ARTICLE - ODA DECLARES FOOD VICTORY

ODA DECLARES FOOD SECURITY VICTORY: NOW WHAT?
(Canada.com) - By Lee Berthiaume

After Canadians donated $113 million in the aftermath of last year’s devastating earthquake in Haiti and $47 million to help Pakistanis cope with massive flooding, one might expect donor fatigue to have set in. After all, there appear to be no shortage of crises and disasters.

But respond they did, this time in East Africa where 13 million people are trying to survive what is considered the worst drought in a generation. Between July and September, Canadians donated an estimated $70 million, all of which will be matched by the federal government.

“Canadians have once again demonstrated their compassion and generosity by continuing to support the people of East Africa suffering from this catastrophic drought,” CIDA Minister Bev Oda said in a statement.

Not by coincidence, the same day the government announced the donation total, Oda was at McGill University in Montreal, addressing a conference on food security.

The World Bank says food prices have increased 33 per cent in the last year, the minister noted, far faster than household incomes, especially in developing countries. As a result, an additional 44 million people have been pushed into poverty, and nearly 1 billion people are hungry.

And the government has responded, Oda said, making food security and agriculture one of CIDA’s priorities, to the point where it now accounts for more than 25 per cent of all country-to-country programming.

The government has also positioned Canada to become the third-largest contributor to the World Food Programme, among other accomplishments.

And it supports the need for monitoring food stocks on a global and regional level to help identify where dangerous food insecurity levels may be developing and to better help mitigate and respond to such situations, Oda said.

But much of the minister’s speech related to actions taken by the government and promises fulfilled, like a pledge made at the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy, in 2009 to contribute $1.18 billion over three years to food security. The government, Oda said, accomplished this feat a year early.

The question is: What now?

Up-to-date figures on Canadian aid are difficult to find, but the government has said international development is frozen at about $5 billion and will be assessed on a year-by-year basis. At a time of fiscal austerity, it’s difficult to envision any increases.

In addition, maternal and child health is far and above the government’s top aid priority, as evidenced by the prime minister personally championing the issue.

The fact Oda made a point of highlighting that Canada had fulfilled its L’Aquila commitments a year early raises the question as to whether funding for food security falls off starting next year in favour of maternal and child health.

Not to say one is more important than the other: Both are equally vital. But there’s only so much money to go around—especially when you are only spending about 0.32 per cent of your GNI on aid, instead of the internationally recognized 0.7 per cent.