USAID and Canadian government announces multimillion-dollar financing for Caribbean, Latin America

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Government of Canada has announced multimillion-dollar financing.

Monday, 13th June 2022

USAID and Canadian government announces multimillion-dollar financing for Caribbean, Latin America

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Government of Canada has announced multimillion-dollar financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. Samantha Power, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), announced $331 million in humanitarian and long-term development support to address food security and resilience in the region. At the same time, Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, promised a total of CAN$145 million in aid to the hemisphere (US$1 = CAN$1.2784). "After more than a year of inflationary pressures, rising energy and fuel prices, disruptions from the global pandemic, the ongoing impacts of climate change and extreme weather, and the impact of the war in Ukraine, food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean is increasing," Samantha Power said at an event on the sidelines of the just-concluded Ninth Summit of the Americas. "Countries that rely heavily on imports for food are particularly vulnerable to rising food costs, and several in the area are seeing their greatest rates of inflation and food price hikes in over ten years." Meanwhile, due to shortages and bans imposed by Russia, which has historically provided the majority of the region's fertiliser, the region is especially vulnerable to global fertiliser supply disruptions," she warned. To provide "a holistic response," Power said the $331 million investment includes more than US$198 million in emergency food security programming and related support such as nutrition, health protection, and water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions. She said that more than US$132 million in Feed the Future funds will go toward resources that aim to help smallholder farmers in Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, and Peru improve the productivity of high-value horticulture crops, increase incomes, and bolster farmers' capacity to withstand shocks like higher fertiliser prices and climate change impacts. On Friday, Trudeau said that over CAN$145 million would be spent across the globe to help the following priority areas: CAN$67.9 million for gender equality; CAN$26.9 million for irregular migration and forced displacement; CAN$31.5 million for health and pandemic response; CAN$17.3 million for democratic governance programmes; and CAN$1.6 million for internet access and disinformation. Around CAN$1 million will be allocated to the production and distribution of high-impact research that addresses disparities faced by women and different populations, according to the Canadian prime minister. Indigenous peoples of African descent, people with disabilities, and LGBTI people in Latin America and the Caribbean are among these groups, according to the Canadian Prime Minister. The initiative will be implemented by the Inter-American Development Bank Group's Gender and Diversity Lab and Gender and Diversity Knowledge Initiative. Trudeau said the CAN$2 million will be used to strengthen the capacity of the Organization of American States (OAS) – Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago – to "prevent and investigate organised crime linked to the exploitation of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, particularly human trafficking and migrant smuggling." Trudeau went on to say that the CAN$2 million will help Trinidad and Tobago "better prevent and counter online child sexual abuse, exploitation, and related crimes." "Effectively detect, investigate, prosecute, adjudicate, and prevent online child sexual exploitation and trafficking in persons assisted by information and communication technologies," he stated. CAN$10.9 million will be spent on improving "comprehensive sexual and reproductive health," including safe and legal abortions and post-abortion care for young women, particularly adolescent girls, and "helping ensure the fulfilment of sexual and reproductive rights in targeted districts of Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, and Peru," according to the Canadian leader. In addition, Canada is funding CAN$2.25 million to expand access to Sexual, Reproductive Health and Rights Services for Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and their host communities. Trudeau stated that a CAN$200,000 grant from the Pan American Health Organization will improve the health sector's ability to respond to violence against women and girls in the Caribbean region, including women and girls from ethnic minority groups, migrant groups, and women and girls with disabilities. In addition, he said the OAS' Department of Electoral Cooperation and Observation (DECO) will receive CAN$3.2 million to help strengthen "institutional capacities of electoral bodies to achieve more effective and inclusive administration of electoral processes; and to reinforce the role of civil society, including women's rights organisations, in electoral processes and oversight." Trudeau announced that Canada will provide CAN$2.4 million to help countries in the Caribbean Community (Caricom) overcome political, structural, and legislative hurdles to gender equality and women's empowerment. He also announced that his country will provide CAN$1.7 million to DECO to help the organisation improve the "legitimacy and transparency of election processes in the region by supporting Election Observation Missions across the Americas." "The project aims to engage with electoral administration bodies to arrange and support inclusive, transparent, and free of violence or manipulation electoral processes in countries who ask the OAS-DECO to conduct observation missions," Trudeau stated.