Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be here with officials from CIDA. It is indeed my privilege to appear here today to discuss Canada's international development agency and the supplementary estimates.
As indicated, I will at times defer to the officials on issues, but nonetheless I want to begin by giving you a brief overview of the agency, the work we are doing, and the direction in which we are going.
Development is a major part of the way Canada engages in the world, and CIDA is an important part of the story. Development has many forms. Many of you are most familiar with our humanitarian assistance, helping those in times of dire circumstances, whether natural disasters, civil unrest, or other catastrophic situations. Together with our partners, we demonstrate Canada's compassion.
CIDA's work is more than assistance. It also underpins Canada's prosperity by unlocking the economic potential of the developing world and building tomorrow's markets. We help growing economies by offering alternatives, preventing threats before they reach our borders, and working to safeguard Canadian security. Development also promotes Canadian values of democracy, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law by helping to support willing governments that respect these tenets.
Regardless of what form of development we engage in, CIDA is focused on results; not simply results as measured by statistics, but results as measured by what matters. By focusing on tangible outcomes, we can achieve great success.
Results are not measured by how much money we spend. Instead, we are focused on answering such questions as, how many lives did we save? How many more girls are going to school in Afghanistan? How many newborns survive their first year? How many smallholder farmers are able to sustain their crops, their families, and their communities? The answers to these questions and many more give us the concrete results that clearly show the difference that Canada's investment dollars can make in helping those most in need.
Achieving results and demonstrating transparency and accountability for taxpayers' investments is one reason that we have chosen to focus on 20 countries and three priority themes. We are having a real impact on the lives of those most in need. At the same time, we are an expression of the best of Canadian values and a contribution to our long-term security and prosperity.
CIDA ensures that our development assistance is focused on results, and as such we partner with anyone, Canadian or local, to get those results. We align our priorities with local priorities to ensure that results will be sustainable long into the future. We focus on priority areas in which Canadian investments can have the most impact. These areas are: increasing food security; securing the future of children and youth, especially through maternal and child health; and sustainable economic growth.
Canadians can take great pride in the tangible results their government is achieving. For example, in the area of increased food security Canada has fully untied its food assistance. It was the first G-8 country to deliver on its L'Aquila food security commitment, and it continues to lead towards achieving a new food assistance convention.
Let me share with you some of the many stories of success with our help. Some 7.8 million chronically food-insecure people have been given food in Ethiopia, and in Haiti more than 400,000 girls and boys given hot meals in school. Our results in this area are not just the delivery of food assistance. Our assistance is also capacity building. For example, in Honduras 1,300 families are increasing agricultural productivity as a result of Canada's investments, and in Vietnam 15,000 people increased their incomes with better agricultural productivity. These examples lead to more local jobs, increased food productivity, and prosperity in those areas.
As recently as 2007, more than half of Canadian food assistance to developing countries and one-third of Canada's non-food contributions had to be purchased in Canada. Tied aid is not cost-effective and is inefficient. It undermines the ability of developing nations to produce or buy goods for themselves and delays the aid reaching the people who so desperately need the assistance. To maximize the value of Canada's international assistance, the government untied all food aid in 2008 and has set 2012-13 as the deadline for fully untying the goods and services delivered through Canadian aid programs.
We are also leading the way in securing the future of children and youth.
In 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper championed the Muskoka Initiative on maternal, newborn, and child health, which strengthens health systems, reduces the burden of disease, and improves nutrition.
By committing to these tenets, there has been increased access to adequately equipped local health centres, increased provision of medicines and vaccines needed to prevent and treat maternal and child mortality, and increased access to healthy and nutritious food that saves lives.
For instance, through CIDA's support, 1.2 million children were inoculated against polio and measles last year in Bangladesh, and it is our goal to help in the eradication of this disease in the near future. Because of Canadian investments, 92% of infants under one-year-old in Mali received three doses of the penta vaccine used to treat five deadly diseases. That is up from 69% in 2007. In South Sudan, over 3,000 women delivered children safely and were assisted by trained staff. Over 18,000 expecting mothers attended prenatal clinics that allowed them to access preventive health care, ensuring a safe pregnancy.
Our efforts are making a difference. For example, in Mozambique we supported a nationwide campaign that vaccinated nearly four million children against measles and resulted in an 80% reduction in measles cases compared to the same period in 2010. We also helped over 17,000 children against AIDS. In Afghanistan, 7.8 million children have been vaccinated against polio. These are tangible results that have made an impact in the lives of children and youth in Mozambique and Afghanistan.
The health and well-being of women and children is essential to long-term prosperity and security in countries around the globe. Where women and children thrive, communities and countries thrive. Women are the bedrock of families and have enormous potential to become decision-makers, drivers of economies, and real role models for future generations. Children offer a glimpse into a country’s future—the teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs, and leaders of tomorrow. By investing in the health of women and children, we can reduce their burden of illness and disease, enabling them to participate fully in their communities, steering their countries towards future prosperity.
