Thank you very much for providing this opportunity to appear before this committee and share our perspectives on the effective delivery of Canada's development assistance.
Let me begin with a brief introduction. Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a partnership of 30 Canadian church bodies that are working together to end hunger. We have deep roots in the Canadian agriculture and rural communities. We are the Government of Canada's primary Canadian partner in the delivery of its food assistance into contexts of crisis and acute food insecurity.
We also work, though, with communities and households facing chronic hunger, supporting their efforts to develop more productive and resilient livelihoods. Last year we were able to provide support to over a million people in over 35 countries.
I grew up in Kisii, in Kenya. I have worked on issues of development for most of my life and career. I'm encouraged by the substantial progress that I have witnessed over these years. When I go back to Kisii, a rural part of Kenya, I see huge progress in that part of the country compared to when I was a small boy.
That same progress I see in many parts of the world. Globally the rate of extreme poverty has fallen from 35% in the early 1990s to less than 10% today. That's a very short time in the context of human history. We have seen significant progress in many other social indicators. I'm persuaded that development assistance has made a critical contribution to this progress. It is by no means the only contribution, but it has made critical investments and contributions.
I was recently at a funeral for a women named June Deacon, a Canadian teacher, who spent most of her working life working on the education of girls in the Kisii area. I've run into many girls who have benefited from her service. The contributions they've made to the development of that country are substantial.
While we celebrate this progress, we're deeply conscious that the work is not done and that we must make sure that no one is left behind. Also there are serious challenges and risks facing the world and the communities we work with, which could see progress that is being made halted or even reversed. Climate change is already disrupting and threatening the livelihoods of the smallholders we work with. We're seeing that because we often work in marginal areas where this is having a big impact.
The status quo is not going to get us where we need to go. As we chart the road ahead, I'm persuaded that there's still a critical role for development assistance in helping us collectively achieve the ambitious sustainable development goals that the world has set for itself.
In this regard, I welcome Minister Bibeau's announcement yesterday of a public review and consultations to review Canada's international assistance policy and funding framework. We understand that this committee's study on countries of focus will contribute to this policy review. My comments today are presented in this context.
From our perspective, a review of the countries-of-focus approach must be built on the principle that Canada's official development assistance is expected to contribute to the reduction of poverty. That's the primary objective as specified in the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act.
We are delighted to see that the broader policy review initiated yesterday is committed to finding ways for Canada's international assistance to be focused on effectively helping the poorest and most vulnerable people. As long as any framework regarding countries of focus keeps this core principle of poverty reduction central to its purpose, I think there are various ways such an approach can be effectively framed and deployed. There's no one sort of magic solution in that regard.
From our understanding, a key rationale for having the countries-of-focus approach is to respond to the criticism that Canada's aid was too spread out and fragmented. It was thought that concentrating Canada's bilateral aid in fewer countries would improve the effectiveness of the aid and give Canada more leverage with partner countries.
We're not aware of any evaluations that have been conducted that substantiate the case that a countries-of-focus approach is actually leading to more effective aid programming. We've been interested, but have not seen any such evaluations. The studies may exist, but we certainly haven't seen them.
However, we do accept that a program that focuses on a smaller number of countries is more efficient for delivery in terms of field staff and processes. With fewer places for field staff work, there don't need to be as many staff to manage it, and that is a positive thing.
There are benefits to having more predictable and stable funding at a country level over time, which the countries-of-focus approach can facilitate. So that's a positive.
However, given the modest volume of Canada's aid at the country level, even with the countries-of-focus approach we're skeptical that this leads to substantially more leverage in terms of engaging those countries themselves. We would argue that a more important issue is the level of Canada's overall aid program. A significant increase in Canadian development assistance will be needed for Canada's voice to carry more weight in international circles. Simply focusing reduced aid, resources, in a few countries will not be sufficient.
While there is merit in identifying countries of focus, we would argue that this should not become a rigid programming framework with percentages and dollar targets. The world and the circumstances that we are facing are changing too fast for these types of rigid formulas.
This is particularly the case in dealing with fragile states, and the fragile context, which if not addressed, could turn many countries into fragile states. There must be flexibility to address these evolving contexts without having to go through a formal change in the countries of focus. If it's a very formal process, it makes those types of changes difficult. If 90% of bilateral funding must go to countries of focus, this can considerably constrain needed action as the world evolves.
