With Canadians bracing for the fallout of an escalating trade war, public sentiment toward foreign aid is shifting, and valid questions are being raised about its effectiveness.
These aren’t times for business as usual.
Many of Canada’s international NGOs have become increasingly reliant on government funding — creating risks of dependency, lack of independence and complacency. It’s easy to forget that these are hard-earned taxpayer dollars.
Too often, our sector reacts defensively to scrutiny, as though questioning effectiveness is a challenge to our purpose. It’s not. Rather, it’s an opportunity to prove our worth. We should embrace these conversations and hold ourselves to the highest standards of performance and accountability.
The world is changing rapidly, and Canadian aid organizations must change with it. If we want to remain a global force for good, we need to rethink our approach.
This requires three fundamental shifts: a laser focus on impact, breaking out of our echo chambers, and reimagining how we advocate.
Focus on impact
For too long, too many aid organizations have taken a myopic, short-term approach to funding — chasing donor priorities rather than designing strategies for lasting systemic change. The result? Fragmented efforts: funding one initiative for a few years, then pivoting to the next, without building sustainable impact.
We need to break this cycle.
True effectiveness comes from bold, data-driven priorities and best practices. This means moving away from short-term, project-based funding toward strategies that prioritize long-term sustainability. Our own organization’s work to communicate impact and tell the stories of communities moving to self-sufficiency is just one example of this shift in action.
Of course, this also means we must increasingly value the role of grassroots organizations, faith groups and local movements. Canadian organizations have an important role to play, but we must be serious about ensuring that our contributions complement and strengthen local leadership.
We also need to get serious about diversifying funding by more effectively engaging individual Canadians, the private sector and philanthropic partners. By unlocking new financial streams, we can drive transformative, measurable change that endures beyond the lifespan of any single government-funded project.
The usual suspects
The public’s growing skepticism toward foreign aid is, in part, a problem of the sector’s own making. It’s not the fault of Canadians if they find inflammatory rhetoric from aid critics persuasive. The failure is ours for assuming we could sit back on our laurels.
To regain trust, we need to get out of our echo chambers. Aid organizations must bridge the gap between the world “out there” and the realities Canadians face. This means engaging with people in Moose Jaw, Calgary, Montreal and Corner Brook, N.L. — not just policy circles or social media bubbles.
World Vision’s partnership with the Canadian Football League does just that. It uses the power of sport to connect with Canadian families and drive meaningful change in some of the world’s most dangerous places to be a child.
Building trust requires radical transparency and clear evidence of impact. It also means telling human stories that resonate — stories of how Canadian generosity is driving real change. This is especially vital for organizations receiving taxpayer dollars.
Re-think advocacy
Our advocacy work in Canada needs a reset.
Too often, we’ve reduced advocacy to simply asking governments for more money — without offering bold, creative solutions. While government investments in global development are essential, this narrow approach comes across as self-serving and risks reinforcing the cycles of dependency we aim to break.
It’s time to reimagine our value proposition. We should be going to Ottawa with imaginative, evidence-based solutions to global challenges, not just funding requests.
And we need to expand our advocacy beyond governments — engaging financial markets, boardrooms and major investors to push corporate responsibility in global development.
To provide one example, ONE Canada has done a superb job of “going narrow and deep” and broadening out their engagement beyond the usual suspects with their ONE Campaign, which focused on getting transformative financing to invest in Africa’s future.
We also need to supercharge our advocacy efforts with data. Sophisticated tools — including AI — can help us better understand Canadians, decision-makers and global trends. While technology can’t replace the human connections at the heart of advocacy, it can make our efforts smarter and more strategic.
On the relational front, we must move from transactional lobbying to relationship-based engagement with “middle Canada.” The Canadian Food Grains Bank’s annual Hunger on the Hill advocacy training is just one example of how people from across Canada can connect with parliamentarians.
By crafting narratives that are relatable and emotive, we can build widespread public support and drive meaningful policy change.
Reasons to engage
We deeply believe in the power of international cooperation to build a better world. We’ve seen transformation firsthand. But the Canadian aid sector needs to wake up or risk sleepwalking into the abyss.
Canadians still care about the world’s most vulnerable. But we must give them compelling reasons to stay engaged. Doing so means bold changes in how we invest, how we partner, how we communicate and how we advocate. It means moving beyond old models and reimagining the role of Canadian aid organizations and focusing on where we can truly add value.
Let’s commit to earning public trust, driving real impact, and ensuring Canada remains a force for good on the global stage.
