Feds need to increase international assistance

Dear Editor, 

This year marks the midpoint for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), targets for global development to be reached by 2030. To see how we are doing, you only need to remember we are just out of the crises dominated by COVID-19, climate change, and conflicts and these are creating ongoing impacts on food and nutrition, health, education, the environment, and peace and security. One statistic we can all relate to: the share of countries affected by high food prices has risen sharply, climbing from 16 per cent in 2019 to 47 per cent in 2020 (and much further since then) according to the UN. It all seems very unfair that these crises are out of our immediate control, but the Government of Canada needs to commit to increasing its international assistance envelope over the next three years to reach at least $10 billion annually, if we are to do our share to reach the SDGs.

 Randy Rudolph, Calgary