May 2025
An increasingly gloomy global outlook is by no means unique to Canadians at this particular moment, but recent data from the Development Engagement Lab suggests that despite a strong sense of moral responsibility among the Canadian public to reduce global poverty, we see dwindling faith in the effectiveness of overseas aid – namely when delivered by the government and NGOs.
The paradox of a strong public belief in the morality of aid and a cynical outlook on the institutions that deliver it isn’t a new phenomenon; it could be said that Canada is simply catching up with more skeptical donor publics, namely in Great Britain and Germany. But based on new data, there may be something crucial to learn from a country at an earlier stage in the trend. Namely, that faltering of faith in institutions in general, but specifically in those working on development cooperation, could be the result of a perfect storm: Overwhelmingly negative news coverage, crisis fatigue and efforts to communicate the impacts of development cooperation not landing as well as NGOs think or want. All that said, there is evidence to support that the key to reversing the trend likely lies in the public’s enduring moral belief in the power of aid.
As is pretty apparent everywhere, a gloomy global outlook seems in lockstep with a perceived barrage of negativity in the public discourse. Combined with the public’s feeling that what gets covered by the media ignores or fails to reflect public concern, it makes sense, then, that the long-term side effects of a doom-filled discourse is a sense of hopelessness:
And by extension, it stands to reason that news feeds dominated by crises – ostensibly seen as stories of global cooperation’s failures – could inspire a dim view of those institutions set up to prevent crises. In turn, those institutions’ appeals and promises to deliver fall on skeptical ears.
Yet Canadians still believe in aid
And yet, this is despite Canadians’ strong and persistent belief that ‘giving overseas aid is the right thing to do’ (73%) and comparatively high public concern about global poverty (57%). Why, then, doesn’t a moral belief in aid translate to greater faith in aid’s effectiveness (and faith in aid-delivering institutions)?
In Great Britain, much of the same skepticism has been attributed to a politicised, aid-critical national media landscape, where publications like the Daily Mail are known for cherry-picking aid programmes to undermine the public’s confidence in aid spending, despite aid’s strong track record for effectiveness and value for money. But the data from Canada suggests that faltering trust and a diminishing sense of agency is likely a wider trend, hastened in Great Britain’s case by bad press.
What could reverse the spiral? In Canada, specifically, we still see a larger-than-average willingness among the public to give aid. This is holding steady at 45% of the public after a slide from 54% between 2023-2024.
This suggests an enduring, likely morally-rooted belief in the need for aid, and offers a promising framework for using communications to correct and bolster the public’s belief in aid institutions’ ability to make a difference.
But can it really be up to NGO and government communicators to repair the damage from an overwhelmingly negative media discourse, as well as decades of seemingly endless appeals for help? Evidence suggests that integrating ‘progress comms’ into existing appeals, as well as follow-on check-ins to show results, can go a long way to increasing the public’s sense that they can make a difference. It’s unclear yet what long-term impact these strategies will have on trust in institutions, but it’s clear that beginning with connecting impact to individual agency is the most promising route.
This extends beyond Canada: Across all countries surveyed, messages like ‘Helping people in need is the right thing to do’ (65%-74% support across Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany and the United States), ‘Every person in the world should be treated equally,’ (67%-70% support) and ‘I would feel very guilty if I ignored the needs of poor people in poor countries’ (59%-66% support) are all excellent foundational frames for communications that seek to shift toward progress and success-oriented public engagement.
For more public opinion-based insights that both shore up aid support and work against current anti-aid trends, see this recent OECD-DEL collaboration.
