To promote the work of small and medium organizations (SMOs) working in international cooperation, Spur Change invited international leaders to participate at the Pathways to Gender Equality conference in November 2024 as well as conduct a public engagement tour alongside their Canadian SMO partner. Four inspiring international leaders traveled to Canada to share their expertise and experiences: Iris Canham who works with the Roll a Hippo Foundation in South Africa, Roheena Ali Shah from Pakistan who collaborated on a project with My Oral Village, as well as Sada Segeja and Zulpher Bashir Mbwana from Community Forests Pemba, the Tanzania-based sister organization of Community Forests International.
“Hearing Iris, Roheena, Sada, and Zulpher share their transformative experiences promoting gender equality in their communities was a personal highlight from the conference program,” notes Jetske Duintjer, Director of Spur Change. “SMOs and the implementing teams bring valuable expertise essential to advancing gender equality and leading localization efforts globally. The conference was a perfect moment to recognize this expertise and promote knowledge sharing between Canada-based and international practitioners alike,” Jetske continued.
The impact of these leaders was evident in the participant feedback: “I was inspired by the team from South Africa, Tanzania and Pakistan,” one participant wrote. Another participant remarked that “[the conference] was a wholesome experience to connect with other practitioners across Canada and internationally and learn their invaluable insights.”
During their time in Canada, the four leaders also engaged in a public engagement tour in partnership with their Canadian SMO counterpart.
Iris, alongside the Roll a Hippo Foundation, spoke at schools and at Rotary Clubs across British Columbia. The tour provided an opportunity to discuss the critical intersections of water security, food security, health, gender equality, and education. At elementary schools, Iris connected with younger audiences through her children’s book Thokozile had a dream, a tale on gender inequality at grassroots level where girls are expected to collect water as a priority, often prioritized over education. With more mature audiences at the Rotary Clubs, she was able to discuss more complex barriers to gender equality which the Roll a Hippo Foundation has uncovered through their work such as the untold stories of gender-based violence, sextortion, cultural norms that prohibit women from ownership, and the poor treatment of widows which prevent them from re-entering the labour force.
My Oral Village welcomed Roheena to Ontario where she spoke at universities and colleges and supporters of the organization. Across the presentations and discussions, Roheena shared her experience as a gender specialist in rural Pakistan and the importance of education, particularly for girls and women in these communities. She also emphasized the impact of approaches like My Oral Village’s Oral Information Management (OIM) in promoting financial literacy and women empowerment. At the University of Guelph, Humber College, and Centennial College, Roheena inspired students by sharing her career journey and encouraged them to pursue work in international cooperation and gender equality work.
With their sister organization, Community Forests International, Sada and Zulpher were joined by another of their team members from Tanzania, Naushat, to engage communities in New Brunswick. The first activity was a webinar with the three women highlighting their work on the ZanzAdapt project—a project aimed at promoting women's leadership in environmental stewardship and climate adaptation for coastal communities (click here to watch the recording). Aligning with Community Forest International’s work in the Canadian Maritimes, fostering strong relationships between people and forests, a guided walk through Walker Road Forest was organized to engage with the community and university students on the organizations efforts in Canada and in Tanzania.
Across the country, the speaker tours had a combined 913 participants. While the tours were an opportunity to promote each organization’s work and advocate for gender equality in their home communities, they also reflect the broader interest of the Canadian public to engage in global discussions and foster new connections in the global community.
Spur Change offers a heartfelt thanks to Iris, Roheena, Sada, and Zulpher for making the trip to Canada and for their invaluable contributions engaging with Canadian SMOs at the conference and with the public. An equal thank you to the partner SMOs for your support in hosting and planning the public engagement tours. We highly encourage you to learn more about the important work of these organizations by checking out their websites linked throughout the article.