Foreign Affairs Committee on Aug. 8th, 2011

[Her Excellency Sandra McCardell]

Perhaps I will let my colleagues from CIDA comment on Africa as a whole and the strategies we could have for the continent.

You have actually pointed out a number of the effects of Gaddafi's continued presence that concern us. First, he is a negative influence in the region. We have seen the wave of democracy sweep through Tunisia, continue into Egypt but come up against a solid obstacle in Libya precisely because of Gaddafi.

We are concerned because he could destabilize democracies that are presently in place. Even before the conflict in Libya began, he was making speeches denouncing the demonstrators and the young people who were seeking democracy in Tunisia and then in Egypt. So, yes, we certainly feel that his staying in place is dangerous.

The second point is about regional instability. Of course Gaddafi could cause us problems from one end of the continent to the other. He is a malevolent and negative influence.

As to the Sahel, the longer the conflict continues, the more waves of refugees we can expect, of course, both from Libya and from other countries. So the weapons will continue to flow. That has always been a reason…That kind of trafficking is possible. If the conflict in Libya continues, we can certainly expect that flow to continue as well.

In my opinion, the international committee, with the tools provided by NATO, should certainly continue to put an end to the danger, not only in the north of Africa but across the entire continent as well.

I will yield the floor to my CIDA colleagues, who have more experience with Africa.

[Stephen Salewicz]

I am responding from a humanitarian perspective. Of course insecurity is a very important issue for us because our programs respond to the needs of people touched by that insecurity. To the extent that Libya is the tip of the iceberg, as you suggest, where insecurity can arise or increase, we have seen this already in the outflow of migrants from Libya. For instance, recently 1,000 Chadians were flown home to Chad from Libya as the most recent victims of the violence in Libya. To the extent this violence continues, from a humanitarian perspective we will continue to respond. We already have programs in place throughout the region--not only in Somalia, as you mentioned, but also in other countries--that respond to the needs of the most vulnerable who are touched by these insecure situations.

From a humanitarian perspective, that's how we approach the issue.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

We're going to finish off with Ms. Brown. Then we're going to take a quick break and thank our guests, and then we'll start with our next round.

Go ahead, Ms. Brown.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to pick up on that comment, Mr. Salewicz. We have the diplomatic and military efforts, and we have the humanitarian effort as well. It is a significant contribution that Canada is making.

We talk about many of the programs ongoing within Libya, but we all saw the long lineups of people at the borders when this conflict started back in February. I think we were all touched by the desperate needs of some of these migrants who, through no fault of their own, got caught up in a conflict and were anxiously trying to get home to their own countries or just trying to escape.

First of all, could you tell us if those lineups are easing? Are we expediting those people in getting across the borders? What are the needs at the borders? How is Canada responding? What kinds of programs have we put in place to ensure there's limited loss of life and that we have food aid going in? Could you elaborate on those programs for us?

[Stephen Salewicz]

Thank you for the question.

As you mentioned, at the outset of the crisis we were all touched by those images on TV of people lining up to cross the border into Tunisia to escape the violence.

To the extent that one can succeed in humanitarian assistance operations, I think we did have quite a bit of success in responding to the needs of the migrant workers fleeing the crisis. As I mentioned, more than 640,000 migrant workers have fled. They've either been of Egyptian or Tunisian origin or third-country nationals. The situation was certainly precarious in the first few weeks when the flow started to increase.

From a Canadian perspective, CIDA deployed individuals to the borders with Tunisia and Egypt to better understand what the situation was. We put a lot of our initial financing into funding IOM, which was essentially transporting individuals home. For instance, Bangladeshis who were crossing the border from Libya into Tunisia were offered a flight home to escape the violence and to free up the border.

What we didn't want to see was congestion at the border. This crisis could have turned into something quite serious if such congestion had continued and we had been unable to meet the urgent needs of the population, so our first priority was to try to get those people home.

