Thank you very much. It's an honour to be here today.

I have three main points I'd like to make in this opening statement. The first is that nutrition is a key component of child protection. The second is that Canada is recognized around the world as a leader on nutrition. The third is that there is much more we can do to harness that leadership to influence others around the world in a way that would have a transformative impact on children.

Some may wonder why the president of a nutrition organization is here today talking to you about child protection and youth. I'd like to say a few things about the connection between malnutrition and vulnerability, particularly for children. Let's consider the following facts.

Every night, 300 million children go to bed hungry. Every year, almost three million children under the age of five die due to poor nutrition. They lack the resilience that is needed to fight off opportunistic infections and disease. That is nearly half of all child deaths in the world, 8,000 children every day, one every 10 seconds. Over 160 million children are stunted, small for their age, and they don't have enough of the basic nutrients they need to function, to grow, and to develop to their full potential.

The bottom line is malnourished children are vulnerable children. They are children in need of protection.

I have three children, ages six, five, and two. When I am in the field visiting Micronutrient Initiative projects, I can't help but be drawn to the children as well, partly because I am missing my own, and partly because children are the main indicator of the health and future potential of any community.

Last year, I had the chance to visit Micronutrient Initiative projects in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. In one village in particular, a remote village, we were walking and we saw many children playing, which is entirely normal. You would expect to see that. It's only when you learn how old the children are that you realize something is seriously wrong. The child who you thought was maybe two or three years old is actually six. A child over there who is the same size as your kid back home isn't six; he is nine or ten. When you pick them up.... You see, I know the densities of my children. I pick them up all the time. They are heavy. When you pick up a chronically malnourished child, it feels different, as if you were picking up cloth.

Now, the density is different, and the muscle mass is different, but the smiles, the light, and the vast potential of a child are the same. That is the heartbreaking thing, because chronically malnourished children will have an uphill battle for the rest of their lives in order to achieve their full potential. We can protect these children.

What is particularly hard is that this cycle has continued generation after generation. A girl who looks like she is 10 or 11 is actually 16 and about to be married. Her chances of dying during childbirth, and her baby's chances of dying or being damaged for life due to malnutrition, are that much higher, and the cycle repeats itself. Malnourished adolescent girls have low birth weight babies, who become stunted children, who grow to be stunted adolescents, and the cycle goes on.

Simply put, the fight against poverty and the damage it causes can never be won while entire generations are malnourished, stunted, and with their development potential impaired because they don't have access to good nutrition. Again, the bottom line is that malnourished children are vulnerable children. They are children in need of protection.

On a positive note, Canada has been at the forefront when it comes to protecting children from malnutrition and is recognized as a world leader. I want to give you a couple of examples of this type of leadership, drawing from our own organization.

The Micronutrient Initiative is a made-in-Canada global nutrition organization that reaches 500 million people in more than 70 countries around the world every year. We focus on scaling up low-cost, high-impact nutrition interventions that are recognized as some of the best buys in global health.

These are vitamin A capsules. A child needs just two of these every year to give their immune system a hyper-boost that protects them against disease and illness. Every year, MI reaches 150 million children with two of these. That protects them against disease and illness, and reduces child deaths by up to 24%. In total, so far, we have saved four million lives. Each capsule costs two cents to make, and most of them were made right here in Canada.

Here is one more example. Decades ago people realized that adding iodine to salt could prevent mental impairments and other health issues, and boost IQ levels by as much as 15 points. Over the last five years, with Canadian support, we have protected 30 million newborns from permanent mental impairment at a cost of a few pennies per person per year.

That's not all we do at Ml. We are constantly seeking new ways to change the status quo for women and children, and those are just two examples where Canada punches above its weight and gets results.

Canadians care about the world we're in and the world around us. Part of this global leadership on nutrition I mentioned comes from a long-term commitment to children. This commitment by officials, by politicians of every party, by NGOs, by academics, and by the Canadian people from coast to coast has resulted in a track record that has earned Canada a global reputation and a voice on nutrition.

Now the key question is, what could we do with that voice? One of my main messages to this committee is that Canada could build on this leadership and achieve even more for children by increasing our influence with other donors, other countries, and geopolitical blocs.

What does it say about the priorities of the world if, for the price of a latte at the corner café, children can't access the lowest cost, highest impact interventions that are essential for their resilience in the face of disease, for their strength, and for their mental development? If protecting children was truly a priority around the world, we wouldn't be seeing the numbers and the vulnerability that we're seeing. Canada can use its voice to make it more of a priority by using our significant development, trade, and diplomatic capabilities together in order to serve as force multipliers.

How do we do that? We did this recently at la Francophonie summit in Senegal where our ambassador and sherpa, Philippe Beaulne, convened donors, the private sector, and government leaders in a side event on nutrition, and where DFATD officials led negotiations to ensure that the final resolutions included commitments by developing countries themselves to increase their own budgets for nutrition and maternal, newborn, and child health.

This global resolution was signed by 57 heads of state, among them countries with the highest rates of malnutrition in the world. That's an example of influence. Building on this, if we look at the next six months, I'm sure there will be many opportunities to create alignments of purpose at the highest levels. For example, in two weeks the new prime minister of India will come to Canada. Apart from the clear importance of expanding trade with what will become the most populous nation in the world, India at present also has a significant burden of malnutrition. India is no longer an aid recipient but an emerging power with an increasing regional and global footprint.

We're both members of the Commonwealth, a group of countries that is home to less than 40% of the world's children under five, but accounts for more than half of the world's child deaths. What if both Canada and India worked together to advance the cause of children and nutrition at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in November? This could be leader to leader, parliamentarian to parliamentarian, ambassador to ambassador, and official to official using our diplomatic, trade, and development gears together. That is just one example. I'm sure if we had more time, we could come up with many more, because the need for leadership is enormous, but so is the opportunity.

In closing, I want to say that the world is finally figuring out that we can't move forward while so many are being left behind. Having Canadian parliamentarians study the reasons people are being left behind and the importance of issues like child protection is further evidence to me at least that the status quo for children is unacceptable at the highest levels, and that Canada will continue to use the full spectrum of our capabilities as a champion for children around the world.

Thank you for your time.

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