Oct 13 2011 @ 16:19

OCTOBER 17 — Tell Your MP You Want IATI Now

Photo: Engineers Without Borders Canada has been at the forefront of encouraging Canada to adopt the International Aid Transparency Initiative. Monday, October 17th will mark our largest effort yet.

We're taking action, and encouraging Canadians to do the same, on the street in major urban centres from coast to coast and on Facebook, the world's biggest online community.

The message
It couldn't be simpler, in fact, you might call it common sense. In November, our Government is attending the High Level Forum (HLF) on Aid Transparency in Busan, South Korea. At the last HLF, the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) was launched. Its purpose: to make information about aid spending easier to find, use and compare by implementing a standard for publishing funding. The benefits are huge and numerous (you can get all the details here) but suffice to say, IATI is going to help eradicate poverty in a significant way.

It's not more aid, it's smarter aid, and we're using The International Day For The Eradication of Poverty to ask Canada to sign on.

So... how exactly are we going to do that?

At Street Level - Breaking Open the Black Box
In 30 cities across Canada, EWBers will be engaging Canadians on the street, ensuring they know about IATI and making it easy for them to tell their Member of Parliament that they want Canada's aid to be more effective. Each event will feature a big black box, as a metaphor for Canada's aid - money goes in, but no ones quite sure what happens after that.

Metaphors are usually sort of...boring. Not so much with EWB. Some boxes will be giant mazes, others will be pummelled by pumpkins, some will hide notable landmarks and still others will be lifted into the stratosphere by helium balloons. Regardless of the creative approach, the message stays the same - get rid of the box, and communicate our aid funding for greater effectiveness.

Online - 5,000 letters to MPs or bust
On Facebook, we're launching a 24 hour sign and share initiative. People can quickly click a link, enter their name and postal code, edit a letter (we've written a sample to make it incredibly easy), send it to the Minister of International Cooperation with a simple click, then post the action to their wall, encouraging their friends to follow in their digital footsteps.

We have profile pics for people to upload. Pre-written status updates. Event invites. Everything you and your friends need to make your voice heard. And yes, our goal is to generate 5,000 signatures from Facebook alone. That's a really big number - almost double our best result to date, but we believe that Canadians want IATI and the positive results it will create, and that they'll be happy to let their MPs know.

We need you to make it happen. On October 17th, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, join us and send a message to your MP. Tell him or her that Canadian aid can be more effective. That we can save money by cutting the red tape. That by publishing what we fund, we can root out corruption, support work that actually works and rebuild Canada's reputation as a leader in global development. That you want Canada to join 22 other leading donor countries and organizations by signing on to IATI and making Canada's aid more effective. Because when you get right down to it, it's just common sense.

Start by "liking" EWB on facebook today.

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