Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed $400 million for global initiatives tackling COVID-19 at a United Nations event on Tuesday morning.
The High-Level Event on Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond was co-hosted by Trudeau, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
The meeting sought to bring together heads of state, government officials, and representatives of international organizations, the private sector, and civil society to discuss how to recover from the COVID-19 crisis and work towards achieving the UN’s Global Goals.
The new international development funding will be used for trusted partners working to address COVID-19 on the ground, helping with pandemic recovery in developing countries.
“Canada believes that a strong, coordinated response across the world and across sectors is essential. This pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset,” Trudeau said during the videoconference. “This is our chance to accelerate our pre-pandemic efforts to reimagine economic systems that actually address global challenges like extreme poverty, inequality, and climate change.”
1/ Thank you @JustinTrudeau@KarinaGould@cafreeland@BobRae48@telfordk@CanadaDev for this big commitment made in front of the world. Canada is fast emerging as a true global leader against COVID. On behalf of Global Citizens everywhere, a huge thank you and let’s keep this up! pic.twitter.com/1cIKWixhgs
— Global Citizen Canada (@GlblCtznCAN) September 29, 2020
The government of Canada's statement explains that the funding will also help respond to the short-term humanitarian and development needs created by the pandemic and other crises, with an overall aim of ensuring that progress made towards achieving the Global Goals is not reversed.
This new commitment comes just days after Trudeau announced a commitment of $220 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment, which will go towards the purchase of vaccine doses for low- and middle-income countries.
“Global cooperation is crucial to protect people, save lives, and defeat COVID-19,” Trudeau said in a statement. “Our investments will also help preserve the hard-won development gains we have made collectively that have lifted millions of people out of poverty these past decades.”