Statement to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development and members of the Committee on Agriculture and Food

Transcription

1 Statement to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development and members of the Committee on Agriculture and Food Ottawa, Canada 30 May 2006 James T. Morris Executive Director Mr. Chairman, Distinguished members, Ladies and gentlemen, I was in Africa a few weeks ago together with Ann Veneman, the Executive Director of UNICEF and Antonio Guterres, the Executive Director of UNHCR. We visited the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. Right after, I headed to Kenya, where prolonged drought is menacing the lives of the poor. It has already devastated farms and killed thousands of cattle. The question is: Will it claim the lives of children next? 1

2 Few experiences have changed my life more than holding an acutely malnourished child in my arms, as I did in Kenya. To cradle a one year old girl who weighs little more than an average newborn in Canada or the United States unleashes a tide of emotions. One can t help but feel grief for this child s pain; shame that this should be allowed to happen in the 21st century; anger that this child will not be the last to suffer this fate. In fact, 18,000 children will not make it through today. Their tiny bodies will succumb to months and years of not getting the nutrition they needed to survive. Millions more will have their growth stunted forever, their minds dulled by malnutrition and their futures limited to a life of poverty and ignorance. When we talk of deaths from hunger, scenes from drought in East Africa and conflict in Darfur come quickly to mind. In these places, we face decisions that would make even King Solomon pause. Two weeks ago, we simply did not enough food or money soon enough for Darfur. We were forced to make one of the hardest decisions ever: do we halve the number of people we help, or do we try to give all of the people half the food they need? Thanks to assistance from the US, EC, Canada, Denmark, the UN Secretary-General himself as well as the Sudanese Government, this month we will begin restoring rations for millions of people in Darfur. Later this week I will travel to Sudan to discuss with all of the players how to fund the huge needs there. Fully one third of our needs worldwide are for Sudan alone. 2

3 WFP and the people caught in crises like Sudan, East Africa, and Haiti have so much to thank Canada for. This year alone, you have given CAD $105 million. Your donation of CAD $14.5 million for Sudan couldn t have come at a more critical moment. The same is true of the CAD $8 million for the Horn of Africa, and $16 million for Ethiopia. Truly, your support is miraculous. Last year, WFP provided food assistance to 97 million people in 82 countries. All told, we raised more CAD $3 billion and CAD $186 million of that came from Canada. It s a record amount and we really appreciate it. In many ways, 2005 tested our ability to save lives in the most difficult of circumstances. In Darfur alone, WFP reached about 3.4 million people, despite enormous security constraints. In Niger we reached over 400,000 children, many of them acutely malnourished, and fed about 2.4 million people with our emergency operation. We reached 1.38 million earthquake victims in South Asia, where we faced enormous logistical challenges, and simultaneously responded to the hurricanes in Guatemala and El Salvador. Our response to the Boxing Day tsunami provided food to more than 2 million people in six countries and we are still helping the communities affected rebuild their homes and regain their livelihoods. Canada stood out in the international community by being by our side in practically all of these operations and many more which never made the headlines. For WFP, what makes Canada's contributions to Darfur and other crises essential is that they arrive in the early stages of an emergency, when 3

4 money and food can address urgent needs and stop hunger from growing worse. Without Canada, the death toll in Darfur and around the world would be tragically higher. The reality is that WFP and the international relief system can t do their jobs properly without key partners like Canada who are prepared to step up to the plate. Canada s generosity makes the difference between life and death for millions of people who, through no fault of their own, are threatened by hunger, starvation and death. Unfortunately, the need for food aid still outstrips the resources available. Last year we met just 57 percent of our emergency operations requirements. In very real terms, that means rations cut or beneficiaries not receiving help when they need it most. Sadly, donors have not given food aid the priority it deserves as they increase foreign aid. We need a "food first" policy. Long-term economic aid is vital, but it cannot come before aid to people who are starving. The year 2005 also confirmed that our strategy is well placed our highest priority is responding to emergencies and saving lives. We witnessed first-hand the importance of improving nutritional status, bolstering the food security of high-risk populations and strengthening coping mechanisms before disasters strike. WFP paid special attention to its emergency preparedness, needs assessment and vulnerability analysis and mapping (VAM). We focused on results-based management (RBM) at all levels of our work at headquarters and in the field. We gave managers greater flexibility and decreased the time it takes us to respond to an emergency essential for saving lives and preventing malnutrition. 4