Also, there are often times when regional approaches are needed that do not fit neatly into specific bilateral country programs. The Syria crisis right now is a good example. Jordan is a country of focus. We can provide assistance to Jordan, and some of the hosting of the refugees. But Lebanon is not, so that puts constraints there. They're both facing similar challenges.
What criteria should guide the selections of countries of focus?
As noted earlier, the first and overriding criteria must be levels of poverty. However, we recognize that most of the poorest people in the world often live in middle-income countries. While those countries have domestic resources that can and should be mobilized to reduce poverty and social needs, we can see a legitimate role for Canada to be involved in some of these countries.
However, we think that the level of funding doesn't need to be at the same level as in countries that have much fewer domestic resources. It can be smaller amounts of funding more carefully targeted to help that country use its own resources to effectively reduce poverty.
We also see value in maintaining longer-term programs with existing partner countries; not changing all the time, but staying with some of the same partners over an extended period of time. In cases where partner countries have successfully moved to the status of middle-income countries, there would be some value in maintaining some level of bilateral program to further support progress being made.
Nevertheless, in our view, the largest amount of bilateral aid should go to countries with the highest rates of poverty and more limited domestic resources to effectively reduce poverty.
One of the dangers we see in a countries-of-focus approach has been the temptation and desire, at times, to force other funding streams at the department to be aligned with the countries of focus. The argument has been that this will lead to more coordination and synergy in Canada's aid program. We think this approach could actually reduce the impact of Canada's assistance being provided through other funding streams.
For example, Canada has had a long-respected, responsive program that has supported the work of Canadian NGOs. The diverse civil society groups supported have built expertise in various areas and have developed deep partnerships in many parts of the world over long periods of time.
If Canadian civil society is told that the only programs Canada will fund must be aligned with the bilateral countries of focus, and the particular thematics the government has at that time, it will foster a culture of simply going where the money is, chasing the government's constantly changing countries of focus and priorities, rather than civil society organizations building long-standing, focused priorities in their area of expertise.
In our view, fostering a robust Canadian civil society with its own priorities and areas of expertise contributes to effective programming and provides a visible Canadian presence in many countries around the world where there may not be a bilateral presence. When the government countries of focus or thematic priorities change, as they have and will, there will be already existing Canadian expertise, knowledge, and capacities in the new areas.
In our view, the countries-of-focus approach should be limited to the bilateral program.
We think having some thematic priorities is also an important way for Canada to increase its impact and influence. As an example, Canada was able to extend its global impact and influence through the focus on maternal, newborn, and child health. This allowed for the development of expertise and the exercise of Canadian leadership in some key areas.
Many of the actions required to address development in the current environment go well beyond specific country programs, so there is merit in developing some thematic priorities and having funding flexibility to support these types of initiatives. We have been strongly supportive of the current sectoral theme focused on increasing food security. When looking at issues of poverty and vulnerability, population groups facing hunger are often among the most vulnerable, and any time surveys are done among the poorest populations in the world, issues related to food are usually one of the top priorities named.
In reviewing the background discussion document for the international assistance policy review, we note that of the three existing priorities, the theme of food security is the one that's seemingly disappeared as an independent policy area. While the elements of the food security theme can be captured under the other policy areas outlined, there is a risk that important food security issues get lost in the new framing. It will be important to lift them up under the different policy areas during the policy review.
This is particularly true in the case of agriculture. Our major concern is that the important issue of agriculture development, particularly for smallholder farmers, could receive even less support. Already Canada's support for agriculture development has been declining. Extreme poverty and high levels of vulnerability are still concentrated in rural areas among population groups that often depend on agriculture in various ways for their livelihoods. These households and communities are also facing new threats related to climate change. It will be vital that agriculture feature prominently in the new international assistance policy, and it could be effectively featured under the policy area looking at clean and sustainable economic growth and climate change. Economic growth in the agriculture sector has been shown to be significantly more effective in reducing poverty than growth in any other sector of the economy. Agriculture will be one of the sectors most affected by climate change, and it also needs to be part of the solution. I would urge this committee to lift up the importance of agriculture development in the new international assistance policy.
Thank you for your attention, and I welcome any questions you may have.