Statement made on 09 June 2010 by Senator Lucie Pépin (retired)
Hon. Lucie Pépin:
Honourable senators, on May 12, 2010, the International Cooperation Ethics Advisory Agency brought together parliamentarians, ambassadors, diplomats from African countries, Canadian NGOs and academics in Ottawa. Senator Jaffer and Senator Chaput also participated.
This meeting provided an opportunity to discuss Canada's role in helping to achieve the millennium development goals. This is a hot topic, since the G8 summit will serve as an opportunity to assess the efforts that have been made to achieve the eight United Nations development goals by 2015.
Significant progress has been made with regard to some of these objectives to combat poverty, hunger and illness.
The number of new cases of HIV has decreased, and access to treatment has been improved.
Cases of tuberculosis are progressively decreasing, and malaria is claiming fewer victims as a result of the use of insecticide-treated nets. Education efforts have already yielded results.
The Canadian initiative on maternal, newborn and child health will help save even more lives.
However, these and other signs of progress are not equally present in all countries. If current trends persist, several countries will not achieve most of the millennium goals.
More must be done, but it is not enough to keep putting millions of dollars on the table. We have to encourage and support southern countries whose progress is slow when it comes to implementing stringent and mandatory measures that will effectively fight poverty in all its guises. We know that the southern countries that have made progress are the ones that have adopted comprehensive development strategies.
The millennium goals bring together most of the targets set during world summits in recent decades. These eight goals provide us with a solid framework so that we can put an end to the age of good intentions and paying lip service to development. Everything we need to take effective action can be found in one place.
Canada has already done a lot through CIDA.
I believe that our country can focus on coordinated action to help the world escape the trap of extreme poverty, hunger and disease, which are the greatest challenges of our time.
Our country must play a strong leadership role, not only during the G8 summit, but also in September 2010 during the United Nations' review of the millennium goals. That meeting in New York will give Canada an opportunity to urge both rich and developing nations to increase our momentum so we can meet the 2015 deadline together.
The lives of millions hang in the balance, and on that, I completely agree with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:
If we fail to fulfill the promise of the Millennium Declaration, instability, violence, epidemic diseases and environmental degradation will all be multiplied.