Gloria Novovic has a lot of questions about Canada’s global engagement strategy for 2021, and the 739-page budget released last month isn’t offering many concrete answers. 

The policy lead for Cooperation Canada and other leaders in the global development and international aid sectors are still trying to get a sense of Canada’s aid strategy over the next few years. According to the federal budget tabled in April, roughly $1.4 billion has been allocated over the next five years to tackle a variety of humanitarian disasters, from famine to gender-based violence to the COVID-19 pandemic itself. But many in the INGO sector say it isn’t enough. 

Novovic says that Canada’s government made it clear, through investments in COVAX, the global vaccine-sharing agreement, and other initiatives, that it took the COVID-19 threat seriously. “There was that clear admission of Canadian leadership that the situation is far from normal,” Novovic says. “We are facing one of the direst humanitarian crises of our generation and as a result, Canada scaled up its assistance.”

The budget doesn’t provide many answers about Canada’s long-term strategy for international assistance, especially in the context of a global community ravaged by COVID-19, the climate crisis, a parallel epidemic of gender-based violence, a looming debt crisis in the Global South, rising extreme poverty rates, global refugee crisis, and other catastrophes. But it does offer some pressing questions from the INGO community about Canada’s role in the unsettling new state of the world: 

Why is Canada leaning so heavily on loan-based development funding options in the 2021 budget — and is that a problem?

Canada’s development plan for 2021 includes buying $224.4 million in shares from the International Finance Corporation, a major financial institution that offers loans for private sector development in the Global South. It also promises to buy shares in the African Development Bank by 2023 instead of 2028, an accelerated timeline the federal government says is a direct response to the pandemic. “The financial capacity of the African Development Bank has been eroded by the COVID-19 crisis,” the budget explains. “This bank is a core development partner of Canada that plays a critical role in economic growth and development in Africa.” 

Funding the African Development Bank and other such institutions is all fine and good, but Novovic says Canada is particularly bad for using loans to support other major international development initiatives, specifically climate finance. “Canada is one of the worst offenders globally around loan-based assistance,” she says. “When others give grants, we tend to give loans.” Conventional loans are a lot less flexible for organizations in the Global South because, of course, they must be paid back with interest. 

In the midst of the global pandemic, a debt crisis is threatening to overwhelm the governments of Global South countries forced to spend unprecedented amounts of money on COVID-19 relief. The cost of servicing debt in developing countries was roughly 1.6 times what they spent on public health care, according to data from a United Nations briefing in March 2021. If a debt crisis does end up overwhelming the Global South, governments may be forced to choose between paying down their debts or paying for basic medical services, sanitation, or infrastructure. 

Where is the strategic approach to humanitarian aid across the globe? 

Canada’s 2021 budget acknowledges that the COVID-19 pandemic is adding fuel to many crises around the world, citing a UN estimate that 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2021 alone. It allocated $165 million to Global Affairs Canada to respond to conflict, food insecurity, and “other crises in developing countries”, earmarks $288.3 million over three years to respond to the Rohingya crisis, and offers $80.3 million over two years to help Venezuelans currently fleeing from their country’s political and economic breakdown. 

These are all genuine crises. But Novovic says these investments represent reactions to catastrophe, not proactive plans. She calls Ottawa’s approach ‘governance by announcement’: “Nobody’s able to plan,” Novovic says. “It is much more difficult to give resources directly to local actors and it is more difficult for you to tackle the core causes. You’re solving the symptoms — and then those symptoms never really wane because you have a continuous array of global crises.” 

Humanitarian crises such as famine can quickly spill over from one region of a country to another, trigger secondary or tertiary effects, and even spread across whole nations. This is especially true with COVID-19. The pandemic is contributing to medical shortages, famine, economic deprivation, gender-based violence, and a host of other crises. What might a comprehensive Canadian post-pandemic development strategy look like over the next ten years? “We need a bit of an updated analysis of what’s going to be Canada’s strategy in the 21st century.” says Boris Martin, CEO of Engineers Without Borders Canada. 

Why is there a disconnect between the Canadian government’s budget and its international goals — and can it change?

When Canada first joined COVAX, the federal government insisted that helping the world defeat the COVID-19 pandemic was just as important as helping Canadians. Fast-forward to the 2021 budget and it’s clear that attitude has not played out in practice. “Right now, Canada’s overall allocation to Official Development Assistance (ODA) sits at $6 billion annually, and it’s anemic compared to what other countries are doing,” says Martin.

Martin suspects the federal government may have decided to prioritize spending on domestic COVID-19 preparedness rather than international assistance. Canadians are worried about the virus’s impact at home, even if it is hitting countries in the Global South much harder — and thereby keeping the global pandemic going longer. There is a clear link to be made between international pandemic-related assistance and the conditions of wealthy countries like Canada. For instance, if India had received proactive help sooner, its medical system might not have been as easily overwhelmed by a vicious series of COVID-19 variants in the spring of 2021.

Social impact sector organizations such as Cooperation Canada are asking Canada to significantly boost international assistance spending, but in the meantime, Martin says the sector might consider coming up with their own strategy. “I would love to see a group of civil society organizations, the private sector, and maybe even civil servants come together and start talking about a vision for Canada’s role in the world,” he says. “We don’t wait for the government to do that for us because it doesn’t seem to be there for them to do it.” 

How does Canada plan on providing aid while remaining accountable to the international community? 

Decolonizing Canada’s global development efforts is a decades-old conversation among the sector, but it isn’t even referenced in the 2021 budget. At a time when some major INGOs are reconsidering their overseas staffing plans because of travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 budget is mostly focused on funding for Global Affairs Canada. While the government department may very well invest in INGOs focused on localization, there is no way of telling from the budget itself whether the government will do so, or even sees localization is a priority. 

There’s also the question of which government departments will actually receive money to carry out development, humanitarian, and crisis work in the first place. One big question mark is Canada’s Middle East Strategy. According to the budget, Canada will provide $527 million to Global Affairs Canada, as well as the Department of National Defence (the military), CSIS, and the Communications Security Establishment (two intelligence agencies). All we know from the budget itself is that all four of these departments will “…continue providing development, humanitarian and military support and advance peace and stability in the region.” 

Clarity around funding within the budget is something Diana Sarosi, director of policy and campaigns at Oxfam Canada, found difficult to follow when sifting through the federal government’s promised $1.4 billion commitment. “It’s really unclear where this is additional money or includes other commitments that have already been made,” she says. “That makes many of us wonder — is that money really new money?” Accountability starts with transparency, and if Canada isn’t able to show exactly how much new money it is spending on international aid, international actors cannot hold the government responsible for underwhelming performance. 

Sketching out the post-pandemic blueprint

Regardless of Canada’s commitments in its 2021 budget, the global development and international aid sectors are facing the possibility of immense change. The COVID-19 pandemic and its after-effects will likely be top-of-mind among INGOs for years to come, but they’ll also face a host of other challenges. 

How should organizations deploy staff in a world where Global South vaccination campaigns lag behind those in wealthier countries? Should they deploy staff at all? How can Canada-based INGOs provide their local partner organizations unrestricted funding? Is there a place for Global North-based grantmakers, corporations, and non-profits to work together on an updated international assistance strategy — and can it be done while shifting power to local communities?

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