Date: Wednesday October 7, 2020
Time: 10:00 - 11:30 EDT
Language: English
Presented in collaboration by:
Join a University of Guelph / CAIDP webinar to present and discuss findings of recent research about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Canadian humanitarian and development organisations. Conducted by scholars at the Guelph Institute of Development Studies at the University of Guelph, the research surveyed 154 Canadian organisations about the challenges and impacts of the pandemic on their operations as well as collected information about these organisations’ response strategies. In this webinar, panelists will discuss the findings and their implications for the future of the Canadian foreign aid sector. Panelists will include Dr. Andrea Paras (Associate Professor, University of Guelph and the project’s Primary Investigator), Jean Lowry (CAIDP President / University of Waterloo READI Project Director) and Dr. Rebecca Tiessen (Professor, University of Ottawa). The session will be moderated by Dr. Steffi Hamann.
Moderator
Dr. Steffi Hamann is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Development Studies at the University of Guelph. Prior to pursuing an academic career in Canada, she worked for the German development agency GIZ. Her research focus is sub-Saharan Africa, and she has conducted extensive fieldwork in Cameroon and Burkina Faso.
Panelists
Dr. Andrea Paras is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph. She is a cross-disciplinary international relations scholar whose research contributes to political science, international development studies, history, intercultural studies, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She is the Primary Investigator on a current project investigating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Canadian humanitarian and development organisations. More broadly, her research focuses on the history and politics of international humanitarianism; faith-based organisations in the Canadian development sector; and intercultural studies and international education. She is the author of the recent book Moral Obligations and Sovereignty in International Relations: A Genealogy of Humanitarianism (Routledge, 2019), and has published book chapters and articles in the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Frontiers, and Intercultural Education.
Dr. Rebecca Tiessen is a Full Professor, University Chair in Teaching, Associate Director/Undergraduate Coordinator and Co-op Coordinator in the School of International Development and Global Studies. Previously, she was Canada Research Chair in Global Studies at the Royal Military College of Canada and Adjunct Professor at Queen's University (2007-2013). Her research interests include gender and development, learning/volunteering abroad and the role of Canada and Canadians in the world. Specifically, her work has focused on gender inequality in the Global South, human security, Canadian foreign aid policy, global citizenship and youth volunteer abroad programs. Her research has focussed primarily on countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Malawi, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan).
Jean Lowry has over 30 years of experience, initially working in the environmental sector in Canada and as of 1994 working in international development. She has lived or worked in Indonesia, the Philippines, Guyana, Barbados and Belize and has led programs in Ghana, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Mozambique, Kenya and elsewhere. During her international development career Ms. Lowry has been a consultant or director of many multi million-dollar projects on behalf of the Government of Canada, the Inter-American Development Bank, IFAD, and the European Union. Ms. Lowry holds a B.Sc. in Physical Geography from the University of Winnipeg, and an M.Sc. in Resources and Environmental Management from the University of Calgary. She has been a member of CAIDP for many years and was elected to the role of President in March 2018. Since then she has led CAIDP’s engagement with GAC and others in ensuring that private sector members of the international development community have a voice and an opportunity to work actively towards improvement in service delivery. Since the advent of COVID-19 she has represented CAIDP on the GAC COVID-19 Dialogue Group which provides input and advice to GAC on priority issues and concerns. She currently works for the University of Waterloo as Director of the Risk Management, Economic Sustainability and Actuarial Science in Indonesia (READI) project.