Two years into a global pandemic that’s ravaged countries’ healthcare, social, and economic systems, Canada has made some major commitments to the world. 

In December, the Prime Minister delivered mandate letters to his cabinet — among them, a letter to Minister Harjit Sajjan, who comes to the international development portfolio after serving as Canada’s Minister of National Defence from 2015 to 2021. 

Minister Sajjan’s letter asks him to prioritize a feminist approach to international assistance, increase the country’s development assistance every year until 2030, and more. 

To mark International Development Week 2022, Future of Good’s CEO and publisher Vinod Rajasekaran sat down with Minister Sajjan to learn more about his vision for the ministry, what decolonizing aid and development means to him, and more. 

Vinod Rajasekaran: The first commitment in your mandate letter is to implement the Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP). What does FIAP mean to you and what would be your marker of success here? 

Minister Harjit Sajjan: People often ask me if FIAP is my priority and I say, we can’t look at it as a priority. I have a bunch of priorities. But the Feminist International Assistance Policy is about how we do our work — how we launch our priorities. It has to be a mindset. One of my goals out of this is to make it mainstream internationally, so that the work we’re starting cannot be undone. 

Vinod: Your mandate letter also makes a commitment to increase Canada’s official development assistance (ODA). How are you going to convince cabinet to put money and resources toward ODA? 

Minister Sajjan: One, is that we as a government are committed to this. It was mentioned in the speech from the throne and it’s also in my mandate letter to come up with an actual plan — and that’s what my team will be working on. It’s not just about increasing dollars. Putting money out there without a plan doesn’t really make sense. What we want to do is actually have impact on the ground. I’ll give you an example. When you look at the Feminist International Assistance Policy, and we talk about how education is important for girls, what are the actual needs on the ground? What are the cultural roadblocks in the way, for example? There are many parts of the world where girls are taken out of school when they reach puberty. So we would be focused on making sure there are properly hygienic washrooms in the schools so that girls can actually continue going to school. Plus, you’ve got to convince those families that pulling them out of school is not the right thing to do — it’s actually a much better benefit to them to have girls in school. It’s about looking at things through a cultural lens and holistically. 

Vinod: On that note, the sector is at a crossroads moment — one that has the possibility to shed, if you will, the old and harmful ways of doing aid and development. Many might call them colonial approaches or white saviourism. We are in the era of decolonizing aid and development. How do you see truth and reconciliation as part of your portfolio, and how does it factor into your work?

Minister Sajjan: Well, the truth and reconciliation work we’re trying to do in Canada is the same when we work internationally — we have to look at the Indigenous populations of those nations and make sure we work through the systems that they have in place, and not forget about the Indigenous peoples. I’ve seen the absolute power of civil society on the ground, but I’ve also seen smaller outcomes where development aid has actually had a negative impact because we’ve taken a western lens. I’ll give you an example: when I was serving in Afghanistan, I went to one village and saw a lot of mud huts, water running through the village, kids playing. I remember some people saying, Oh my God, how do people live like this? And I turned to them, and I said, actually, it’s not too bad here — look, people are happy. When you go inside people’s homes, it’s very clean, there’s agriculture. Sometimes the recommendations when we were moving people back into villages after fighting had taken place were, ‘Oh we have to bring in all this food and grain.’ I said, ‘Have the people asked for that? Has anybody asked them?’ I knew that the food was in the field. 

Vinod: And how are you planning to work with the sector here in Canada on decolonizing global development? 

Minister Sajjan: I’m very happy to say that they’re actually already on that path. It’s not me that’s having to push this. They’re already talking about it, and that’s something that gives me a lot of hope. Our civil society is a powerhouse when it comes to making change around the world. What I want to do is leverage their strength. 

Vinod: So you’d be looking for a plan from the sector on decolonizing development? 

Minister Sajjan: Rather than me imposing and saying, ‘I’d like to see a plan,’ I’d like to see a further discussion in everything we do. 

Vinod: I want to do some forecasting. When you move onto your next portfolio, whenever that may be, what will have transformed as a result of your leadership here?

Minister Sajjan: What I’d like to bring is that firsthand experience from being on the ground. When I was visiting Uganda, we were in this village and seeing some of the kids, I was talking to some people in the vehicle beside me, and I said, ‘What’s the difference between those kids and the kids we see in Canada? One of those children could find the cure for cancer. Here’s the difference, though: that kid doesn’t have the same opportunity as some of the kids here in Canada.’ What I want to do is look at changing the mindset — so that when we look at those countries, we don’t say, ‘Oh we need to help.’ Yes, we need to help, but this is an investment into a tremendous opportunity that we will all benefit from.

To watch the full interview — including more on Canada’s ODA priorities, doing development work in culturally appropriate ways, and whether the minister would support bill S-216 — become a Future of Good member today. 

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