Global Affairs Canada has signed a contribution agreement worth up to $5 million with the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children's Health (CanWaCH), the same coalition that co-led a November 2025 joint statement against the Carney government's foreign aid cuts.

The latest agreement covers a five-part project of conferences, working groups, guidance documents, training and "raising awareness among Canadians about global health issues."

The agreement, listed under the recipient's legal name, "Canadian Network for Maternal Newborn and Child Health", at a Peterborough, Ontario address, has a start date of July 2 and runs to September 30, 2030. It sits unreported in the department's proactive disclosure of grants and contributions on open.canada.ca, and the record gives no breakdown of the $5 million.

The record simply states: "This project seeks to increase the effectiveness of global health programming, including sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) programming."

The fifth listed activity is "raising awareness among Canadians about global health issues through communications, public engagement and knowledge-sharing activities."

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The record says the project "is expected to benefit more than 110 Canadian organizations that are members of CanWaCH". CanWaCH describes itself as a virtual coalition of more than 100 NGOs (non-governmental organizations), civil society groups, academic institutions, health associations and private companies. An earlier Global Affairs agreement with the same recipient was worth $14.4 million, for a period spanning 2016 to June 2021.

The agreement follows Budget 2025, which reduced international assistance. A joint statement published by Cooperation Canada on November 4, 2025, led by Cooperation Canada and CanWaCH, said the government had chosen to "reduce Canada's international assistance by $2.7 billion over four years."

In February the Canadian Press reported that aid groups, including CanWaCH chief executive Caitlin Goggin, urged Ottawa to maintain funding for abortion and LGBTQ+ advocacy abroad, and that Prime Minister Mark Carney "has said Canada is standing up for gender equality but no longer has a feminist foreign policy."

The department is headed by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, with Randeep Sarai as Secretary of State for International Development; both were named by Carney on May 13, 2025. The record does not say who approved the agreement.

CanWaCH helped condemn the Carney government's $2.7-billion aid cuts. Eight months later, Global Affairs Canada handed the coalition another $5 million.