SickKids celebrates International Development Week 2017

February 5 to 11, 2017 was International Development Week (IDW), an initiative that celebrates Canadian contributions to international development and engages and inspires Canadians, particularly youth, to learn more about global issues. The theme of the 27th annual IDW “Leave no one behind: Canada contributes to global goals!” highlights Canada’s collective effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out by the United Nations.

The Centre for Global Child Health at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) celebrated IDW through a series of events, engaging SickKids and the local community in our work to improve the lives of children and their families in poor-resource environments. The celebration kicked off with a Research Seminar presented by Dr. Diego Bassani, Epidemiologist and Principal Investigator at the Centre, on the key components and tools for a successful maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) program. He also presented some of current evaluation work being done in the new International Program Evaluation Unit (IPE) at SickKids.

“The goal of our team at IPE is to use evaluation to ensure implementing agencies can become effective in their efforts to improve the lives of mothers and children. Most importantly, we want to increase transparency and accountability in the area of program implementation. We are committed to ensuring that Canada’s investments in international development produces the maximum possible impact on these lives,” says Bassani.

Following the seminar, the Centre hosted an exhibit and networking session, including poster displays, demonstrations and videos, sharing work in the Centre’s three pillars: Capacity Building, Research, and Knowledge Translation, Advocacy and Policy.

The celebration concluded with an interactive and engaging discussion with a group of local high school students from Parkdale Collegiate Institute moderated by Dr. Daniel Roth, Principal Investigator at the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health. The students were given ‘myths’ or ‘misperceptions’ in global child health and asked to share their research to ‘debunk’ the myths with a panel of experts from the Centre for Global Child Health. The students received feedback and asked the panelists questions on their work in the topic areas presented, including health workforce strengthening, newborn care, nutrition, breastfeeding and monitoring and evaluation. Students also visited the poster exhibit, and engaged with other staff engaged in global child health work.

"It's a fun event and very inspiring to see the enthusiasm of the students for global child health issues. I was really impressed by the students' well researched and thoughtful presentations," says Roth.