After last year’s federal election, the Liberal minority government followed through on a campaign promise to create a new organization, a “Canadian Centre for Peace, Order and Good Government (CCPOGG).” According to language in the mandate letters of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Development, this new organization would “expand the availability of Canadian expertise and assistance to those seeking to build peace, advance justice, promote human rights and democracy, and deliver good governance.” Recent Treasury Board estimates suggest that the CCPOGG will have a budget of $50 million annually beginning in fiscal 2021-22.
But over six months into the term of the new government not a great deal is known about the new organization. Will it be housed within the federal bureaucracy, or set up as an independent arms-length organization? Will it have a research or a more programmatic orientation? And what specifically is meant by the mandate to “build peace, advance justice, promote human rights and democracy, and deliver good governance.”
To share information and views on some of these questions, WFM – Canada worked with the Canadian Council for International Cooperation to convene a February 27 discussion among Canadian civil society organizations. A meeting with officials from Global Affairs Canada is expected to follow in the coming weeks.
