Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to members of the committee.
I'm glad to be here today to discuss Canada's leadership in international assistance.
As members know, the world is facing a rising tide of instability, with the lingering effects of the pandemic's disruption of global supply chains; Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine; the multi-dimensional humanitarian crisis in Haiti; the devastating outbreak of violence in Sudan; more frequent and extreme weather events as a result of climate change; the Taliban's aggressive moves against women and girls; restrictions on reproductive rights in Poland, the U.S. and other countries; and a backlash against gender equality across the world.
These are immense global challenges. Canada has played and will continue to play an important role in rising to meet these needs.
Against this backdrop, I'm proud to report that Canada continues to meet and even exceed its goals for international development assistance under the feminist international assistance policy. In 2021-22, nearly 99% of Canada's bilateral international development assistance either targeted or integrated gender equality—meeting and then exceeding our target of 95% by 2022.
We continue to address the root causes of poverty and inequality by focusing on those most likely to be left behind, and empowering women and girls in all of their diversity.
We're also committed to constantly improving the quality and effectiveness of our international assistance.
These achievements have not gone unnoticed. Canada was one of the first countries in the world to put a feminist international assistance policy in place. Others are now following suit. For the fourth year in a row, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development acknowledged us as the top bilateral donor for gender equality.
Now, looking forward, Canada's leadership is more consequential and needed than ever before. For example, Canada is delivering on its commitment under the Paris Agreement to keep the 1.5°C goal within reach. Our global climate investments are expected to prevent or reduce more than 228 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
Take Canada's support to the Global Environment Facility. As the seventh largest donor, our support is helping more than eight million adapt to climate change and protect almost 99 million hectares of marine biodiversity.
But we know that funding alone is not enough to address the uneven impacts of climate change. That's why we continue to advocate for the resilience and adaptation of developing countries through our engagement in both the Green Climate Fund and the Climate Investment Funds.
At the same time, we continue to work with like-minded partners, including multilateral organizations, to phase out coal and promote investments in clean energy.
We continue to advocate internationally for small island developing states and least-developed countries that contribute the least to climate change, yet are most vulnerable to its impacts.
The most vulnerable countries today are at the front line of some of the most challenging crises of our time, including but not limited to climate change. As we speak, in 2023, over 346 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. More than 100 million people have been forcibly displaced. Over 345 million people are predicted to be food insecure.
Canada continues to be a leader in addressing humanitarian needs that rise year on year.
In 2022, we were the fifth largest humanitarian donor, providing more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance.
Last year, we allocated over $400 million in humanitarian assistance to respond to needs in sub-Saharan Africa, $227 million to respond to needs in Ukraine, and over $143 million to Afghanistan and the region.
We also allocated nearly $650 million for humanitarian food and nutrition assistance in response to the growing global food crisis. Our assistance helped the World Food Programme to reach a record 158 million people who were food insecure in 2022. It's an impressive 27% increase from 2021.
We also contributed to providing humanitarian assistance and protection to more than 100 million refugees and other forcibly displaced persons through the UNHCR in 2022.
In line with the FIAP, Canada continues to be a strong advocate for gender-responsive humanitarian action.
Canada also remains committed to the triple nexus approach that integrates humanitarian development, peace and security actions to more effectively respond to and ultimately prevent conflict. That is what good development assistance does. It goes hand in hand with peace and stabilization actions.
Global Affairs Canada is constantly working to improve the quality and effectiveness of Canada's international assistance. While the Auditor General's recent report affirms the urgent need for Canada's feminist international assistance policy, it also calls for improved systems to capture and report its results and to better integrate gender equality, human rights and intersectional considerations into our projects to ensure that we are reaching the poorest nd most vulnerable.
Through the ongoing grants and contributions transformation initiative, Global Affairs Canada is also finding new ways of working that are faster, more transparent and more flexible. This will further enhance Canada's capacity to both report on and deliver sustainable results that make a positive change in people's lives.
Meaningful climate action and humanitarian assistance go hand in hand with gender equality and also human rights to build a more just and more prosperous world for all of us.
That is why we are making the most of the transformative potential of Canada's feminist approach to international assistance. It's to tackle the root causes of inequality and poverty to transform the lives of those most in need around the globe.
Thank you very much for listening.
I look forward to your questions.
