Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
I was honoured to sit in the public gallery in the previous meeting about Ukraine. I was impressed with the gravity of the situation and with the responsibility that is upon each of you as you fill notepads and as emails crowd your inboxes. You leave here with the weight of the world on your shoulders and more than you can possibly do to affect situations that seem out of control. Military officials testified about satellite imagery of Ukraine possibly helping. I appreciate very much the gravity of this committee and all you have to do.
To add world hunger to that, as you leave, seems a bit unfair. That's going to be a big agenda item for all of you. I want to focus specifically on the very narrow area that I have a bit of expertise in. Beyond that, colleagues from Nutriset are here. They are the world leaders in the production and distribution of RUTF and the championing of this cause. As great friends of the Canadian government, the French and the Americans sit here in unison saying this is a great thing that you can have a tremendous impact on.
My story goes back to 2007. I lived for 10 years in Africa, in Uganda. My wife is an RN, so we did a lot of health care work. Then I moved home to go to graduate school, which was in Washington, D.C. There I was fortunate enough to become a legislative fellow in the U.S. Senate. I worked in the Senate on food aid issues and sat in many meetings like this, generally in the back with a yellow pad trying to keep up and trying to support my boss.
At that time UNICEF came in. They were asking for more money. They were saying that if the Americans would get involved they could make a huge impact in global nutrition. I listened to the speech. In fact, I saw the same Anderson Cooper video that Maria saw. We didn't know each other at the time. As I watched it, I thought if this was really true and if this Nutriset product Plumpy’Nut—or RUTF as it's more generically referred to—was having this kind of impact, then the U.S. government should get involved. From the very small seat that I had as just a legislative fellow, I talked with my boss. That became a big part of my life. It wouldn't really leave me. I hope that's the case for many of you.
What's happened over the last probably six or seven years in the United States is that our food aid efforts have gotten involved in RUTF. Even though we don't provide the bulk of RUTF funding, and we provide a very small percentage compared with what UNICEF is doing, the U.S. government has now come alongside UNICEF. With UNICEF spending roughly $150 million to $160 million on the global procurement of RUTF, the U.S. government has come in with another $20 million or $30 million to augment that, which is still a short way along the path of a billion-dollar problem.
What I would like to impress upon the committee is that as you consider the Muskoka initiative, the great work that you've done, and the way forward on that in the 10 countries you are focusing on—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, Malawi, Tanzania, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Sudan—in nearly every one of these countries I have had the privilege of seeing children whose lives would have been lost had they not been treated with this very simple thing.
I would also be careful to say that obviously the Muskoka initiative is much broader. Mr. Prasad had a perspective on how important all these different aspects that you will focus on are. Of course nutrition is one very narrow thing, but it does have far-reaching impacts.
There was a study last summer by the World Food Programme on the GDP of Ethiopia and the surrounding countries. Since Ethiopia is on your list, I'll give you this statistic. It is widely reported that there is a $3-billion dent in their GDP simply because of malnutrition. That's 16.5% of their GDP stunted, along with their children.
The impact you have is not just in the form of the dramatic story of saving lives. It's not just a reactionary thing. It's a very proactive thing. As the Copenhagen Consensus Center has said for years, it's the very best dollar you can spend. I know it's budget time. You're all worried about limited dollars making maximum impacts. These are some of the very best dollars you can spend.
I'll close by saying our partnership with our Canadian friends at Food For Famine has been fantastic. They are so impressive in that they have zero overhead. I've been in the field with them in Malawi, Ethiopia, and various countries, and they have zero overhead. That is unheard of.
They are simply looking for the very best and the most affordable supply of this, the biggest bang for their buck. They also want to support the sustainable and scalable production of this, whether it be in France, the United States, Canada, or any country around the world. Hopefully in the future the supply chain will be developed in developing nations and people will be able to produce their own RUTF. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it's a very simple thing. It's peanut butter, powdered milk, a little bit of sugar, and some vitamins. It's the equivalent of a glass of milk, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a vitamin. It's very tough for aid workers to put those things in their pocket and have them available at the end of a long day, but this stuff has a two-year shelf life. It's flushed with nitrogen to be stored and can be shipped through various supply chains, through the UN and through the World Food Programme, and other entities, to get it to children who need it.
I'll stop there. There's much more we can say, but I would be very interested in fielding more questions and talking more about the impact of our partnership and the potential impact this committee could have on saving millions and millions of lives.