The last priority theme I want to speak about is sustainable economic growth. I think we all agree that economic growth is a key driver of poverty reduction. A stronger economy creates more opportunities, more jobs, and allows families to support themselves. This is why stimulating sustainable economic growth is so important.
Development is not about dependency. It is about helping those in need to get a leg up so that they can prosper. Let me share some of those results with you. In Tanzania, one million poor people now have access to financial services and credit. In Colombia, over 5,000 people have been trained in agro-ecology. In Bangladesh, 900,000 farmers and small business owners now earn higher incomes, and in Bolivia, 559 women have learned new skills in non-traditional occupations.
These are the kinds of results that will make a real difference in these countries. There's also a multiplier effect with this type of development. For example, with increased access to capital, more people are able to start small businesses or grow existing businesses. This creates more jobs and greater prosperity, adding more people to the middle class and out of poverty.
These three priority areas help focus the work that CIDA does and tackle the key areas of development where we can make an impact.
Canada's aid effectiveness agenda has already accomplished a great deal to make our development investments more focused, more effective, and more accountable. We can continue to build on these achievements, but we can't lose focus of our commitment to deliver real results for those most in need by accountable, transparent activities to Canadian taxpayers. This is an important priority for our government, and that is the reason CIDA has signed on to the International Aid Transparency Initiative in addition to creating our own open data portal.
We are meeting here today to talk about supplementary estimates. Budget 2012 reiterates the commitment I just outlined and effectiveness, transparency, and accountability.
As we look to the future and strive to maximize our results, we must also look to innovative solutions to development challenges. This includes using any and all legitimate tools and all partners available to us to meet this critical objective. This also means utilizing the private sector.
First, let me clarify a misconception that has been perpetuated by the media and some organizations here in Canada that CIDA directly funds mining and private companies. This is absolutely not true. CIDA does not subsidize Canadian companies to make more money. We do not subsidize NGOs, for that matter. The fact is, collaboration of public and private organizations creates opportunities for innovation to scale up interventions in developing countries.
Currently, CIDA collaborates with developing country governments, civil society, multilateral institutions, and the private sector because they are all necessary partners in this dialogue. For example, private companies are responsible for creating local jobs, raising the standard of living for millions of people and their families, contributing to the local communities in which they operate, and raising revenues for local governments so that they can then deliver what is needed by their citizens. Canadian companies are important players in sustainable growth and development.
Let me speak specifically to our partnership with Canadian extractive companies. Canada has incredible expertise and a huge reputation in the area of the natural resources sector. CIDA can help set the right conditions for investment and responsible resource development.
Earlier this year, the Prime Minister announced the creation of the Canadian International Institute for Extractive Industries and Development. The University of British Columbia, in collaboration with Simon Fraser University, will host this institute. The institute will draw on Canadian expertise to help developing countries manage and govern their natural resources responsibly and to ensure that benefits are maximized for their people and for long-term development in those countries. In fact, I have already received correspondence from Peru welcoming the creation of this particular institute.
Canada is a world leader in the extractive sector, and our partnerships have returned great results. For example, we collaborated with the World University Service of Canada and Rio Tinto to provide better education services, better water, and better sanitation to 134,000 residents of 12 communities in Ghana. We collaborated with Plan Canada and IAMGOLD to train 10,000 youth in 13 communities of Burkina Faso in real job skills.
I firmly believe that these kinds of partnerships, based on trust and mutual interest, offer the best opportunity to create and sustain growth and prosperity in developing countries. I think we can all agree that Canada's long-term prosperity is tied to new markets, including those rich with resources.
To date, we have benefited domestically and globally in the resource sector because we truly bring a win-win approach to how we Canadians do business. We work directly with governments to create an environment where laws are respected and entrepreneurship can flourish to ensure that extractive development is incorporated in international and regional plans; to address corruption through greater transparency and accountability; to help governments reinvest revenues into infrastructure and basic services like health and education; to support women's rights and increase their opportunities for economic participation; and to provide local women and men with the necessary skills and job training to engage in benefits from the resource sector.
This is not just about opening up countries to investment and trade, it's about empowering countries to act as trading partners with stable markets that are capable of receiving investment and enabling governments to effectively regulate and oversee their natural resources sector and economies.
Working with the extractive sector is just one of the many ways that CIDA can work with private companies to make a bigger difference in the lives of those most in need.
Mr. Chair and members, from delivering food to the hungry, to improving the lives of mothers and children, to responding to humanitarian disasters, Canadians across the country can be truly proud of their investment and the results they are achieving.
I am now happy to answer your questions. Thank you.
