Save the Children鈥檚 global advocate says Canada could lead an effort to have youth steer the reform of global institutions to fight climate change, while urging Ottawa to reverse aid cuts.

鈥淐anada is uniquely placed today to really help the world to lead differently, to help young people to find hope for the future,鈥� said Rotimy Djossaya, the charity鈥檚 global policy head, during a recent visit to Ottawa.

鈥淐anada can play a critical role in ensuring that the world is prioritizing gender and human rights.鈥�

In mid-September, leaders gathered at the United Nations to take stock of the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of objectives such as gender equality, ending extreme poverty and ensuring a quality secondary education for every child. The goals involve 140 specific targets agreed upon in 2015, to be achieved by 2030.

Yet the United Nations says just 15 per cent of those targets have been reached, and 193 countries have agreed to speed up progress over the remaining seven years.

鈥淲e are off track. So, we need leaders; we need commitment,鈥� Djossaya said.

In the case of Canada, Djossaya said a feminist international aid policy has inspired other countries to take gender equality seriously, and to reform how they fund projects in developing countries in order to empower groups on the ground.

Yet he said the funding Canada has promised and the timelines it has set out do not account for the challenges these countries are facing, or the targets set out by the United Nations.

In this spring鈥檚 budget, the Liberals earmarked a $1.3-billion drop in funding, amounting to 15 per cent less than the year before.

The Trudeau government insists this is not a cut, since the budget remains larger than Canada鈥檚 aid expenditures before the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia鈥檚 invasion of Ukraine. But it fits a trend of western countries pulling back on aid spending amid a series of climate disasters and refugee crises.

Those trends are hitting children hard, Djossaya said. His organization has surveyed 54,000 children across 41 countries, and found they roundly feel adults aren鈥檛 doing enough to deal with what they perceive as increasing inequality and climate chaos.

鈥淭hey are struggling to understand the world that we鈥檒l live in tomorrow. They are struggling to understand the unprecedented scale of the impact of climate change of natural disasters,鈥� Djossaya said.

READ ALSO:

This month, the Overseas Development Institute said Canada has contributed just 51 per cent of its 鈥渇air share鈥� of the billions needed to help countries adapt to climate change, based on greenhouse gas emissions, gross national income and population size.

Meanwhile, in August the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that inaction on climate change amounts to violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that virtually every country adheres to, which gives more teeth to legal challenges of governments that don鈥檛 take climate change seriously.

鈥淭here鈥檚 an urgent need for us to step up,鈥� Djossaya said. 鈥淗ow are we using the tools to really deliver, for the next generation, a livable planet? It鈥檚 for me something which is alarming.鈥�

At the United Nations, Canada has argued there is not enough funding available to poorer countries to meet these targets, particularly those coping with increasing natural disasters associated with climate change.

For example, about 60 per cent of people in Africa don鈥檛 have access to early-warning systems to help them escape disasters, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Ottawa has argued the most viable way to face these types of challenges is to reform global financial institutions, to give more financing for carbon-neutral infrastructure that better protects these countries from hurricanes and wildfires.

Djossaya said those reforms are crucial, but Canada and its peers shouldn鈥檛 shirk their own responsibilities.

He noted an underfunded program in Burkina Faso designed by young adults, to make sure that families on the move due to climate change can make sure their children keep up with their schooling, through a network of schools in various regions that can integrate kids who had to move partway through a school year.

That program is in a region where young people are facing limited opportunities, and are recruited by terrorist groups.

鈥淭he only way to be successful 鈥� is to really put the children and young people themselves at the heart of the solutions,鈥� Djossaya said.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have time to lose. We need to act now, and make sure that we are shaping a world which will remain livable for the generations to come.鈥�

International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen wouldn鈥檛 say whether Ottawa will further boost its current aid allocation, but he noted the United Nations has put Canada as one of the leaders of an advocacy project for the Sustainable Development Goals.

鈥淐anada is actually leading in this space,鈥� Hussen said. 鈥淭his is not the time to pivot 鈥� we are at the halfway point and if we work hard, we can get the job done.鈥