International Assistance in the 2025 Federal Election Platforms

International Assistance in the 2025 Federal Election Platforms

As outlined in our Open Letter to Leaders, economic concerns—including affordability and U.S. tariffs—are understandably shaping this election, as well as the priorities of the next government. These challenges are real and urgent. However, Canada cannot afford to turn inward. Our global engagement is vital to our economic resilience, our security, and our international credibility.

Canadians have consistently championed global cooperation, international assistance, and human rights—not just as ideals, but as central to our own well-being and prosperity, and a strategic investment in our collective future.

As the election approaches, Cooperation Canada has reviewed quantified commitments in the election platforms on international assistance. This is what they say.

  • The Liberal Party commits to supporting the poorest and most vulnerable in times of crisis by maintaining the international humanitarian assistance budget at no less than $800 million per year.
  • The Conservative Party commits to cut foreign aid to hostile regimes and global bureaucracies. Cuts would reduce the aid budget by approximately one-third, with annual cuts amounting to $2.8 billion by year four.
  • The Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party commit to boost international aid funding to 0.7 per cent of Canada’s Gross National Income. This would approximately double Canada’s international assistance envelope.

Cooperation Canada is committed to working with the next government and all federal parties to advance a values-driven, effective international cooperation and assistance agenda that delivers results, and strengthens our shared future.

Election 2025: An Open Letter to Leaders

Election 2025: An Open Letter to Leaders

Dear Leaders,

As Canada enters the federal election period, it is clear that economic concerns, particularly the threat of U.S. tariffs and broader financial uncertainty, will dominate the conversation. These challenges are real and urgent. However, they cannot come at the expense of a serious discussion on Canada’s foreign policy and engagement with the world.

Canadians have long championed global solidarity and human rights, not just as ideals, but as vital to our own security, economy, and global standing. A stable, prosperous world benefits Canada. As you present your respective platforms in this federal election, Canadian voters will be expecting a clear vision for how Canada will uphold these values in 2025 and beyond.

Humanitarian needs have surged. In 2025, over 300 million people worldwide will require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection. This unprecedented figure reflects escalating conflicts, climate-related disasters, and economic instability affecting vulnerable populations globally. Human rights and democracy are under attack around the world. Canada must step up. Inaction today will cost far more than sustained engagement and prevention tomorrow.

Canada has shown leadership before in times of crisis. We must do so again.

Standing with those in need is not just a moral imperative. It is an investment in global stability, security, and our collective future. Investing in global health helps prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Investing in economic development opens new markets for Canadian businesses, driving job creation at home.

Leaders, investing in a strong, engaged Canada on the world stage is not just the right thing to do-it’s also in our interest.

The next government will face no shortage of challenges, from tackling the housing and cost-of-living crises at home, to managing a precarious relationship with the U.S. These priorities are urgent. But retreating from the world would be a short-sighted miscalculation of Canada’s national interests. Now is a time for Canada to invest in varied and diverse partnerships with countries across the world.

Cooperation Canada and our members are committed to working with you towards a strong, values-driven foreign policy that upholds human rights and dignity, strengthens global stability, and secures our collective future. We stand ready to offer insights and ideas on how-in a highly disrupted world order-Canada can step up and engage, including on international cooperation. Like any system, the international cooperation system should evolve, and we are ready to work with you to be part of this change.

As you present your platforms, we urge you to propose a clear and strategic vision for Canada’s global engagement. Canadians deserve to know how their country will engage with the world in ways that reflect our values, uphold our commitments, benefit our country and ensure our continued global leadership.

 

Sincerely,

Kate Higgins
CEO, Cooperation Canada

 

 

Cooperation Canada Reaction to Canada’s Africa Strategy

Cooperation Canada Reaction to Canada’s Africa Strategy

Ottawa, ON – Cooperation Canada welcomes the release of Canada’s Africa Strategy: A Partnership for Shared Prosperity and Security, a long-awaited framework for strengthening Canada’s engagement with the African continent. The Strategy outlines key commitments, from enhancing diplomatic and economic cooperation to supporting development, climate adaptation, peace and human rights. This represents a positive step forward in Canada’s relationship with Africa.

However, for the Strategy to succeed, it must go beyond words and translate into concrete actions.

“Canada’s Africa Strategy is a good step towards clearer and more strategic engagement with the fastest-growing region in the world,” said Kate Higgins, CEO of Cooperation Canada. “While this Strategy signals an important shift, Canada must ensure that it is backed by clear investments, measurable goals and sustained diplomatic, economic and international assistance efforts.”

