A Sector in Motion: What the 2025 Coalition Landscape Tells Us About the Future of Collaboration in Canada’s International Cooperation

Partnerships and collaboration have always been at the heart of Canada’s international cooperation sector. They are how we show up for one another, how we share burdens, how we strengthen our collective voice and how we continue working for a more just world, even when the ground shifts beneath us. The 2025 Coalition Landscape report, the first update since 2014, offers the clearest picture yet of how coalitions are evolving, why they matter and what it will take to keep them strong in the years ahead.

Drawing on insights from 32 coalitions, the report captures a sector that is both dynamic and under strain. It reveals coalitions’ outsized role in advocacy, coordination, learning and sector alignment, while also acknowledging the emotional and practical pressures carried by the people who make this work possible.

Here are the major takeaways shaping the future of coalition work in Canada.

1. A Sector That Constantly Reinvents Itself

Only one quarter of the coalitions in the 2025 study appeared in all three mapping exercises, highlighting how fluid and adaptive this ecosystem is. Coalitions emerge in response to pressing needs, shift direction as contexts change and, in many cases, disappear due to changing realities.

The 2025 landscape spans organizations working on human rights (44%), gender equality (34%), health (19%) and climate (19%), with many coalitions working across overlapping areas such as humanitarian response, governance and locally led development.

2. Coalitions Remain One of the Sector’s Most Powerful Assets

Despite limited resources and growing administrative pressures, coalitions continue to be one of the sector’s greatest strengths. Across the study, five core sources of value emerged:

• A unified policy voice that increases credibility and access to government.
• Strategic coordination that reduces duplication and aligns messaging.
• Peer learning and knowledge-sharing that strengthen sectoral practice.
• Capacity-building, especially for smaller organizations.
• Safe spaces for sensitive advocacy and solidarity building.

3. Funding Fragility Is the Sector’s Most Pressing Challenge

This message is repeated throughout the report, across sectors and coalition types: coalitions are operating on precarious financial footing. Some key dynamics include reliance on short-term, project-based funding, lack of core resources for coordination, and overreliance on volunteer labour.

Many coalitions foresee budget tightening over the next two years and while a few have diversified revenue streams, most do not. Sustainability remains one of the biggest pain points in the ecosystem.

4. Equity, Inclusion and Power-Shifting Are Becoming Structural Priorities

From feminist Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning approaches to locally led development, coalitions are actively rethinking how power circulates in governance, membership, funding and decision-making. Many are:

• Adjusting membership models
• Reducing barriers for small and Global South partners
• Integrating anti-racism and reconciliation across governance
• Addressing representation gaps in leadership and decision-making

This marks a meaningful shift from earlier coalition mapping studies, where equity was present but less structurally embedded.

5. Four System-Level Recommendations the Sector Should Act On

The report closes with four system-wide shifts that will determine whether coalitions can remain strong anchors for the sector in the years ahead.

• Reinforce governance and strategic alignment, including shared advocacy calendars and joint messaging.
• Build collective capacity through shared tools, cross-coalition learning and pooled communications resources.
• Embed equity and inclusion, ensuring meaningful participation of youth, francophone, Indigenous, Global South and small organizations.
• Secure diversified and sustainable funding, including public engagement strategies and deeper philanthropic partnerships

Conclusion: Strengthening the Threads That Hold the Sector Together

The 2025 Coalition Landscape shows a sector under strain, yet profoundly committed to collective action. Coalitions remain the threads that hold this ecosystem together, spaces where organizations align, support one another and push for change with greater strength than any could muster alone. But sustaining this work requires more than goodwill; it requires stable resourcing, strengthened capacity and shared infrastructure to ensure these networks can continue to do what the sector depends on them to do. As coalitions navigate increasingly complex pressures, Cooperation Canada is ready to help weave those threads more tightly: convening coalitions, fostering shared learning and amplifying a unified sector voice when it matters most.