While civil society and international cooperation face existential challenges, organizers of the Cooperation Canada Leaders’ Forum see an opportunity to revive hope through unity, solidarity, and collective action in resisting authoritarianism and advancing human rights.
As the world undergoes profound transformation due to rising instability across regions, the 2025 Cooperation Canada Leaders’ Forum will take place October 29 and 30 in Ottawa.
The forum brings together prominent leaders and changemakers to discuss the future of Canada’s role in international cooperation and to develop new strategies for global engagement. This year’s event comes at a critical and urgent time: in recent years, the world has witnessed wars, political upheavals, armed conflicts, and geopolitical tensions, alongside pandemics and the escalating climate crisis.
The crisis of shrinking funding for civil society organizations is expected to dominate discussions at the forum. Participants seek flexible and bold solutions to overcome current challenges in global cooperation that go far beyond financial constraints.
On January 20, 2025, the first day of Donald Trump’s presidency, he signed an executive order to “reevaluate and realign United States foreign aid.” Four days later, the State Department issued a stop-work directive that halted many existing aid programs. The Trump administration terminated more than 90% of USAID (the US Agency for International Development) programs and thousands of State Department foreign assistance programs.
A recent Lancet study projects that sustained cuts in aid funding combined with the dismantling of USAID could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, including 4.5 million children under the age of five.
Is this an opportunity for new partnerships and a deep transformation of a system that needed to change?
Kate Higgins, Cooperation Canada
Kate Higgins, CEO of Cooperation Canada, says that “the way that President Trump so abruptly and so quickly dismantled USAID was really problematic and had very real implications for people’s lives.” Although Cooperation Canada receives no US funding, it includes more than 100 Canadian non-governmental organizations working in international development, human rights, and humanitarian fields; many of these organizations have been affected by funding reductions. Higgins believes this has affected service delivery, but more significantly, it’s had an impact on human rights and democracy work. “Is this an opportunity for new partnerships and a deep transformation of a system that needed to change?”
While these upheavals have intensified humanitarian needs, they have also triggered rapid shifts in countries’ priorities and political agendas, placing unprecedented pressure on the international cooperation ecosystem and raising some key questions: Is global cooperation and the broader field of international development and humanitarian work under threat? Or could this be a moment for bold collective action, innovative responses, and renewed partnerships? Could this period of uncertainty in the global humanitarian and philanthropic sector become a turning point for Canada to expand its influence and play a larger role in shaping global development?
Global cooperation under siege
Maiwand Rahyab, founder and CEO of Resilient Societies, a Canadian organization focused on democracy, human rights, and civic space, says that “democracy is under attack around the world.” Countries that once strongly supported the promotion of democracy are now pulling back, and “support for democracy programs is shrinking,” he says. “Civic space is under pressure or closing in many countries around the world.”
Rahyab sees this year’s forum as an opportunity for the international development sector to deepen its understanding of global dynamics and to build a shared awareness of what’s happening to international cooperation.
Civic space is under pressure or closing in many countries around the world.
Maiwand Rahyab, Resilient Societies
Béatrice Vaugrante, executive director of Oxfam-Québec, highlights the urgency of understanding new geopolitical dynamics. Civil society wants to see human rights return to the global agenda, but, she says, “the ones in power don’t care about the respect of international frameworks or human rights or institutions . . . How do we take back power? How can we in the [Global] North really help the people to gain back power?”
Higgins notes that international cooperation is facing severe consequences, including a breakdown of the rules-based global order. “Gaza is a perfect example,” she says, where international norms we relied upon are being dismantled. The current global climate is forcing reflection on the rise of anti-rights, anti-democratic, and authoritarian forces. It’s as though “we’re holding two truths,” she says. “On one hand, the system is in need of transformation; on the other hand, there are aspects of the system or of Canadian global engagement that we actually want to continue to push for and defend.”
