Why should people give Money to UN’s World Food Program (WFP) or other Aid Agencies when there is so much need in the Developed World Countries?

Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

The COVID19 crisis and its aftermath has shown that infectious diseases respect borders no more than climate change – both of which impact billions of lives, migration trends and economic prosperity worldwide. In the modern world where national boundaries matter very little, we are inseparably connected to one another. The Syria Crisis and the subsequent refugee numbers to Canada is a case in point. So is the Ebola outbreak in 2014 which led Canada to adopt preventative measures in its public spaces. We know that foreign aid works. It saves and improves the lives of billions of people around the world, safeguarding their human dignity by lifting them out of poverty and giving them a chance to reach their potential. But the moral imperative for maintaining our levels of foreign aid is only half the story. Development assistance is also a way to invest in Canada’s prosperity by supporting the local markets and economies of developing countries in need, which in the long run are able to transition from their crisis phase into stable economies and trading partners for Canada. In 2019, Canada was WFP's seventh largest donor contributing nearly 200 million USD to support WFP's operations in emergencies. WFP is consistently the single largest recipient of Canadian international humanitarian assistance which we receive through Global Affairs Canada. Speaker: Marwa Awad Marwa Awad works as a humanitarian aid communications officer with the World Food Program in areas of conflict including Iraq, Syria, Burkina Faso and South Sudan. In the past decade she has seen how investing in WFP food assistance operations means investing in keeping people alive and healthy as well as limiting their inclination to flee elsewhere which disrupts both local and international economies. Supporting WFP also means helping build the resilience of communities so that they can get back on their own feet. Date and time: Friday, June 19, 2020 at 10 am YouTube Live link: https://youtu.be/ukEQxWnpag8 In order to ask questions of our speaker in the chat feature of YouTube, you must have a YouTube account and be signed in. Please do so well ahead of the scheduled start time, so you’ll be ready. Go the YouTube Live link provided in this session flyer and on the top right of your browser click the “sign in” button. If you have Google or Gmail accounts, they can be used to sign in. If you don’t, click “Create Account” and follow along. Once you are signed in, you can return to the live stream and use the chat feature to ask your questions of the speaker. Remember you can only participate in the chat feature while we are livestreaming. Link to SACPA’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFUQ5mUHv1gfmMFVr8d9dNA