The federal government released Budget 2021 yesterday. While there was some investment in international assistance, the Budget falls short in responding to the urgent need of the world's most vulnerable. $375 Million was pledged for international COVID response (part of a $1.4 billion increase in international assistance, spread over five years). We contrast this with the Government’s commitments for 2020-21, which were about $1.2 billion. Budget 2021 investments do not reflect or respond to the dire humanitarian needs around the globe. Two components of international assistance funding, not mentioned in Budget 2021, are global education and international climate finance. We are cautiously optimistic that additional announcements regarding funding commitments for these two GRAN priorities will be made in the near future.
You can read the budget response released by Cooperation Canada by clicking here. If you are on social media, please re-tweet the statement from Cooperation Canada as well as tweets from GRAN.
