Canada Leading by Example When it Comes to Food Security
It is an unfortunate reality that not everyone in the world has access to food. With over a billion people now suffering from hunger, food security is a critical global challenge whose effects are felt most dramatically by the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.
Both before and during the current global recession, we’ve seen a troubling pattern of scarcity and price instability causing significant hardship, particularly in the developing world.
Whether we are talking about famines, price-spikes or lack of sustainable agricultural development, there are many clear and compelling humanitarian, economic and security reasons to address this mounting global challenge today.
At the recent G8 Summit in Italy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Canada’s participation in the G8 food security initiative. As part of this participation, Canada will more than double its investment in food security and provide $600 million in increased funding over three years, reaching $1.18 billion in overall funding. In total, G-8 members pledged to mobilize at least USD $15 billion (CAD $17.4 billion) over three years for programming and initiatives.
Canada is a global leader in increasing food security, with our overall investment including food aid reaching over $580 million in fiscal year 2008-2009, a nearly 40% year-over-year increase.
In April 2008, we fully untied our food aid budget, which particularly benefits developing countries. Untying food aid helps promote the development of local and regional markets, and helps to ensure the food assistance needs of vulnerable populations are met in a more timely manner. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, untying food aid dollars increases its impact by as much as 30% because it allows for activities such as local procurement and cutting transportation costs.
Our Government recognizes how important it is to do our part, leading by example on the world stage. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Liberal party leader Michael Ignatieff who, in dealing with countries like North Korea, has stated that he supported a “reduction in food aid” to strengthen the international community’s negotiations with North Korea on nuclear weapons.
Mr. Ignatieff downplayed concerns about the impact of a food boycott on the already starving civilian population, stating: “Is that a difficult human rights problem? You bet. But that’s where I would go.”
Unlike Mr. Ignatieff, our Government does not agree that reducing food aid to the starving civilian population of North Korea is the way to go. We will continue to do our part to ensure the world’s most vulnerable have access to food.
