Our commitment - Canada’s 10-Year Commitment to Global Health and Rights

Priorities

The commitment will help women and girls access health and nutrition services and secure their rights. At least $700 million of the funding will focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) set to begin in the 2023-2024. We will help the poorest and most vulnerable, including those living in fragile and conflict-affected states.

The Action Area Policy for Human Dignity - Health and Nutrition, under the Feminist International Assistance Policy, guides the actions we will take. The Action Area follows three paths:

1. Improve the quality and accessibility of health services;
2. Increase access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights;
3. Improve gender-sensitive nutrition.

Funding will support:

• tackling deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and polio;
• providing nutritious food and essential vitamins and minerals;
• strengthening health systems;
• reproductive health services;
• comprehensive sexuality education;
• family planning and contraceptives;
• safe and legal abortion and post-abortion care;
• preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence (including child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation and cutting), and;
• advocacy activities for SRHR.

Some of these issues receive less international support than they should, and Canada will make a specific effort to advance progress in the neglected areas of SRHR.

Implementation through key initiatives

We will implement this commitment through all types of Canada’s development assistance partners. This includes working with:

• Canadian organizations;
• multilateral and global institutions;
• developing country governments;
• local in-country partners;
• the private sector.

Canada collaborates closely with ministries of health in developing countries and with other donors. This coordinated support helps to strengthen health systems, and increases aid effectiveness.

The Call for Proposals to Canadian partners on the “Health and Rights for Women, Adolescent Girls and Children” is an important initiative within this commitment. This Call leverages Canadian expertise and supports projects that improve integrated health services and information, including a focus on SRHR.

Canada will also work through major global organizations to deliver health results. For example, Canada's support to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, works to prevent and treat these three diseases and has saved over 32 million lives since 2002. Canada pledged $930.4 million to the Global Fund for 2020 to 2022.

COVID-19

Canada is committed to a robust, comprehensive, global effort to stop COVID-19 and address its devastating health, social, and economic impacts on people in developing countries. Global health and strong health systems are more important than ever.

Canada is part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator. This ensures that people worldwide have equal and affordable access to COVID-19 health products such as:

• vaccines;
• tests for diagnosing the disease;
• treatments, therapies and drugs (therapeutics).

Canada’s pandemic response also includes continued support for critical areas of health including:

• food security;
• nutrition initiatives;
• health and global health security;
• sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Building on Canada’s leadership in health and rights

This commitment builds on Canada's focus on health within its international assistance. In March 2020, Canada fulfilled three commitments representing more than a decade of leadership in global health and rights:

• $2.85 billion from 2010-2011 to 2014-2015 to Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (Muskoka);
• $3.5 billion from 2015-2016 to 2020-2021 to the renewed Maternal, Newborn and Child Health;
• $650 million from 2017-2018 to 2020-2021 for SRHR (Her Voice, Her Choice).

The hundreds of projects funded under these commitments saved lives and helped make a difference for millions of women, adolescents and children around the world.