April 26, 2008 Canada deaf to growing hunger crisis, UN aide says

SINCLAIR STEWART AND PAUL WALDIE

Globe and Mail
April 26, 2008

NEW YORK and TORONTO — A key adviser to the United Nations has sharply
criticized Canada for abandoning its leadership role in international
development, and urged the country to step up its level of aid to poorer
countries in the face of soaring food prices.

Jeffrey Sachs, one of the world's best-known economists, accused the
Harper government yesterday of adopting an “antagonistic,” and
occasionally “mocking,” tone toward the implementation of the UN's
Millennium Development Goals, a group of objectives aimed at alleviating
problems ranging from poverty to global warming.

“We've seen essentially no global leadership from Canada on poverty,
hunger, disease, climate change and foreign assistance,” Mr. Sachs, who
is a special adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said in an
interview at his Manhattan home. “This has been a huge surprise for me
as a lifelong admirer of Canada, that we don't see the ambition of the
Canadian people manifested in Canada's policies right now.”

The UN has issued an urgent plea for food aid because of an
unprecedented rise in grain prices. The agency's World Food Program,
which dispenses food to developing countries, said it needs an
additional $755-million (U.S.) just to meet its annual target. The
sudden rise in prices for corn, wheat, rice and soybeans, among other
crops, has sparked violent protests in Haiti, Africa and parts of Asia.
A long line of customers wait to buy cheap government-subsidised rice
imported from the US and priced at 25 pesos (0.63 USD) per kilo at a
public market in Manila on April 25, 2008. Philippines is trying to cope
with the rising price of commodities, especially rice, which is the
staple food. President Gloria Arroyo ordered the distribution of cheap
priced subsidised rice through government schools to ensure it reaches
the poor families.

“This steeply rising price of food — it has developed into a real global
crisis,” Mr. Ban said yesterday in Vienna. He added that the UN, the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund will meet next week in
Bern, Switzerland, in an effort to address the problem.

“We must take immediate action in a concerted way,” the
Secretary-General said.

Canada donated $176-million (Canadian) to the UN food program last year,
making it the third-largest contributor. International Co-operation
Minister Bev Oda has yet to respond to the latest appeal, but a
spokeswoman said the minister would be making an announcement next week.
It is expected that Canada will increase its aid significantly to help
with the deficit.

The Canadian government has committed to providing the program with the
cash equivalent of 420,000 tonnes of wheat annually, but it has missed
that target several times. (Under current conditions, buying that much
wheat today would cost roughly 60 per cent more than last year.)

In 2005, Canada also revamped its food aid policy. Until then, 90 per
cent of Canadian food aid had to be bought from Canadian producers. The
change dropped that quota to 50 per cent, making it easier for aid
agencies to respond to emergencies by sourcing food closer to the
affected region.

Mr. Sachs, among others, has been a vocal critic of the “blank cheque”
approach to foreign aid, and has argued that donor countries should
instead be focusing on sustainable development and support for
agriculture and research.

However, he said his pleas for Canada to take a special role in
agricultural matters have fallen upon deaf ears dating back to the
government of former prime minister Paul Martin.

“Canada did not show leadership on critical issues, like agriculture,
for example, where I was shocked by discussions I had in Ottawa,” he
said. “Then the [Martin] government fell, and this government has come
in and it's been antagonistic, rhetorically and in policy. It's almost
mocking, some times, with these objectives.”

Despite Canada's status as one of the larger donors, it has failed to
meet a commitment to donate 0.7 per cent of its gross domestic product
to the Millennium Project, despite a resource boom over the past few
years that generated considerable economic wealth.

Mr. Sachs said he was told on one occasion by a cabinet minister that
Ottawa couldn't boost its aid to meet this target because it would
threaten the country's budget surplus.

The current food crisis has forced many aid organizations to cut their
assistance programs this year because they can't afford to buy as much
grain as they used. In addition to wheat, other crops have also seen
enormous price increases. Canola has nearly doubled while corn, rice and
soybean have also reached record prices this year.

“We are in this terrible dilemma,” said Jim Cornelius, executive
director of the Winnipeg-based Canadian Foodgrains Bank, which provides
food aid to dozens of countries on behalf of 15 church organizations.

Mr. Cornelius said the charity received a record amount of cash
donations from Canadians last year, but the money doesn't go as far as
it used to. “If we don't see some fairly significant changes [to grain
prices] there's probably a 40-per-cent decline in the amount of food we
can provide,” he said.

Drought, increased demand from countries like China and India, and the
diversion of corn into ethanol production have all been blamed for the
unprecedented spike. Yet others argue this situation has been
exacerbated by massive speculation by big investors.

Investment funds have poured an estimated $200-billion (U.S.) into
commodity markets in recent years and some say that has distorted food
prices.