Palestinians line up for food in Rafah, Gaza Strip, in February, 2024.Fatima Shbair/The Associated Press
Ninette Kelley is the chair of the World Refugee & Migration Council, which has launched an international effort to identify policy and institutional reforms that better bridge humanitarian and institutional responses to forced displacement. She is a former senior United Nations official and a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
At least 72 migrants died last month when tens of thousands of people surged into the small Spanish enclave of Ceuta, inflaming political divisions across Europe. Even though most of the migrants quickly returned to Morocco, the incident continues to grab global attention.
Meanwhile, a global humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in areas far removed from Ceuta and from the public eye – precipitated by unprecedented cuts to humanitarian assistance.
It began last year, with a 50-per-cent reduction in funding from the United States, which had been the backbone of the humanitarian system for decades. Other major donors have also reduced their commitments since then, including Canada, which intends to further cut its aid budget by an estimated 12 per cent by 2029.
Wealthy countries, including Canada, cut foreign aid
For decades, Canada has spent less of its national income on overseas assistance than many members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee, an international forum of major aid donors. Despite the agreed-upon target of devoting 0.7 per cent of gross national income to international development assistance, Canada has hovered around 0.3 per cent for the past two decades, a number that has only declined over the last several years.
The effects of international aid cuts have been immediate and dire on the ground. Food assistance, nutrition programs, vaccination campaigns, health services, shelter, water and sanitation programs, protection services, and educational support have been sharply scaled back or phased out altogether. Modelling studies suggest that reductions in international humanitarian assistance could result in more than 22 million deaths by 2030. These estimates predate the Iran conflict, which, according to the United Nations, could push 45 million more people into acute food insecurity.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech to the World Economic Forum in January urged the world’s middle powers to “build something bigger, better, stronger and more just” from the present rupture in the rules-based international order. And while his remarks focused on countering economic trade barriers, he also invoked Canada’s commitment to “help solve global problems” by working with “different coalitions for different issues based on common values and interests.” It is precisely that kind of coalition that is urgently needed to address the current humanitarian crisis.
Sudanese women from community kitchens run by local volunteers distribute meals for people who are affected by conflict and extreme hunger and are out of reach of international aid efforts, in Omdurman, Sudan, July, 2024.MAZIN ALRASHEED/Reuters
The system has long needed reform, but Canada’s recent retreat, alongside other donors, represents a missed opportunity to improve it rather than shrinking and weakening it. Designed after the Second World War to address short-term emergencies, the humanitarian-aid system has been drawn into protracted crises well beyond life-saving aid, remaining engaged for decades in fragile environments marked by poverty, insecurity, and rights violations. Now that they face slashed budgets, humanitarian agencies are rightly focusing on the most urgent needs and improving organizational efficiency.
But these necessary measures are insufficient. Without supporting longer-term recovery efforts to rebuild lives, strengthen skills, and improve socio-economic prospects, people will continue to be trapped in poverty for generations – and inevitably, the costs will rise as needs increase. Successful transitions from emergency relief to sustainable development remain rare due to political failures, chronic underfunding and weak state capacity. A new collective partnership model is urgently required to move beyond short-term humanitarian cycles toward a development-led approach: a long-held but elusive aspiration.
Israel’s destruction and restrictions on aid are wasting Canada’s relief money, UN official says
And it is there that Canadian leadership and coalition-building could make a significant difference. Rather than disengaging from international solidarity in addressing the acute needs of the world’s most marginalized communities, Canada could work to revive it. This would entail reversing planned cuts to international humanitarian aid and championing a reform to better link it with development interventions, bringing durable improvements to people’s lives in a more cost-efficient and sustainable manner.
In an interdependent world, where problems do not respect national borders, indifference is not a policy but a deferred cost. A further retreat from the global humanitarian crisis will be as ineffective as a trade war: It will only make it worse.