Mr. Speaker, this government is proud that Canada will host the G8 Muskoka summit in June, which will be followed by a separate meeting of G20 leaders in Toronto. The theme of the G8 Muskoka summit and for the Toronto G20 summit leaders is recovery and new beginnings. At the Toronto G20 summit, Canada will work with G20 partners to ensure that global economic recovery is assured and set the world on a path to strong, balanced and sustainable growth.
Over the past year and a half, many Canadians have felt the pain of the global economic recession. Through Canada's economic action plan, this government has taken decisive steps to protect incomes, create jobs, ease credit markets and help workers and communities get back on their feet.
Canadians know that the world's poorest citizens are also suffering the impacts of the recession and expect their government to show international leadership. The global recession threatens to set back many of the important development gains that have been made in recent years, including related to the United Nations millennium development goals.
Action within the G20 is helping to create the conditions for more sustainable growth that will help developing countries. Helping improve the lives of people throughout the developing world is something the G8 has been doing for many years.
The G8 has a strong track record in supporting international development efforts and efforts related to global peace and security. As G8 president in 2010, Canada will ensure that the G8 countries continue to deliver results in these two core areas, by advancing a pragmatic and a results-driven agenda for the Muskoka summit. Accountability will be the hallmark of this agenda.
In Muskoka, the G8 will follow up on past commitments to ensure that it delivers on its promises. Together the G8 will set focused goals for leadership going forward.
In Muskoka, Canada will focus the G8 agenda on areas where it has the greatest value added development in peace and security. These are central to the values and interests of G8 members and are areas where the G8 can make a clear difference.
On development, Canada will champion a major initiative to improve maternal and child health in the world's most vulnerable regions.
The statistics are shocking. Each year nearly nine million children die before they turn five and half a million women die in pregnancy and childbirth. Many of these deaths can be prevented with improved access to health care, better nutrition and scaling up proven interventions such as immunizations. We believe the G8 members can make a tangible difference and we will make this a top priority of our Muskoka G8 summit.
At the Muskoka summit, Canada will seek to leverage greater commitments from the G8 and other major donors to help developing countries respond to these challenges. The G8 summit will also focus on critically important peace and security challenge. The spread and use of weapons of mass destruction, including by terrorists, remains a key threat to global security and stability. This requires continued resolve and leadership on the part of the G8 and its partners.
Building the capacities of vulnerable states and regions to address peace and security vulnerabilities is another priority. This will include steps by the G8 to strengthen institutions, prevent conflict and better mobilize civilian and military capacities.
The G8 has a long track record of delivering results on development. We have done this by working in partnership with African and other developing countries to support their priorities. Making a real contribution to international development requires leadership and resources. The G8's collective contributions on development are unmatched.
Collectively, the G8 is a leader in contributing to development assistance. Leading by example, the G8 has been effective in leveraging additional financial and other support from other countries. For example, at the 2008 summit in Japan and then again in Italy in 2009, the G8 played an important role in helping millions of the world's most vulnerable citizens threatened by rising food prices in recent years.
At the 2009 L'Aquila summit, the G8 led 40 leaders and heads of international organizations in agreeing to mobilize more than U.S. $20 billion for agricultural development over three years.
Canada will participate in this new initiative, doubling our spending in support of agricultural development by committing an additional $600 million Canadian over three years.
As Canada continues to prepare for our G8 summit in 2010, we remain committed to working diligently with other stakeholders to continue addressing the issues associated with hunger and food security.
The G8 also has a strong track record in helping address the health of people around the world. In 2001, the G8 launched the global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and G8 countries have contributed substantial funds to fight these life-threatening and debilitating diseases. The G8 has made significant investments in addressing the health challenges experienced in developing countries.
However, significant challenges remain and the G8 can continue to show leadership in mobilizing the international community to meet these challenges.
One area in particular that cries out for action is maternal and child health. These two issues are captured under the United Nations millennium development goals four and five, with targets set for progress by 2015. They are the millennium development goals that are showing the least progress.
As G8 president, in 2010, Canada has decided to advance maternal and child health as a key priority for the G8 Muskoka summit and it is doing so with the strong and universal support of its G8 partners.
Canada is already very actively engaged in support for child health and maternal health around the world. Our priorities include malaria control, especially to protect children and pregnant women, and the scaling up of health worker training to develop high impact interventions to women and children.
We have long been active supporters of programs to support child immunization, including for polio vaccinations.
Given the close intersection of healthy children and educational attainment, we are also delivering on our commitments to fund basic education and to support school feeding programs. Canada also announced that three priorities will guide our development programming going forward, one of which is securing the future for children and youth.
The challenge of improving maternal and child health is immense and requires comprehensive solutions: additional skilled human resources, political support and strengthened national health systems. It is not something any one country can take on by itself. So, in Muskoka, Canada will mobilize G8 members and assume a leadership role in setting a global agenda for improving maternal and child health.
The G8 provides a powerful framework to accelerate action on these issues, bringing increased political profile, operational coherence, financing and accountability to collective efforts.
I will conclude by noting that accountability will be the hallmark of Canada's 2010 Muskoka summit. Canada championed the creation of the G8 working group on accountability because we believe it is important to deliver on promises made. When G8 leaders meet--