“In an uncertain geopolitical context, where others are retreating, it is in Canada’s interest to remain globally engaged. Canada cannot afford to stand on the sidelines while others forge stronger partnerships with Africa,” said Kate Higgins. “Cooperation Canada is committed to working with our members and partners – in Canada and in Africa – to foster an action-oriented Canada-Africa relationship that strengthens international cooperation and helps to shape a safer, fairer and more prosperous world.”

Notes to editors

  • In recent years, Cooperation Canada and its members have actively engaged in consultations and dialogues with Global Affairs Canada, parliamentary committees, parliamentarians and others on Canada’s engagement with Africa.
  • Recommendations were shared with Parliament and Global Affairs Canada in 2024.
  • Cooperation Canada is the national voice for Canadian international development and humanitarian organizations. Representing over 100 organizations, we convene, coordinate and advocate for effective, inclusive, and accountable international cooperation that contributes to a fairer, safer and more sustainable world.

 

For media inquiries, please contact :
Gabriel Karasz-Perriau
Senior Communications Manager, Cooperation Canada
(514) 945-0309
[email protected]

Cooperation Canada Statement on USAID Cuts and Canada’s Role in the World

Cooperation Canada Statement on USAID Cuts and Canada’s Role in the World

Cooperation Canada is deeply concerned about the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the impact of the immediate pause in United States foreign assistance.

“This pause is already having catastrophic consequences on communities around the world,” said Kate Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Cooperation Canada. “Food crises are worsening, health services are vanishing, and entire communities – many of them women and children – are being left without protection. These cuts are costing lives.  They are also undermining the global rules-based order that Canada has long championed,” Higgins said.

As the world’s largest donor, the U.S. withdrawal creates a dangerous gap in the global humanitarian and development system. Cooperation Canada stands alongside our partners in the U.S. and around the world who continue to champion the power of international cooperation.

Cooperation Canada welcomes the Government of Canada’s concern about the impact of these cuts and its recognition that international assistance is an investment in global and domestic security and well-being.

We also recognize that these cuts, and the resulting disruption of the global humanitarian system, are taking place at a time when economic security, and potential U.S. tariffs specifically, are the top concern for Canadians and the Canadian government.

However, Canada’s foreign engagement should not be reduced to economic transactions with the U.S. alone. At this time of global uncertainty, when others are retreating, it is in Canada’s interest to remain globally engaged. Cooperation Canada recognizes that steps are needed to modernize the global development and humanitarian system. However, the abrupt actions of the U.S. administration are destructive and will cost lives.

Canada has an opportunity to step up and provide strategic international assistance where the needs are greatest, and the impacts will be most felt.  As the current President of the G7, we urge the Government of Canada to lead by example and to rally global partners around strategic and compassionate commitments to international cooperation, stability, and humanitarian action.

“Investing in international assistance strengthens communities, enhances security, and positions Canada to have influence in a rapidly changing world,” Higgins said. “It is both the right and the smart thing to do,” she added.

“Cooperation Canada and its members stand ready to work with the government, with Canadians and with other partners to ensure Canada remains a force for good in the world.”

Highlights of The 2024 Canadian Aid Trends report

Highlights of The 2024 Canadian Aid Trends report

The 2024 Canadian Aid Trends report, authored by Brian Tomlinson as a partnership between AidWatch Canada and Cooperation Canada, dives into four key areas: overall trends, changing priorities, tackling poverty and channels for delivering Canadian ODA. The report aims to provide data, evidence and analysis on Canadian aid trends to bolster the international cooperation community’s advocacy on Canadian ODA. The information unearthed in this report is crucial for anyone following Canada’s contributions to international assistance. Four highlights documents accompany the full-length report.

The new report will be launched on January 28 with interventions from the author, GAC and civil society, as well as space carved out for Q&A.

Building a Just Global Economy: Canada’s Pivotal Role & the Road to FFD4

Building a Just Global Economy: Canada’s Pivotal Role & the Road to FFD4

Preparations for the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), to be held in Spain in June/July 2025, are in full swing. UN member states, academia, civil society, private sector and others convened in New York from 2-6 December 2024 for the second Preparatory Committee session for conference. It was a key milestone in putting forward the elements which will feed into the agreements to be made in Spain. As a forum which convenes roughly once per decade, FfD4 will be instrumental in charting a way forward towards financing sustainable development and more balanced global economic governance. 

Cooperation Canada participated in those sessions, in collaboration with the global Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, seeking to draw connections between FfD4 processes and the work we are leading on economic justice, including through leadership of the Civil7. Ultimately, the goals of these processes converge, aiming to address the fundamental global challenges which constrain fiscal space for countries in driving their own development. In leading the Civil7, we will work to present the Government of Canada as G7 President, and the G7 as a whole, actionable policy proposals, where the G7 could demonstrate leadership in correcting some of these global economic imbalances.  

