Policy Markers & Thematic Focus
What issues and priorities does the sector focus on? The charts below show how Canadian international cooperation organizations allocate funding across major development themes, as measured through Global Affairs Canada project data. Use the filters to explore specific themes and sectors.
Themes are based on Global Affairs Canada project classifications and may overlap across projects. Sectoral and thematic data come from GAC project records only and may not reflect an organization's full programming — see Methodology › Sectoral and thematic markers.
Data gap: The RMNCH (reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health) and Nutrition markers are only published by Global Affairs Canada starting in fiscal year 2017/18. For 2015 and 2016, these two markers will appear as zero in the charts below — this reflects a source-data gap, not the absence of programming.
Humanitarian vs. Development Funding
Canadian international cooperation funding is divided between long-term development programming and humanitarian assistance. The chart below shows how this balance has changed over time.
What makes an activity «humanitarian» in ATLAS? The classification is derived from the activity’s DAC sector code (Emergency Response, Reconstruction, or Disaster Prevention), not from GAC’s own humanitarian flag — learn more in Methodology › Humanitarian vs development.
Some Canadian assistance is not directed at a single recipient country — it supports regional or multi-country programming, global initiatives, or activities whose recipient country is not specified in the source data. Because none of these maps to one country, they cannot be assigned to a World Bank country income group. They are grouped in the income-group chart below under a single Regional category (the large majority being regional and multi-country programming), so the figures stay complete. This is especially relevant for humanitarian response, much of which is delivered across a region rather than to a single country.
Note: The vertical scale has been adjusted so smaller values remain visible alongside much larger ones. As a result, differences between bars may appear smaller than they actually are. Country income groups follow World Bank classification: Least Developed Countries, Lower-Middle-Income Countries, Upper-Middle-Income Countries, Other Low-Income Countries.
Thematic allocations
Gender equality is the sector’s largest thematic priority, reflecting Canada’s long-standing focus on women’s empowerment and inclusion. Health programming, particularly reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health, is the second largest area of investment, followed by food security and climate adaptation. Other themes include child protection, biodiversity, disability inclusion, and Indigenous issues. Climate mitigation receives a comparatively smaller share of funding.
Why one theme at a time: thematic markers overlap — a single project can carry several markers at once (for example gender equality and climate adaptation). Adding markers together would therefore count the same dollars more than once, which is why this chart does not offer a side-by-side marker comparison. Use the Marker selector to switch between thematic priorities — learn more in Methodology › Sectoral and thematic markers.
Funding by Sector
In 2023, the largest sectors included reproductive health, education, women’s rights and empowerment, health, and emergency response. The table below shows the current distribution of funding across sectors, while the trend chart tracks how priorities have changed over time.
Changes in total funding can sometimes reflect changes in the number of organizations active in a sector, not just changes in funding levels. The chart below shows the same data on a per-organization basis to provide a more comparable view over time — see Methodology › Per-organization averages.