Funding cuts threaten civil society
Many NGOs and international aid groups have had to close operations, lay off staff, or suspend services, which negatively affected people in vulnerable countries. Millions have lost access to essential services such as healthcare, education, nutrition, as well as legal assistance and shelters for refugees and displaced people.
These abrupt funding cuts create significant funding gaps for civil society organizations. Democracy-support programs in vulnerable countries may lose their impact, which could undermine global democratic progress by strengthening authoritarian influence, fostering corruption, increasing human rights violations and impunity, and limiting organizations’ ability to monitor and document violations effectively.
Arguably, this moment could be an opportunity for Canada to demonstrate its role as a major and influential actor in international cooperation and promoting democracy and human rights worldwide.
Vaugrante urges the Canadian government, “Do not cut funding, and do not forget people on your government agenda.” She believes this is the worst possible time to pull back, as it would make things much worse. She also calls for greater inclusion of civil society in policymaking to ensure more effective planning, where NGOs can be part of the solutions.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Canada’s total official development assistance (ODA) rose to US$8.1 billion in 2023, 0.38% of gross national income (GNI), but fell to US$7.4 billion in 2024 (0.34% of GNI). Both figures remain well below the UN General Assembly’s 1970 target for advanced economies to allocate 0.7% of GNI to ODA.
Canada’s role in a changing world
On September 11, Prime Minister Mark Carney declared that “what is happening in the global economy is not a transition. It is a rupture,” adding that Canada cannot control what other nations do.
On October 22, Carney said he had met with party leaders to discuss “Canada’s new economic plan” ahead of the 2025 federal budget on November 4. He emphasized that Canada has faced a trade war and economic upheaval and that Canadians should be ready for some “challenges” and “sacrifices.” On the same day, Cooperation Canada urged Canada to stand firm on global leadership, avoid cuts to foreign aid, and sustain international humanitarian assistance at a minimum of US$800 million annually. “Canada’s global engagement is not optional – it’s essential.”
Rahyab views the 2025 Cooperation Canada forum as a chance to strengthen Canada’s global leadership. As civic space contracts and democracy and human rights come under siege, he argues that Canada as a country that values democracy, rights, and pluralism can play a greater role. Canada has the credibility, moral authority, and expertise to make a meaningful impact in promoting democracy and civic space. “The Canadian government must do more, invest more in supporting global democracy-support programs, and particularly through investing in the Canadian institutions that are involved in that space,” he says.
Higgins agrees that Canada can demonstrate strong leadership on civil society, human rights, global health, women’s rights, and sexual and reproductive rights, but “the world cannot expect Canada to fill the whole gap.”
Geopolitical tensions have a direct impact on the global economy and international trade; the consequences extend far beyond the theatre of conflict. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the war in Gaza, and tensions in the Red Sea are the most striking examples in recent years. These developments underscore the need for a new global economic and security agenda, as security and the economy cannot be disentangled.
Vaugrante argues that international aid should be integrated into the new global economic and security agenda, which governments increasingly prioritize. Civil society, she argues, can play a positive role here: “My plea is how do we gain back power with the economy and the security that we want. Everybody wants an economy, but an economy for everyone. Everybody wants security, but a security not with bombs, a security that makes sure that you are safe at home for everyone.”
How can we transit to a less colonized international aid, and make sure that we are part of the solutions and not the gatekeepers of a system that is anyway collapsing?
Béatrice Vaugrante, Oxfam-Québec
She also highlights Canada’s potential to contribute positively to reforming the global economic system, particularly through partnerships in the Global South and Africa, which offer open markets for local development. With more than 100 member organizations, Cooperation Canada can demonstrate that international aid remains a key player in shaping a fairer economic and security agenda: “Definitely in a decolonized way, so with the strong voice of the local partners.”
However, trust between local and Global North partners has eroded following sudden funding cuts. “We will no longer depend on the North,” local partners have told Vaugrante. “But the money is in the North,” Vaugrante says. “So how can we transit as well to a less colonized international aid, and make sure that we are part of the solutions and not the gatekeepers of a system that is anyway collapsing?”
