Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank the committee members for the opportunity to speak to Canada's humanitarian response to COVID-19.
I had the chance to hear the discussion with the previous panel, and I would like to thank them for their work and dedication.
We're very fortunate to have Mr. Beasley and Mr. Lowcock with us. I've had the pleasure of meeting them both virtually and talking with them. Their insights on the magnitude and severity of the impacts of COVID-19 are unparalleled.
I extend warm congratulations to David and the WFP for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. You gave great cheer and comfort to a great many people, Mr. Beasley, not only with winning it, but with the way in which you won it and how you received the award. I know the official ceremony is coming, but I wanted to throw that in.
Since February 11, the Prime Minister, Minister Gould and other government officials have announced more than $1.1 billion in aid to help developing countries cope with the effects of the pandemic, and support their recovery and resilience as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc.
Through this assistance, Canada has placed a particular focus on reaching the most marginalized and most vulnerable who have been disproportionately affected, such as women and children. All of this comes, of course, on top of significant annual investments in international and humanitarian assistance, much of which has been redirected in a flexible manner to respond to the most immediate needs stemming from the pandemic.
Where possible, we've also expedited scheduled payments to allow partners to respond more quickly, as we did with the UN agencies, such as UNICEF. As the United Nations Secretary-General reminds us, and I think it is a good sentence, “solidarity is self-interest”.
As long as individuals are vulnerable to COVID-19 anywhere, there is a risk to populations everywhere. Equitable, timely and affordable access to testing, treatment and vaccines is critical for controlling and ending this pandemic. The Prime Minister demonstrated Canada's commitment to such access by announcing, on September 25, $440 million to the COVAX facility, an advance market commitment, with half of these funds supporting the procurement of vaccine doses in developing countries.
Of course, the need is only increasing. In my recent report to the Prime Minister, I recommended that Canada allocate additional resources to the global COVID-19 response. I have not changed my opinion on that.
This has happened throughout the pandemic as information on needs and gaps has emerged. We saw it again on September 29, 2020, when an additional $400 million in funding to support the response was announced. Of this, $200 million will be dedicated to supporting ongoing humanitarian efforts. As I expect Mr. Lowcock and Mr. Beasley will underscore, this funding is very much needed, and more will be needed in the time ahead.
As you will undoubtedly hear over the course of your study, this health crisis has exacerbated a humanitarian emergency, which has the potential in some countries to become a famine. It is leading as well to an economic and social crisis, and in some cases already has led to a liquidity and solvency crisis, which we widely expect to become more severe. Public debt levels in emerging markets will rise by as much as 65% of GDP and 50% of GDP in low-income countries. These are levels at which aggressive action by creditors could lead to a cascade of defaults, which would then threaten the global financial system.
Through Canada's funding and policy leadership, we've been active in the UN, working to limit these additional impacts of the pandemic. In the financing for development initiative, which has been co-chaired by Canada and Jamaica, the UN Secretariat has worked to develop over 200 policy recommendations on how to overcome and build back better from the social and economic impacts of COVID-19. This will include investments to deal with climate change, both from a mitigation and adaptation perspective, as well as significant partnerships with the private sector.
Just as it is with vaccines, solidarity with low-income and small island states is in Canada's economic self-interest. The world is simply too connected for us to allow anyone to fall too far behind. We cannot allow the impact of COVID-19 to prevent the world from reaching sustainable development goals.
I'm going to describe three numbers to you, please write them down: 23, 6 and 2. Twenty-three percent of GDP is what advanced economies have spent on ourselves; 6% is what is being spent in developing countries; 2% is what's being spent in the least developed countries. This is the inequity, and this is the key financial gap that we must close.
Just as the world's advanced economies have been forced to do more than we would have ever thought conceivable last year at this time, we now have a duty not to let the world economy slide into depression and hundreds of millions of people fall back into deep poverty.
My short time at the UN—although the time has gone pretty quickly since I got here—has only served to reinforce to me that Canada cannot fix this alone. As Canadians, we have to do it in partnership with a number of other countries, but neither can we shrink from our responsibilities, which I can assure you will only grow—responsibilities to Canadians, of course, but also to the international community.
We are all bound up in this together. I am happy to answer your questions in the time available.
Thank you.