Canadian International Assistance Spending

$61 Billion across 265 Countries & 6,600+ Recipients — 2015 to 2023

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Total Spending
Fiscal Years
Spending Destinations
Recipient Orgs
Bilateral
Multilateral

Total Spending by Year

Top 15 Spending Destinations

Bilateral vs Multilateral

Top 15 Recipient Organizations

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Year Spending Destination Continent Recipient Org Sector / Purpose Amount ($) Channel Focus Areas

About This Data

This dashboard presents 8 fiscal years (2015–2016 through 2022–2023) of Canadian international assistance spending, compiled from the Historical Project Data Sets (HPDS) published by Global Affairs Canada.

Bilateral spending represents direct funding from Canada to a specific country, project, or organization. The money trail is fully traceable.

Multilateral spending represents Canada’s estimated share of how multilateral organizations (UN agencies, World Bank, etc.) allocated their funds. These are imputed allocations based on how those organizations report their own country-level spending — not direct Canadian payments to those countries.

Focus area markers use the OECD-DAC scoring system: 0 = not targeted, 1 = significant objective, 2 = principal objective. The filters show projects scored 1 or 2.

Where the trail goes cold: A small percentage of multilateral contributions (roughly 5%) remain “Not specified” — meaning Canada sent funds to a multilateral organization but the final country destination cannot be determined from any published data.

Refugee spending in Canada: Approximately $6.4 billion over 8 years is classified as “international assistance” but was actually spent inside Canada on refugee resettlement — housing, healthcare, and settlement services. Under OECD rules, the first year of domestic refugee costs counts as foreign aid. These rows are labeled “Canada (domestic)” so you can see exactly how much of the international assistance budget stayed home.

Source: Global Affairs Canada — Historical Project Data Sets

Disclaimer: This is a personal project and is not affiliated with the Government of Canada. Data has been processed from original HPDS files for searchability. Multilateral country allocations are estimates, not direct payments. Always refer to the Government of Canada Open Data portal for official records.

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