Why aren’t we funding aid?
We are going to spend ~$500 million assisting in the fight against the Islamic State, to this point we have contributed nearly 100 military advisors and conducted between 2–3% of the airstrikes. At the same time, Canada and its allies are failing to provide the increased funding desperately needed for aid programs.
The Canadian government spends roughly $20 billion a year on defense, the US $600 billion and most other G7 nations spending ~$50 billion. This represents an average spending commitment of 1.5% of these nation’s GDP, Canada sitting at 1%. These figures are to underscore our collective failure to act on the biggest security and humanitarian crisis unfolding now. There are now more than 59.3 million people displaced by conflict, up 60% over the past decade. Long term stability is needed to reduce this trend and I think we can agree that for many regions that will take some time.
Aid payments have not kept pace with this exponential growth, leading to cuts in direct housing payments, and food allotments in some areas. In Syria we hear about ISIS every day, we hear about the suffering they inflict, yet the refugees impacted by the greater Syria situation are largely ignored. UNHCR’s Syria mission which cares for over 4 million people, 2 million of which are children is currently only 31% funded for the year, short $3.1 billion. This will result in lower living standards, less access to services like education and yes, even less winter coats.
The UN in early 2015 set out an estimate of what it would cost to fully fund projects for 52 million displaced people. The cost was $15.6 billion, for food, shelter, and other basic needs. Providing for displaced people doesn’t cost that much, the G7 spends about $850 billion on defense each year but cannot muster even $15 billion for displaced people. The failure to provide for displaced people in particular those there long term has negative effects on long and short term stability. We are witnessing this first hand where people would rather risk the trip to Europe than remain in camps or adrift. Still, there are millions of people patiently waiting in refugee camps across the Middle East and North Africa, waiting to go home. That’s not going to happen in the near future for most of them, and while they wait, we cut their services as budgets are unable to cope with the influx of people.
In refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey alone, there are 700.000 children that are not receiving a proper education. Within Syria’s borders, there are an additional 7.6 million people displaced, many of them children. This is not just a humanitarian embarrassment, it is a security issue. Poor, desperate and uneducated people are far more likely to be exploited for labour, or indoctrinated into an extremist group. Identifying, helping, and providing education and training to displaced people around the world is an attainable goal that would give these people a far greater chance of creating stable societies post conflict. These efforts would also dramatically decrease the amount of people risking their lives with human traffickers, thousands have already drown in the Mediterranean this year alone.
We can’t reach all displaced people, but we can create better refugee camps. We can go above and beyond to care for those who just want security for themselves and their kids, the G7 could do this with just 5% of their defense budgets. There are now 59.3 million people who have left their homes in search of safety and hope for them and their families. We owe it to their future and our global security to find as many of these people as we can and give them the safety and hope they deserve.
