By Apna News
OTTAWA - Canada has renewed $6 million over three years in institutional support for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Secretary of State (International Development) Randeep Sarai announced November 3, 2026, during a visit to Ottawa by the United Nations humanitarian chief.
Sarai, who is also the member of Parliament for Surrey Centre, welcomed Tom Fletcher, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, to Ottawa. The two discussed rising humanitarian needs, declining respect for international humanitarian law, growing financial pressures on the humanitarian system, and opportunities to strengthen coordinated responses.
In 2025, OCHA helped humanitarian partners collectively reach nearly 98 million people through coordinated responses. The renewed funding will help OCHA ensure people affected by conflict, disasters and displacement can access timely and effective humanitarian assistance.
Canada is preparing to chair the OCHA Donor Support Group, and Sarai highlighted Canada’s commitment to supporting reform of the humanitarian system. Fletcher said Canada has provided US$430 million so far this year towards helping people at the highest levels of humanitarian need, and thanked Canada for renewed multi-year support to coordinate more aid to more people, faster.
“Canada is a long-standing partner of OCHA, and its leadership is more important than ever as humanitarian needs grow,” said Sarai. “Tom Fletcher and I discussed how we can continue strengthening the humanitarian system, which is depended on by millions of people affected by crisis.”
For Surrey, the announcement carries a local name and a global reach. Many Surrey families have loved ones in conflict-affected and disaster-affected regions, and follow humanitarian funding not as abstract foreign policy but as help that may reach their own relatives and communities. The $6 million renewal is institutional support for coordination itself, distinct from direct country aid, and it arrives as Canada prepares to chair the donor group that oversees that coordination.
(Source: Global Affairs Canada, November 3, 2026)
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