What is Canada’s role? 

While participants converged on some of the key challenges faced globally in achieving sustainable development, continued advocacy will be needed on a number of issues, including ensuring that FfD4 remains focussed on international cooperation, and that it not be consumed only by discussions on the mobilization of domestic resources. On debt, there is a need to work towards an FfD4 which delivers on genuine debt relief, as the elements paper currently falls short on proposing the required institutional change. On gender equality, the agenda in Spain must address inequalities and adopt a gender-transformative financing agenda. Here, we welcome Ambassador Bob Rae’s intervention (Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations), which called for stronger gender balance in the FfD agenda.  

At the same time, Canada currently leads the United Nations Economic and Social Council, or ECOSOC, in addition to its leadership roles in the SDG Leaders Stimulus Group as well as on the Preparatory Committee of FfD4. Along with the G7, these roles converge and present excellent opportunities for Canada to step up as a global player for more balanced international cooperation. With fires burning in all regions of the world, Canada must play an important role as a convener and leader in advancing cooperation. Ambassador Rae, who is the President of ECOSOC, is a seasoned and respected diplomat and politician. He has a unique opportunity to lead with ambition and bold vision, freed from the dynamics of short-term politics.  

The priorities he has set for Canada’s leadership, including the crisis of displacement, AI, and financing for development, are indeed relevant and require a relentless pursuit of stronger action and leadership. On the latter, ECOSOC’s work informs FfD4, and in progressing towards this conference, all levers of influence must be engaged to set forward a genuine transformation which redresses decades, if not centuries, of global economic injustice.  

What levers can generate fiscal space?  

The solutions are well researched and have increasingly entered into international cooperation semantics, including during the FfD4 Preparatory Committee. It is through international cooperation and with genuine political leadership that systems can be put into place to tackle these issues. 

  • Nations crippled by debt cannot own or let alone invest in their own development if the bulk of their revenue is geared towards servicing exorbitant interest rates.  
  • Lack of international cooperation on taxation and illicit financial flows are robbing lower income countries (and others) of billions in revenue that could otherwise be used to strengthen capacities and invest in sustainable development.  
  • Multilateral development banks and other public banks must be genuinely reformed to create an environment where lower income countries can readily access financing under reasonable conditions. The COVID crisis clearly exposed how higher income countries could rapidly put in place systems to support their citizens, whereas lower income countries struggled to access financing to keep their most basic social services afloat.  
  • Predatory commercial and international trade practices further entrench the status quo, providing built-in systems which fix trade in favor of higher income countries. Those countries generally face much lower tariffs when exporting their products, providing them with increased access to markets, as compared to lower income countries who face much higher trade barriers.  

To put it simply, the global economy is rigged in a manner which favors high-income countries and those holding the levers of power. 

And what of ODA? 

Meanwhile, those same larger economies, like Canada, engage in providing official development assistance (ODA) to lower income countries. Alongside other important financing flows, including larger flows such as remittances, ODA continues to be a critical mechanism of support to lower- and middle-income countries on sustainable development and humanitarian action.  

But EURODAD shows that, “ODA from over half of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members dropped in 2023, including some of the largest donors such as Germany and France”. Likewise, as per AidWatch Canada, Canada has recently decreased its ODA following consistent and significant increases since 2015. The budgeted International Assistance Envelope for 2023/24 is 15% lower than that of 2022/23, and there was no projection for 2024/25.  

In a world of increasing conflict and displacement, and ballooning humanitarian needs, ODA must also increase, and be done in manners which shift power to those in charge of their countries and communities. However, coming out of the recently held COP29, which was a major blow to climate finance, and with recent further cuts to ODA being made by a number of countries, it is clear that the appetite for grant financing is limited.  

What’s next? 

A new paradigm is needed to level the playing field and allow all countries to drive their own development, freed from persistent unbalanced economic and financial structures and practices.  

Global reforms to debt, trade, taxation, and access to finance are instrumental in recasting dialogue on international development, from one of filling gaps and seeking grants, to one where all nations are empowered by a fair international architecture which does not constrain, but frees fiscal space.  

Canada is now in the international spotlight. Through the G7, ECOSOC, SDG Leaders Stimulus Group, and FfD4, it is the moment to set a bold agenda. This means:  

  • Engaging civil society in devising the solutions which put people ahead of profit, 
  • Taking action on injustices that continue to exacerbate inequalities, and  
  • Ensuring that AI and new technologies do not serve to further entrench a rigged economy.  

Canada has a unique opportunity to demonstrate that it is not a mere participant on the global stage, but a guiding force for global progress, justice, and equity.