Three months have already passed since we had the June BBQ. I hope that you really enjoyed your summer. As the new Chair of the ASG, I first want to thank Paul Hitschfeld for heading us brilliantly for the last three years. I also wish to thank the Executive members who make this possible. The monthly meetings, with distinguished speakers, have been very successful so far, and I hope that you will find the upcoming ones as interesting.
In this new season, I would like to build on what has been achieved so far, and go beyond. We will put more effort into developing policy papers, and getting these out to Canadians and policy makers. In the first place, we will finalize the Corporate Social Responsibility paper that was presented last March, and I will extract from the ashes the work that was done in 2010-11 by many of us on a new Canada-Africa Partnership. The CIDA-DFAIT merger may also be on our agenda. We will also reinvigorate the blog, as it is an important outreach tool, and we are always looking for new members.
I am pleased to inform you that Bryan Burton has joined us on the Executive. In addition, the door is wide open to anybody who would like to give a hand on the web-based communication tools side of things. Please contact me if interested : louimet@govplusintl.com
Now for the speakers program: in the interest of facilitating the participation of active professionals and students, we will start meetings at 5:00 p.m., 30 minutes later than the previous year. The first meeting will be on September 25 and we will host Jean-Paul Ruszkowski, Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Parliamentary Centre. On October 16, David Moore, Professor at Johannesburg University will talk to us on Zimbabwe, and on October 23, we are invited to join our Middle East Study Group colleagues to discuss Egypt. Then, on November 25, we will be informed of Tostan’s community empowerment work in West Africa. In December, we will look at conflicts from different angles, such as that of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and that of Professor Jocelyn Coulon, from the University of Montreal.
In the new year, we have the North South Institute lined up to talk about research studies they did on Beyond Aid and on the Post 2015 Development Agenda. I would also like to find people who could talk to us on our immigration policy and its impact on Africa, and explore the role of the diaspora.
Hoping to see you regularly at our monthly meetings, please do not hesitate to share with me, or any other member of the executive board, your suggestions regarding potential themes, speakers, or other ideas.
Louise Ouimet