I can say that it was a resounding success. The lineups have diminished considerably. The population movements have reduced to approximately 2,000 people per day, maximum, into Tunisia and Egypt, so I think we're seeing a diminished flow.

We have in place and have funded through our programs the development of camps along the border. Within those camps, there's the provision of food aid and shelter. We've provided funding to the Canadian Red Cross, for instance, to bring tents and other supplies to provision these camps. We have also funded the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to help manage those camps. Of the $10 million allocated to the operation in and outside Libya, a significant proportion has gone to these border regions, because access has been very good.

I must comment that the Tunisian and the Egyptian governments should be commended for their support. It was extremely helpful, particularly the way the Tunisian government stepped in and provided financial resources. The Tunisian Red Crescent Society stepped in immediately and helped its neighbours out.

As I said, this is one of those cases in which, in the midst of what was a real crisis, the system worked. The needs of the affected population were responded to and the mechanisms are in place to continue to respond to those needs. Contingency planning is in place in case the high flow rates that we saw at the outset of the crisis commence again. The capacity is there to respond.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

That's all the time we have.

I want to thank all our witnesses for taking the time to be here today.

We're going to let our Department of National Defence and our ambassador step back from the table. We're going to break for five minutes and come back with our CIDA officials to talk about the situation in Somalia.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we will continue with a briefing on the situation in Somalia. Once again we have our officials here. I want to welcome all of you from CIDA.

I believe that Stephen Salewicz, the director of the international humanitarian assistance division, will be making an opening statement. We also have Mr. Boyd again, and then joining us is Mr. Baker, who has been here before. Welcome back.

I will turn the floor over to you for your opening statement.

[Stephen Salewicz]

Thank you.

I will read a brief presentation and I look forward to your questions subsequently.

I'd like to speak to you briefly about CIDA's response to the drought in East Africa. No doubt you are aware that it currently encompasses the countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, where it is imperilling the livelihoods of more than 12 million people.

Acute malnutrition in drought-affected populations across the region has been recorded at rates as high as three or four times above emergency threshold levels. The WHO emergency threshold is 15% and currently there are rates of 50% or higher being recorded. Those rates are very, very high.

The UN has now declared a famine in five regions of southern Somalia, a famine that is expected to spread throughout much of the south of the country. Unfortunately, this is a region controlled by al Shabaab, making the humanitarian response much more difficult.

As a result of the deteriorating situation within Somalia, in part accelerated by the lack of humanitarian access, more than 180,000 Somalis have fled the country into neighbouring Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya since January 2011, severely taxing the already strained refugee response systems in those countries.

On July 22, Minister Oda visited the Dadaab refugee camps in the northeast of Kenya to see the situation for herself. At that time, Minister Oda announced that Canada, through CIDA, would provide $50 million to help the people affected by the drought in East Africa. This amount, which includes $25 million for emergency food assistance, is in addition to the more than $22 million provided by CIDA in 2011 for humanitarian assistance in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

Minister Oda also announced the creation of an East Africa Drought Relief Fund, through which the Government of Canada will match, dollar for dollar, eligible gifts made by individual Canadians to a registered Canadian charity. These funds will further support Canada's assistance to the victims of the crisis affecting the region.

CIDA will continue to closely monitor the effects of the drought in East Africa.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

We will now start our round of questions with Mr. Dewar, who has seven minutes.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you. I will be sharing my time with Madame Laverdière.

I have a very specific question about response to the announcement made by Minister Oda on July 22. NGOs were asked to provide proposals, I think, a week before that. When can we expect the announcements as to where those moneys are going to be delegated? It has been three weeks since Minister Oda's announcement, and we still haven't heard any announcements on the money being delegated to those groups helping out on the ground.

[Stephen Salewicz]

Thank you for your question.

