Grant: Team Grant: Food Security and Climate Change in the Canadian North - LOI

In 2014 the Canadian Council of Academies expert panel assessment on Aboriginal food security in northern Canada concluded "that there is a food crisis in northern Canada. This crisis, which is more evident in Aboriginal (sic) populations, has long-term implications for the health and well-being of these communities". Food insecurity in Inuit households ranges between 24% and nearly 70% at the regional scale and is as high as 85% in some communities. This is in comparison to a prevalence of food insecurity in the country that, while still on the rise in many jurisdictions, sits at 12%. This Letter of Intent proposes to consult and work with regional representatives in 3 Inuit regions of the Canadian North to develop a Team Grant application that will support Inuit regions in addressing the issue of climate change impacts on food security. The Team Grant will be overseen by an Inuit Advisory Committee and will focus on three primary areas: Objective #1: Knowledge user-directed analysis of existing and recently generated food security datasets at the regional and community scales to examine issues of scale, temporal change, and role and strength of climate sensitive determinants influencing Inuit food security status including previously excluded elements of regional and community food environments; Objective #2: Development and application of a common implementation analysis approach to document and evaluate the role of candidate pilot interventions for Inuit food security in response to climate change in each of the participating regions; and Objective #3: Qualitatively validate currently used food security tools in each region and explore tool adaptation via generation of more region-specific and culturally appropriate definitions/conceptualizations of Inuit food insecurity via an approach focused on community and regional participants' knowledge and experiences.