Untie.
Good news for Canada's moral conscience. We're moving to drop the percentage of our food aid to the Third World that has to come from Canada from 90% to 50%.
"Tying" aid to the donor country's products -- that is, donating the products themselves rather than the cash to buy products locally in the recipient countries -- is a terrible practice in general, and Canada is one of the world's worst offenders. But tying perishable food aid is an especially eggregious pander to domestic farmers:
"This new policy gives us the ability to respond more quickly and with greater flexibility to disasters world-wide, buying more food and feeding a greater number of people in need," [International Cooperation Minister] Ms. Carroll said.
The change will mean lowered transportation costs, food that is more culturally appropriate and "allow Canada's aid dollars to go further while supporting local farmers in developing countries, she said.
The government noted that the change will have little effect on Canada's agricultural community because Canadian domestic food aid purchases account for 0.3 per cent of the total Canadian agri-food production.
In addition to NGOs like Oxfam, the U.N. World Food Program, the world's prime vehicle for managing and dispensing food aid, has been trying since 1999 to encourage donor countires to provide food aid in cash rather than in kind. I'm glad our government is listening. Hopefully, we'll be doing more untying before too much longer.
"Tying" aid to the donor country's products -- that is, donating the products themselves rather than the cash to buy products locally in the recipient countries -- is a terrible practice in general, and Canada is one of the world's worst offenders. But tying perishable food aid is an especially eggregious pander to domestic farmers:
"This new policy gives us the ability to respond more quickly and with greater flexibility to disasters world-wide, buying more food and feeding a greater number of people in need," [International Cooperation Minister] Ms. Carroll said.
The change will mean lowered transportation costs, food that is more culturally appropriate and "allow Canada's aid dollars to go further while supporting local farmers in developing countries, she said.
The government noted that the change will have little effect on Canada's agricultural community because Canadian domestic food aid purchases account for 0.3 per cent of the total Canadian agri-food production.
In addition to NGOs like Oxfam, the U.N. World Food Program, the world's prime vehicle for managing and dispensing food aid, has been trying since 1999 to encourage donor countires to provide food aid in cash rather than in kind. I'm glad our government is listening. Hopefully, we'll be doing more untying before too much longer.
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