provide children with the skills and tools they need for a bright future: education, empowered communities and supportive families
• create the maximum impact from our aid dollars, directing them toward the world’s most fragile places

The advocacy and policy work we do in Ottawa is a force multiplier for child well-being and complements our programming efforts in the field. Our local presence in nearly 100 countries around the world helps us identify the specific needs – and provides the evidence – that drives our advocacy work here in Canada.

We work to see that Canada’s government is making sound decisions in its global affairs. This includes choices around programs, trade, diplomacy and funding. We want to see support and respect for the well-being of children around the world in each of these areas.

As part of our work with communities overseas, we empower leaders and parents with tools on how to advocate with their own local governments. We teach them about existing laws, so they can advocate for their enforcement. For instance, most countries have policies protecting children’s education. But what if the government has provided no teachers for the community? That's why local-level advocacy is a central part of our community development programming.

For communities around the world, knowing their country’s laws, their children’s rights, and the ways to act can make all the difference moving forward. This empowerment is part of what makes change sustainable, long after World Vision leaves an area.

Our work in the halls of power would be empty without our work for children in the communities and countries where they live. That’s where we gain a clear understanding of how children’s rights are violated and their needs overlooked. It’s where we see firsthand how neglecting and exploiting children can devastate their lives. And it’s how we come to understand the barriers in place when families try to speak up.

This evidence drives our proposals for change to Canada’s global policies. We engage children as decision-makers and change-agents, bringing their voices into policy discussions and sharing their stories with government. And the impact of our development and advocacy work is a powerful example of how the right kind of programming can change lives. 

At any given time, we are actively engaging the Canadian government on several fronts.

We’re currently advocating for the creation of legislation requiring Canadian companies to report publicly on any measures they’re taking to check their global supply chains. How do we know that no children were exploited as labourers, to produce the goods bring sold here Canada? What about forced labour, with trafficked workers? The Canadian public deserves to know so they can make ethical purchasing decisions. 
 
Similar legislation has been passed elsewhere, in the United Kingdom and the state of California. It has proved to be effective in driving positive corporate change to promote children’s rights, and providing consumers with better information to help them make ethical purchasing decisions.
 
We’re also currently pressing the government to commit to predictable increases to its financial commitments to international development. We know that ambitious goals require ambitious financing: if Canada is going to do its part in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, it will require new levels of effective, targeted investment into key priority areas.

One powerful example is our work for women and children’s health, on which we partner with a coalition of other NGOs. We’re asking Canada’s government to use their influence to improve the health of mothers and babies. Through a combination of focused programing and Canada’s commitments of nearly $5 billion dollars (leveraging nearly $50 billion from other countries), the results have saved the lives of countless children.  
 
Increasingly, we are focusing our health advocacy efforts on the world’s most fragile places. Women and girls affected by conflict, crisis and displacement are those whose health and rights are most vulnerable, yet they are without adequate health systems and support. By sharing our evidence base about the programs and innovations that work best in fragile contexts, and calling on the Government of Canada to focus its efforts in these hardest to reach places, we promote the well-being of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable women and girls.
 
World Vision is also working with the government to find ways to provide much needed family planning and reproductive health programming, especially for adolescent girls. Educating women about the importance of family planning could prevent as many as 1 in 3 maternal deaths and improve the survival rate of children.