5 Canada played a strong role in these developments as a steadfast and wise member of our Executive Board. Ambassador Robert Fowler was certainly one of the most dedicated humanitarians I have ever come across, demonstrating his strong commitment to the work of WFP and actively engaging in WFP s governance, going beyond Rome to visit our field operations in person. We are also grateful for the superb Canadian talent that we count among our own staff; some of WFP s most senior and dedicated staff are Canadian citizens you should be very proud of the work that 125 Canadians do around the globe. The OECD reckons that international aid was higher in 2005 than in any year in history. Industrialized countries gave nearly CAD $120 billion in foreign aid. With global generosity at historically high levels, it is hard to understand why 100 million children who need help to get enough food to survive, to grow and to go to school are still left wanting. The vast majority of the children who will die today from hunger and related causes won t perish in a high-profile emergency. They ll pass, unnoticed by anyone other than their families and neighbors, in squalid slums or in remote dusty villages. If they do survive, their lives will have changed forever. Take the story of four year old Marie Carmel, from Haiti, as an example. Her black curly hair is tinged with red, a tell-tale sign of malnutrition. Her eyes are empty four months ago a chronic lack of vitamin A left her completely blind. Two of her siblings died and two were given away, simply because her mother could not feed them. Marie Carmel and her mother now survive on the monthly rations of rice, beans, oil and iodized salt which may 5

6 have even come in a bag marked Gift of Canada. But one has to ask, did Marie Carmel really need to go blind from malnutrition in 2006? To help put an end to this needless suffering, WFP and UNICEF are working more closely than ever with the widest possible group of partners to fight and end child hunger. International organizations and other agencies like World Vision have teamed up to improve the benefit package offered to poor children through the education system. In schools where WFP has school feeding programmes, we have come up with an essential package of health and nutrition. While each package is designed to meet the needs of a particular setting, they tend to include building toilets, vitamin and mineral supplements, teacher training, safe drinking water, HIV/AIDS prevention, setting up school gardens, and mosquito nets to prevent malaria. Thanks in large part to guidance from Canada, we realise it s not enough just to ensure that children have enough calories each day although it s still absolutely essential. We also need to make sure children get enough of the vitamins and minerals needed for them to grow into healthy, productive citizens. The Canadian Impact Grant established in 1998 helped us to improve the results of 36 operations in 28 different countries last year alone. Three quarters of funds focused on ensuring our activities met nutritional needs. Canada is also helping WFP and the Micronutrient Initiative to ensure that local salt producers add iodine to salt in 6 countries -- India, Pakistan, Sudan, Ghana, Senegal and Haiti. These six countries are home to 19 million of the 37 million newborn babies at risk of iodine deficiency in the developing world. Iodine deficiency during pregnancy is the number 6

7 one reason for mental retardation among newborn babies, and leads to goitre among adults. The Millennium Development Goals are an excellent set of priorities against which our aid can be measured. And child hunger is an essential pre-requisite for at least six of the eight goals. Naturally, it is linked to the first goal to halve poverty and hunger. Providing school meals is one of the most successful ways of achieving the second goal: universal primary education. Canada made a vital contribution to this effort with a three year commitment ( ) of $25 million each year to feeding school children in five African countries (Senegal, Mali, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Tanzania). You have given the children there a gift that no one can ever take away from them three years worth of good nutrition and education. Ensuring that women have greater equality starts with ensuring they re well nourished and well educated. The fourth goal is cutting child mortality by two thirds if you consider that undernutrition plays a role in 53 percent of all child deaths in the developing world, it is not difficult to imagine the impact ending child malnutrition would have. The same is true of the fifth goal: improving maternal health. Every year 60,000 women die in pregnancy and childbirth because of iron deficiency anaemia. Food and nutrition support also play an important but often overlooked role in fighting HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. Without good nutrition, the body has a much harder time fighting disease, and families have a 7

8 hard time getting enough to eat when the primary breadwinner falls ill. In short, if we can conquer hunger especially among children our chances of meeting the Millennium Development Goals will be greatly increased. I have to believe it comes down to a question of priorities. Who should we put first when deciding the aid budget? From all that I have seen and learnt, it simply must be mothers and children and their most urgent need for food, water, education and health care must come before anything else. And priority has to go to the hungriest people in the poorest places before they become the victims of emergencies. As grateful as we are for emergency aid from Canada and other donors, I think we could do a much better job if we pre-empted crises and risks the way donor nations already do at home. What I m asking is that we apply the same standards of care to all of the world s children, just as you would to your own. Canadians don t stand by and allow children to die from hunger. You don t allow hunger and poverty to keep children out of school. You certainly would never cut food rations for Canadians who were the victims of a disaster. We could really use more of your help and leadership to ensure it doesn t happen to other countries children, either. Another emotion overcomes me when I hold malnourished children who are finally receiving our help. That emotion is hope. Hope that one day soon we will care for these children as if they were our own. That they 8

9 would have enough to eat and an opportunity to go to school just like my own children and grandchildren did. With help from Canada, I am sure that hope will not be in vain. >>><<< 9