Of course, we are interested in moving as quickly as possible to get money allocated for the response on the ground. As I mentioned, we had $22 million already in place through NGOs and the UN prior to the announcement of July 22. We've been watching this very closely and have been trying to put money in the hands of organizations throughout the last six to eight months to ensure that we continue to meet the needs of the population. The $25 million announced for food aid has been allocated to the WFP, and that's moving forward.

We are reviewing proposals from our partners. As you mentioned, proposals have been coming in for the last few weeks, and the situation continues to evolve. We are doing the proper due diligence to make sure that we understand the situation on the ground, so I expect those proposals are now being assessed and recommendations are being provided to the minister.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you.

Have they gone to the minister for sign-off yet?

[Stephen Salewicz]

The recommendations have been, to my knowledge, sent to the minister.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Thank you.

Could you tell me exactly how much money is in the matching fund at the moment?

[Stephen Salewicz]

Thank you for the question.

At the moment, we do not have the exact figure.

Because of the timing of the relief fund, we won't have the number of donations until after the end date, which is September 6. We'll be tracking it at that point.

We're always surprised at the extent of the response by our partners or by Canadians. It is always very generous. There are always many organizations out there that wait until the final deadline to get back to us to indicate how much they've received. We don't expect that number until sometime in mid-September.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Okay.

Thank you very much for the clarification.

Do I still have time for more questions?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Yes, you have four minutes.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

If possible, I would like you to expand a bit. As you say, it's a very fluid situation, and the drought covers a much larger region, so I would like it if you could expand a little bit on the geographic distribution of efforts.

[Stephen Salewicz]

Sure. Do you mean our efforts or those of the international community?

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I mean the international community's efforts.

[Stephen Salewicz]

Okay. Thank you.

As you said, it is indeed widespread. It's a regional crisis, one that a lot of attention has been paid to. In Somalia there are particular challenges to face, but there are also those that touch people in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. As I mentioned, 12.4 million people have been identified as being in need of assistance. The UN alone has requested $2.5 billion to respond regionally to the crisis. Approximately $1 billion would be for Somalia, $740 million for Kenya, close to $1 billion for Ethiopia, and $33 million for Djibouti.

The crisis is widespread. To date they've received 40% of their funding in terms of those requests. Those requests, it's important to note, were recently revised. The numbers for Somalia have just about doubled in the last week or so. The percentages, of course, were much higher a week or two ago; they continue to increase, and we continue to monitor those needs as they go.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Go ahead, Mr. Dewar.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I'm assuming that Canada's response will be commensurate with the ask. I think we were commensurate in our proportional responsibility, but I'm assuming that will be the case.

I have a question about the situation in the refugee camps, so perhaps you could comment on that. One of the concerns is the backlog, in Kenya in particular, and it's not only in terms of the full opening of the camps. There is some concern that the use of biometrics seems to be creating the backlog. Do you have any comment on that?

There is a fairly significant backlog of up to a week for processing refugees, I'm hearing. They use biometrics for each refugee, so someone can't actually get to the camp until they've gone through this security process. Could you comment on whether that's a concern, and whether anyone is actually dealing with it? Are we contributing to that part of the mission--i.e., the biometrics and the security oversight?

[Stephen Salewicz]

I don't have specifics on the biometrics, but I do know they're very important. We look to UNHCR, which is the responsible partner for the camps, to put in place the mechanisms by which to process people. They have long experience and they've developed protocols over time. As you can imagine, in their estimation the best practice is to try to move people through the system, as you suggest--which is very important--but also to put in place appropriate mechanisms to ensure accountability in the use of funds so that we don't have people registered twice for assistance, and so on. I think they're dealing with a very difficult situation. It is really challenging to try to meet the immediate needs of the people while doing registration.

I don't have the specifics on the biometrics, so unfortunately I can't answer that, but I can look into it. We don't give specific funding to these kinds of programs. We give general, non-earmarked funding to UNHCR with the expectation that they can prioritize those funds and make the responsible choices.