She adds that civil society must unite to make its voice heard: “We need to make sure that we work on security with people in the Global South.”
Barriers limiting global cooperation
When people lose trust in international humanitarian and human rights law, a real crisis emerges. Vaugrante emphasizes that we must find ways to rebuild that trust. She notes that international humanitarian law is not abstract; it saves lives. “We can no longer have these ‘cafeteria plans,’” she says – that is, choosing to focus on specific countries and issues while disregarding others. She offers some examples: “I’ll do something for Ukraine, but sorry, Gaza, stay there. Or I’ll do something for other places, but Saudi Arabia, you can do whatever you want. These double agendas, people see it.”
Trump began his foreign visits to the Middle East, in both his first and current terms, with visits to Saudi Arabia. This is despite the kingdom’s record of unfair trials, widespread use of the death penalty, suppression of dissent, and the targeting of journalists, activists, and dissidents inside the country and abroad. The kingdom’s ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is the chairman of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which, critics claim, has facilitated and benefited from rights violations. PIF’s investments in prominent sporting and entertainment events, they say, are used to cover up the country’s dismal human rights record.
Vaugrante’s point about double agendas highlights a broader problem. A lack of accountability and selective engagement undermine civil society organizations facing massive crises and erode public trust in them. Rahyab adds that civil society faces not only reduced funding but also shrinking legal, political, and regulatory space with grave consequences for its work.
Limited resources, which fuels unhealthy competition among organizations and a race for funding, presents another challenge. Rather than prioritizing coordination and collaborative approaches, many organizations focus on securing their own financial survival.
This competitive culture is sometimes killing us, while others win. I think it’s about time we really collaborate much more.
Béatrice Vaugrante
Vaugrante believes the most urgent need now is collaboration. “We are so many and we sometimes do similar things,” she says. “This competitive culture is sometimes killing us, while others win. I think it’s about time we really collaborate much more.”
Complex donor-imposed monitoring and evaluation requirements pose another challenge for organizations, particularly smaller ones, with limited resources and local partners. Vaugrante calls for greater flexibility and creativity from governments in project funding. Local partners, she notes, are overwhelmed by excessive reporting requirements: “Don’t ask me for a report of 10 pages of that organization. They have other things to do than just writing you back a report every six months. We need flexibility and trust. We can’t have long-term impact on international development aid if we don’t support local civil society and local civic space.”
Hope and the positive role of global cooperation
The situation is not entirely bleak. Civil society and international cooperation face existential challenges, especially when governments that have long supported democracy and global cooperation turn hostile toward organizations. Yet this moment may offer an opportunity to revive hope through unity, solidarity, and collective action in resisting authoritarianism and advancing human rights.
Higgins finds hope in young people and colleagues around the world who, despite the global backlash against rights and democracy, still believe in collaboration and partnership as tools for a better world. They understand that today’s threats and risks are global and transnational and that humanity must find ways to cooperate.
Vaugrante agrees that new approaches to working together must be explored. “So many [crises] are happening at the same time,” she says. “Civil space is collapsing; autocracy, technology, and climate change are affecting very much the sector.”
This is the moment for Canada to act swiftly, respond to needs, and assume global leadership in protecting civic space, democracy, and human rights.
Maiwand Rahyab
Rahyab expresses gratitude for Cooperation Canada in helping his organization grow. He emphasizes the importance of creating spaces where everyone feels seen, heard, and genuinely included in dialogue. “The whole purpose of this forum is that all the views have a space for expression, and people will listen and discuss next steps,” he says. “It’s healthy to have divergent and different views. It’s the space also to see how we can work together despite our potential difference.”
He adds that now is the time for the Canadian government to become more flexible, responsive, and innovative given the sector’s global challenges. “This is the moment for Canada to act swiftly, respond to needs, and assume global leadership in protecting civic space, democracy, and human rights. It’s Canada’s opportunity to rise to the occasion.”
