OTTAWA - Canada could double the food aid money it has provided so far this year to the World Food Program in response to an urgent plea from the United Nations.
Bev Oda, the minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency, will make a "significant" announcement early next week in light of the appeal, a Canadian government source told The Canadian Press on Friday.
A sharp rise in food prices has developed into a global crisis, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in Vienna.
Ban said the UN and all members of the international community were concerned and immediate action was needed.
Canada spent $180 million on international food aid in 2007 and has already pledged $100 million in aid so far this year, making it the second-largest contributor to the program behind the United States.
It's expected that next week's announcement will catapult Canada's total food-aid contributions in 2008 beyond last year's level.
"It will be substantial," said the source, who did not want to be identified.
"I can't give specifics, but it will go past what we had before, yes,"
The announcement was expected early next week, likely in Ottawa, as the UN set a deadline of May 1 for receiving emergency food-aid pledges.
Under the 1999 Food Aid Convention, Canada is committed to providing the United Nations World Food Program with the dollar equivalent of 420,000 metric tonnes of wheat annually.
However, Ottawa failed to keep that commitment in four of the past eight years, particularly in 2000-01, when contribution levels fell 113,133 metric tonnes short.
Aid contributions exceeded convention requirements during the last two fiscal years.
Ban launched the appeal as he spoke to reporters at UN offices in Austria, where he was meeting with the country's top leaders for talks on how the UN and the European Union can forge closer ties.
"This steeply rising price of food - it has developed into a real global crisis," Ban said, adding that the World Food Program has made an urgent appeal for additional $755 million.
"The United Nations is very much concerned, as (are) all other members of the international community," Ban said. "We must take immediate action in a concerted way."
Ban urged leaders of the international community to sit down together on an "urgent basis" to discuss how to improve economic distribution systems and promote the production of agricultural products.
An estimated 40 per cent increase in food prices since last year has sparked violent protests in the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia.
On Thursday, UN Food and Agricultural Organization chief Jacques Diouf said immediate efforts should focus on helping farmers in developing countries grow more crops.
Josette Sheeran, the WFP's executive director, has likened the price increases to a "silent tsunami," and said requests for food aid are coming in from countries unable to cope with the rising prices.
She noted that the price of rice has more than doubled since March. The World Bank estimates that food prices have increased by 83 per cent in three years.
