“International Development Week starts right here with all of us. It starts with our strong desire and collective duty to make the world a better place. Imagine a world where all women and girls are empowered, where every child can go to school and access health care, and where we take climate action to protect our planet. Now, if you can imagine it, we can make it happen. Because that’s what we do. We take ideas and we make something out of them.”
- International Development Minister, Ahmed Hussen
Every February, Canada marks International Development Week (IDW) to celebrate our contribution to eradicating poverty globally and building a more peaceful and inclusive world. It is also a moment to educate and remind ourselves of the global issues that require our immediate attention and action.
Our progress toward ending global poverty has been remarkable. Since 2000, the global under-5 mortality rate has plummeted by 51% in large part thanks to improved access to vaccines and better nutrition. This decline in child deaths mirrors a dramatic reduction in extreme poverty worldwide, which has also been cut in half. Polio has been eradicated in most of the world, with the wild poliovirus still present in only 3 countries: Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Today, our world is healthier and more prosperous than it was only 20 years ago – thanks to the leadership and commitment of countries like Canada.
Canada has a long tradition of making a global impact by championing effective solutions that support the health and wellbeing of the most marginalized. This multi-party, non-partisan consensus – which centres the needs of people, and supports human rights, democracy, education, and global health – has been critical in shaping Canada’s role in the world. For decades, this tradition has endured, regardless of the prime minister or party in power.
In the next few months, Canada has two crucial opportunities to show its global leadership by reinvesting in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and showing up for the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit with a robust commitment. Budget 2025 is the next opportunity for Canada to back its leadership with the adequate resources. If we keep pushing the Government, we can make sure that Canada reinvests in our world, and works to ensure that everyone, everywhere has an opportunity to thrive.
The ask: We call on Canada to #BudgetForLeadership and increase the International Assistance Envelope in Budget 2025 by an additional $650 million per year to ensure growing funding for immunization, nutrition, and education worldwide.
In 2010, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper created the Muskoka Initiative for maternal and child health. Canada’s contribution of $1.1 billion was leveraged to a total global investment of $40 billion, saving at least 1.2 million children’s lives.
In 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leveraged Canada’s G7 Presidency to create the Charlevoix Education Initiative, which supported the education of women and girls living in crisis. Backed by a Canadian investment of $400 million, Charlevoix leveraged $3.8 billion from G7 partners. The Canadian investment alone reached over 4 million women and girls living in fragile contexts, providing access to safe and quality education.
Since 2002, Canada has invested $1 billion in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, helping immunize 1 billion children and saving 17 million lives. Canada’s investments have helped to bolster vaccination systems in more than 60 countries and have generated a 54:1 return in economic benefits in implementing countries.
For decades, Canada has been a leader in fighting global malnutrition, remaining the largest donor to vitamin A supplementation, which has helped save the lives of 7 million+ children. In addition, nutrition comprised close to a third of the health spending in Canada’s 2010 Muskoka Initiative.
Then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney ensured that Canada was the first country to contribute to the global effort to eradicate polio in 1986. In 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reaffirmed support for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI) mission until polio is finally eradicated. In 2024, Canada redoubled its efforts to end this terrible disease by investing $151 million in GPEI.
However, our progress toward a healthier and more equitable world is fragile and uneven. Only 17% of the Sustainable Development Goals are on track for completion by 2030 – and progress on another third of the SDGs is stalling or reversing. The intensifying effects of climate change and escalating conflicts are putting the progress of past decades at risk.
Canadian global leadership and voice on the world stage is needed now more than ever to respond to global challenges and help create a better, more equitable world for all. While Canada invests only a small amount of its wealth – less than 1% – in the fight to end global poverty, these contributions build momentum and leverage billions of dollars of investments from global partners. It is though our robust and growing International Assistance Envelope – the budget line from where the vast majority of Canada’s international assistance is drawn – that Canada steps us as a global leader and influences others to invest.
Both at home and abroad, the past several weeks have been politically historic, leading a great deal of uncertainty that will take many more weeks to resolve.
As we've discussed in a recent blog, between now and April we will have a new Prime Minister and will likely be at the beginning of an election campaign.
Within days of assuming office, US President Donald Trump has thrown international aid into chaos, issuing a "stop work" order which halts US international assistance in all but a few critical humanitarian programs, making moves to shutter USAID, and beginning the process to withdraw from the World Health Organization. These decisions threaten countless critically needed programs across the world and put millions of lives at risk.
Canada’s commitment to a world without poverty and its willingness to back this commitment with resources must not be taken for granted. It depends on people in Canada speaking up.
Right now, Canada has an opportunity to step in and fill gaps where US withdrawal has left a vacuum with potentially profound consequences. From ensuring that we have the programs in place to avert a deadly resurgence of polio or Ebola to avoiding shortages of critical supplies like oxygen in health clinics, we must act now. Although many countries receiving US aid are trying to find additional resources within their own domestic budgets, the fact is that these can only stretch so far. Dozens of African countries are still forced to spend more money servicing debt payments than they spend on healthcare and education, and within conflict- and crisis-affected countries, international assistance is still sorely needed to save lives and to support peacebuilding efforts.
Our global and domestic political context is challenging and rapidly changing. A potential trade war with the US, an impending election, at least one new Prime Minister: each of these factors will demand the attention of decision-makers. Amid this uncertainty, we know one thing for certain: as advocates we must continue to speak up that growing global needs demand urgent action, because it’s both the smart and right thing to do. Now more than ever, Canada must take bold, concrete steps to uphold its proud tradition of global leadership.
