August 11, 2014 – Edmonton, Alberta
Check Against Delivery
Good morning/afternoon everyone. Thank you for coming.
I am pleased to be meeting with the Somali community here in Edmonton to discuss current humanitarian and development issues in Somalia.
While most Canadians sit in their safe homes in Canada with enough food to eat and clean water to drink, with ready access to medical care, they lead lives where the situation faced by people in conflict zones is remote from their experience, and frankly, unimaginable.
I am no exception.
It was shocking for me to learn, for example, that in 2013, 11.7 million people around the globe lived as refugees, and that more than 33 million people were displaced within their own countries.
But that is not the case for you. For most of the people in this room, these issues are deeply personal—and they affect your families, friends and communities.
Among the most vulnerable are women and children. They live with fear for their security and many were forced to flee their homes and sources of livelihood, with few possessions.
But I am proud to say that our country is committed to protecting and assisting people who continue to suffer because of conflict and civil unrest in developing countries. Canada is a world leader in providing humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations around the world.
And it is that way because we have a long tradition of generously helping the world’s most vulnerable people. We live up to the values we hold dear, and want to assist people in their time of greatest need.
It is this compassion and generosity that embodies the value that Canada places on international assistance—whether in the form of long-term programming designed to help more people move from poverty to prosperity, or in the provision of humanitarian assistance, whenever and wherever required.
We make this commitment for many reasons, chief among them, because it is an expression of the values we believe in, and because it is part of our moral compass to assist those who are without the means to overcome the challenges they face.
Our government has a principled foreign policy that represents values we share as a country. Saving the lives of vulnerable women and children is one of the clearest expressions of our Canadian values.
At the Saving Every Woman, Every Child Summit held in Toronto last May, Prime Minister Stephen Harper released the Toronto Statement, which laid the groundwork to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children under the age of five within a generation, and committed an additional $3.5 billion in support.
One way that we answer the call for help to women and children who are affected by crises in developing countries is to work with experienced humanitarian partners like the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
The FAO and its partners are right there, on the ground, working to improve food security and ensure that everyone has a chance at a future, despite the desperate circumstances they may be living in.
Somalia is home to one of the largest and most enduring humanitarian crises in the world—the result of decades of conflict and instability, where chronic drought makes it difficult for people to eke out a living under the best of circumstances.
Currently, close to three million people in Somalia are struggling to feed themselves, and more than 200,000 children under the age of five years are acutely malnourished and facing death.
More than a million Somalis are displaced within their own country, and a further million live as refugees in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Yemen.
Significant international support is needed.
And Canada has been helping. We have been a consistent supporter of humanitarian organizations, both working in Somalia and supporting Somali refugees in neighbouring countries, to help provide food, water and sanitation, as well as health care, emergency shelter, and protection for the most vulnerable people, including children.
That is why today, on behalf of the Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, I am pleased to announce that Canada will contribute $1 million to the FAO for the provision of humanitarian assistance in Somalia.
This funding will contribute to the improved health and well-being of children, women and their families.
This will make a difference for an estimated one million people.
By providing them with agricultural inputs such as seeds and tools, displaced populations will be able to feed themselves, both immediately and in the long term.
Livelihoods will be protected in the long term by work the project will do to rehabilitate local markets and establish community organizations to support local farmers and fishers.
And as local authorities learn to better manage resources and prepare for disasters, the resilience of communities who face recurring drought and other natural disasters will improve.
In other words, Canada’s support to the FAO will help ensure that Somali families get what they need to survive.
In closing, I can assure all of you that Canada will continue to respond to the needs of families facing humanitarian crises in the developing world.
Thank you.
