This weekend the world’s most powerful global leaders will convene in Germany for yet another meeting of the G7, facing a convergence of crises that have only worsened over the last year and are putting hundreds of millions of lives at risk.
And last Friday, ONE Canada was in front of Parliament Hill to tell Prime Minister Trudeau that we want him to go to the G7 Summit with a real plan to tackle these converging crises. Getting out of these crises needs strengthened investment, a vision for the future, and urgent action.
The challenge we face could seem daunting. New analysis by ONE and based on research from the University of California shows that for the first time since records are being kept, global life expectancy decreased between 2019 and 2021, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We’re still struggling to finish that fight and vaccinate the world, and the world is at the same time tackling one of the worst global food and hunger crises, struggling to rebuild global health systems to prepare for the next pandemic and manage the impacts of the climate emergency. Worse still, they have been exacerbated by Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
This isn’t a question of if people will die — millions are already losing their lives, and we’ve reversed decades of progress on global health and development risking our collective futures.
The G7 has the tools at its disposal and it’s time to use them — and it’s on Canada to leverage its leadership to get this done.
Concretely, we want Canada to:
- Urgently commit $600 million in new international assistance to tackle the food crisis and prevent millions from potential starvation.
- Continue its leadership in sharing its newly acquired Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) from the IMF and go beyond its initial commitment of 20%. The G7 has still not delivered on its commitment to recycle at least $100 billion in SDRs with developing countries.
- Continue to support global vaccine delivery.
We welcome Minister Sajjan’s recent announcement on a Canadian-led vaccine delivery and support programme called canGIVE, as part of its previously pledged support to the ACT-Accelerator. But more may be needed down the line, which is why we are calling on Canada to provide another CA$325 million in bilateral support for vaccination programmes in developing countries, in addition to its ACT-Accelerator commitments. Canada should also have a more ambitious and concrete plan to support African countries to produce their own vaccines in the future, so that they are not stuck at the back of the queue again next time.
Let’s use our voice and push for action at this weekend’s G7!