With actions taken by advocates like us, we will ensure that, on the other side of this uncertainty, Canada remains a global leader, supporting the health and rights of people worldwide – because #TogetherWeLead.
The ask: We call on Canada to #BudgetForLeadership and increase the International Assistance Envelope in Budget 2025 by an additional $650 million per year to ensure growing funding for immunization, nutrition, and education worldwide.
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Breaking down misinformation is essential to ensuring that we can defeat HPV and cervical cancer. Meet Glory and Rosabel, two girls in Nigeria who have done their research and learned about the lifesaving power of HPV vaccines.
Read more here.
video
Learn more about the upcoming Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit – and why it's more critical than ever for Canada to remain a global nutrition leader.
Black History Month
February 2 to 8: International Development Week
February 6: International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation
February 13: Results February Action Kick-Off
February 20: World Day of Social Justice
Check out our full key dates calendar.
Budget 2025
Budget For Leadership
Together We Lead
Nutrition
Education
Immunization
#TogetherWeLead
#Budget2025
#BudgetForLeadership
#cdnpoli
With 2025 in full swing and an election soon on the horizon, it’s critically important that we make sure that parliamentarians from all parties know that the folks in their ridings (that’s you!) care about Canada’s global leadership in the fight to end extreme poverty. Tell them why you care about a world free from poverty and why Canada needs to step up with a #BudgetForLeadership. Ask your MP what they will do to ensure that Canada is a global leader.
Don’t forget to make it personal. MPs will connect more with information that is grounded in personal experience, so don’t be afraid to share why you care about global issues! Remember that the EPIC model for effective communication is a great resource to help shape the content of your email!
Don’t know who your MP is? Type your postal code on the House of Commons website to find out how to contact them!
Remember to use the EPIC model to help draft your postcard, and don’t be afraid to make it personal, connecting domestic experience to our global advocacy! This is a critical opportunity to remind you MP and the Prime Minister that Canadians care about global issues!
Use your postal code on the House of Commons website to find out who your MP is, and their contact information, such as their email address.
See all our resources to help you write your MP, along with key dates, hashtags, tags and keywords found on our call-to-action page. If you need additional help with this action, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at action@resultscanada.ca.
World Tuberculosis Day is March 24, but the planning has already started, including the campaign to light up monuments in red to raise awareness for the world’s deadliest infectious disease. It is crucial to start early because it can take weeks or even months to get approval to light up a building or monument in red.
Help us make the fight against tuberculosis visible! Put in a request for one (or more) of your (or another) city’s monuments to be lit up in red on March 24, 2024.
How to get started?
The first step is to identify a Canadian landmark that can be illuminated. Then, make sure you're the only person making the request. Next, you'll need to research the process for your city and/or monument and ask for the monument to be lit in red for World TB Day.
For detailed instructions and to help you prepare your request, have a look at our guide or watch our video.
Write a letter to the editor (LTE) highlighting the need for Canada to step-up and invest in immunization, good nutrition, and access to education – the critical building blocks of flourishing communities. By investing in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, investing in nutrition at the Nutrition for Growth Summit, and by centring education at the upcoming G7 Summit, Canada can help educate, immunize, and nourish millions worldwide.
Canada has a legacy of global leadership, championing the health, education, and rights of people around the world. With a rapidly changing political landscape, it is more important than ever that Canada continue to lead amid uncertainty. We must ensure that Canada has a #BudgetForLeadership for a healthier, more equitable world.
Be sure to send your LTE to your local community papers for the best chance of being published! Refer to past volunteer LTEs but don’t fall into the trap of copying other people’s styles.
Volunteers on average spend 1-2 hours researching and planning, 30 minutes writing their draft and 15 minutes submitting it to newspapers.
Canada should invest $1-billion in the Global Fund: reader
The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the contribution of frontline community health workers around the world to protect communities. Health workers are the overlooked backbone of any well-functioning health system. Much of the success of the Global Fund is due to the efforts of these health workers—most of whom are women. They identify and fight disease outbreaks, provide vital health services, and prepare communities for future health threats. More than two million community health workers are on the front lines in countries where the Global Fund invests.
To recover from yet another wave of COVID-19 and its devastating impact on AIDS, TB and malaria, and to strengthen systems to build a healthier and pandemic-proof world, Canada must invest a billion dollars in the Global Fund.
Randy Rudolph, Calgary, Publication date: September 26, 2022, The Hill Times
See more published volunteer LTEs.
See all our resources to help you write your LTE, along with key dates, hashtags, tags and keywords found on our call-to-action page.
Use your voice on social media to tell International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen that you care about global issues, and Canada stepping up to end extreme poverty worldwide. By investing in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, investing in nutrition at the Nutrition for Growth Summit, and by centring education at the upcoming G7 Summit, Canada will help educate, immunize, and nourish millions worldwide.
Tweet instantly (click below)
W/ the US taking a step back, millions of lives depend on it. #cdnpoli #TogetherWeLead @ResultsCda
Instagram/Facebook/LinkedIn post (copy and paste into your social media)
Canadian global leadership and voice on the world stage is needed now more than ever to respond to global challenges and help create a better, more equitable world for all.
I urge Minister Ahmed Hussen to ensure Canada::
👉 invests $720M+ in @gavi
👉 pledges $750M for nutrition at #NutritionForGrowth
👉 centres education as #G7 president
With the US taking a step back, millions of lives depend on it.
#cdnpoli #TogetherWeLead @ResultsCda
