Canada’s humanitarian assistance matters
In 2020, a brutal war erupted in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Hundreds of thousands of people are thought to have been killed. Others fled in search of safety, including several thousand who reached the Um Rakuba refugee camp in neighbouring Sudan.
Life in refugee camps is difficult. Those who have been displaced are cut off from everything they once had — incomes, homes, support networks, lifelines. At the height of the Tigray conflict, around 35 national and international organizations had set up operations in and around the camp. Refugees arriving in Um Rakuba could find some of the crucial services they needed to survive, including shelter, food and medical care.
Humanitarian assistance for urgent needs
Humanitarian assistance is about emergency response. It provides immediate, essential care to mitigate acute human suffering. It is a very specific aspect of foreign aid, which is a much larger category that includes everything from building schools to military spending. Humanitarian assistance, however, is concerned primarily with addressing the most urgent needs that people face when crisis strikes.
But right now, at a time when conflicts and crises are rising, humanitarian assistance is in freefall.
The number of organizations in Um Rakuba today is less than 10, not because the needs have reduced—they have gone up—but because there is simply less assistance available.
Unprecedented global cuts to humanitarian aid
Recent large-scale global cuts to humanitarian assistance budgets have decimated services. Refugees who once received 14 kilograms of food per month in Um Rakuba now receive four, sometimes less. Water and sanitation needs are going unmet, increasing the risk of disease transmission. People facing violence have fewer options for protection and safety.
And it’s not just Sudan. From Myanmar to the Democratic Republic of Congo, from Gaza to Haiti — conflict, disease, disasters and exclusion are pushing millions of people to the brink. And yet the world’s willingness to help them seems to be evaporating.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that 239 million people require humanitarian assistance in 2026. But as governments reduce their humanitarian budgets, many of those most immediate needs will likely go unmet. According to OCHA, in 2024 just over half the funding required for global coordinated humanitarian response plans was reached. In 2025, as cuts to humanitarian assistance accelerated, that dropped to less than 36 per cent. In 2026, the situation is growing even worse.
How did this happen? In 2025, the administration of US president Donald Trump openly dismantled America’s foreign aid infrastructure and significantly cut humanitarian funding. Those decisions made global headlines but were not unique. With less fanfare, other traditional donor governments such as Britain and Germany have been making cuts of their own.
As a result, the world’s most vulnerable people are now more so. Without funding for humanitarian assistance, more people will find themselves abandoned to crises they themselves had no part in making. They will struggle to find food, clean water, safety and medical care.
Increasingly alone in crisis zones
At Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), we’re witnessing the impact of these cuts first-hand. We deliver emergency humanitarian medical assistance in more than 70 countries, responding to acute crises and providing care directly to people affected by conflict, disaster, disease and exclusion from healthcare.
In Um Rakuba, we are the only provider of secondary healthcare, and we provide comprehensive health services for survivors of sexual violence. In countless other humanitarian contexts, we perform surgeries, provide safe deliveries, treat children with acute malnutrition and nurse millions of crisis-affected women, children, men and babies back to health.
Unlike other organizations, MSF does not rely on government funding, so cuts to humanitarian assistance budgets do not always impact us directly. But we are increasingly alone, unable to fill the gaps left by other specialized organizations that have lost the funding they need to distribute food, provide shelter or offer protection to people targeted by violence and abuse. MSF’s independence often allows us to deliver care where other organizations cannot reach. That used to be extremely remote or conflict-affected areas; now it is everywhere.
Canada can uphold its values and lead by example
Canadians have rightly prided themselves on taking a principled and committed approach to humanitarian assistance, even when others have failed to do so. It is crucial that Canada remains committed to these principles and increases its response to humanitarian needs when others are turning away.
Canada’s next federal budget—which will be released in November—must restore humanitarian assistance funding to at least its previous high point of $1.3 billion, reached in 2022–23. That may seem like a lot at a time of global upheaval, when Canada is facing economic uncertainty. But it represents less than 0.3% of the $486.9 billion estimated by the federal government for its total budgetary spending for 2025–26. It is also an investment in the very systems intended to mitigate the human impact of such upheaval in the first place.
Canada can demonstrate to the rest of the world that emergency humanitarian assistance isn’t a feel-good option that can be cut when times are hard, but an obligation based on principles and values that must be upheld.
Tell your MP that humanitarian assistance matters
We are inviting Canadians to tell their elected representatives that now is the time for more global action, not less. Canada must show courage and not follow the global retreat away from providing humanitarian assistance but instead stand to support those whose lives are at risk.
If you agree, use the button below to tell your Member of Parliament that Canada must increase its humanitarian assistance to at least $1.3 billion in the next federal budget in November 2026.
Whether in the Um Rakuba refugee camp in Sudan, or in Haiti, DRC, Bangladesh or wherever else humanitarian needs are greatest, we will continue to stand with all people affected by crisis.
Will you?
