Thank you, Mr. Chair, and hello everyone. I'm Dr. Waite, director of policy and advocacy at Results Canada.
Results is a non-profit, grassroots advocacy organization committed to raising voices for a world free of extreme poverty. Our network of 500-plus volunteers has been advocating for vaccine equity since the start of the pandemic.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to share some of our organization's reflections on these issues, informed by our own perspectives and those of the many experts, advocacy allies and civil society partners we work with here in Canada and around the world.
Despite the relaxing of public health measures here in Ottawa, the pandemic is far from over. Around the globe, we are seeing a rise in cases, and the threat of dangerous new variants persists. A failure to coordinate a global response to the pandemic and the resulting inequity in access to COVID-19 tools is having costly consequences.
Eighty-five per cent of all COVID-19-related deaths are in countries with low access to tests, treatments and vaccines. Associated disruptions to health systems and the redeployment of resources and attention to COVID-19 have wiped out decades of development in global health progress.
Twenty-three million children missed out on basic childhood vaccines in 2020, the highest number missed since 2009. In 2021, the World Health Organization reported the first year-on-year increase in tuberculosis cases since 2005. Also, schoolchildren around the world have missed more than two trillion hours of in-person learning, the consequences of which are learning and earning losses. The global economy is projected to lose U.S. $5.3 trillion by 2027.
Now, the war on Ukraine, growing humanitarian crises and looming food and energy emergencies will exacerbate the strain on economies, peoples and systems around the world. The collision of crises of COVID, conflict and climate all unfolding and rapidly escalating in real time demands that global leaders such as Canada double down to end the pandemic. While this study is focused on vaccine equity, we should really be talking about all the tools needed to end COVID-19, including diagnostics, treatments and vaccines, plus the health system infrastructure and the people needed to roll them out.
While Canada has performed well in the interest of vaccine equity in some respects—for example, it was one of the first countries to invest a fair share in the ACT-Accelerator—it is lagging in comparison to its G7 and G20 peers in other areas, the TRIPS waiver issue being one.
Canada should step up and explicitly embrace the temporary removal of the intellectual property rights that are protected and enforced by the World Trade Organization on all COVID-19 tools, as well as actively engaging WTO members to get any compromise proposal right. It's a must for an equitable response to COVID-19; for the world's ability to respond collectively and quickly to future pandemics; for the protection of public funds and the interests of people over profits; and for global health solidarity. When high-income countries such as Canada fail to stand with less advanced economies, commitments to decolonization become mere rhetoric.
Our government often acknowledges that global challenges demand global solutions, yet Canada's international assistance envelope is woefully low. Since 1970, the UN target set under Canadian leadership has called for advanced economies to invest 0.7% of their gross national income in development assistance. Canada's levels of spending reached a near all-time low of just 0.27% of GNI in 2019, well below the rich country average.
With the onset of the pandemic, this downward trend was thankfully reversed and, moving forward, sustained increases must become the new norm, starting with getting Canada's IAE to $9 billion in budget 2022. This is critically important in continuing to respond directly to the pandemic, mitigate its knock-on effects to recover globally, and prepare for future threats.
The community has suggestions for how Canada could target resources to high-impact solutions. Results wants to see Canada continue to invest its fair share in the ACT-Accelerator and its implementing partners, such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics.
There is no escaping that the world needs repairing, and it is everyone's job to educate people and raise public awareness about global solutions to global problems.
Results Canada volunteers from across the country are doing a stellar job of it. They care about vaccine equity. They are committed to taking action and want you and the Government of Canada to rise to the challenge of the modern day with the level of ambition and global-mindedness required. That means increasing investments in international assistance; squeezing all the impact possible out of each dollar; spending political capital to build political will; and a whole-of-government approach committed to international co-operation.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.