Increasing Food Security

In keeping with Canada's Aid Effectiveness Agenda, the Government of Canada is committed to making Canada's international assistance more effective, more focused, and more accountable. As well, Canada's international assistance is focused on three priority themes:

• Increasing food security
• Securing the future of children and youth
• Stimulating sustainable economic growth

These priority themes address the challenges facing partner countries and ensures that Canadian international assistance is achieving concrete results. They are supported by three crosscutting themes:

• Increasing environmental sustainability
• Promoting equality between women and men
• Helping to strengthen governance institutions and practices

Increasing Food Security

Almost one billion men, women and children around the world suffer from extreme hunger and malnutrition. The lack of access to safe and nutritious food is one of the major obstacles today to reducing poverty in developing countries.

Canada has a strong record of helping increase global food security through its decision to untie 100 percent of food aid in 2008 and was one of the first donor countries to increase support during the 2008 food security crisis in the developing world.

The challenges to food security including low productivity, high costs, and a lack of modern techniques and technology are well known. CIDA's Food Security Strategy and its actions on Food Aid and Nutrition; Sustainable Agricultural Development; and Research and Development responds to the demand for action.

Food Aid and Nutrition―Strategy highlights

• Encouraging flexible, predictable food security funding by the donor community.
• Promoting the use of social safety nets, food distribution systems, and school feeding programs.
• Working with other countries to improve the Food Aid Convention.
• Supporting nutrition considerations in broader food security initiatives, including increasing programming to promote life-saving nutrient food supplements such as Vitamin A and salt iodization.
• Supporting and strengthening national and regional food reserves, as well as food crisis alert and prevention systems.

Sustainable Agricultural Development―Strategy Highlights

• More than doubling Canada's investment in sustainable agricultural development.
• Supporting national and regional agriculture strategies.
• Strengthening agricultural and rural development policies and management processes particularly those affecting small rural farmers especially women farmers.

Research and Development―Strategy Highlights

• Supporting the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund, a partnership between CIDA and the International Development Research Centre to encourage practical, applied research between Canadian and developing country organizations.
• Strengthening national and regional agricultural research systems.
• Ensuring research results are transferred to benefit developing countries.