Thank you all so much for giving this issue your time and deliberation.
First, I will introduce Islamic Relief. Islamic Relief has become the largest Muslim faith-based NGO in Canada. When I came in 2010, Islamic Relief was raising roughly $900,000 a year from Canadians. This year, despite the COVID pandemic, Islamic Relief has raised over $50 million in cash from Canadian donors.
That money is predominantly spent to help some of the most vulnerable communities in some of the most failed states in the world, places such as Somalia and northern Syria, places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and central and sub-Saharan Africa. Our projects are primarily helping in areas of humanitarian crises. That means people who are in an emergency situation and who need aid.
The evidence I'm going to share is based on our experience with some of those most vulnerable people and some of the challenges where, from a development perspective and from a humanitarian perspective, we could really support with the work we're doing and could really affect people in a more positive way.
The first thing I will say is that Canada has a really good reputation globally. Everywhere we go, people are really impressed and really happy to see the Canadian flag. There's a general good feeling about Canada. Our values as Canadians are known by people. Unfortunately, we made a commitment as Canadians to give 0.7% of our GDP to the world's poorest people, and currently, we're sitting at roughly 0.27%. We haven't really ever met the commitment we initially made to meet 0.7% of our GDP.
What that means is that some of the problems we're seeing globally, especially the refugee crisis, are exacerbated. I've been all over the world. I have met refugees first-hand, and I have yet to meet a single refugee whose main ambition or main desire is not to go back home, to stay home. They never wanted to leave their homes. Nobody ever wants to be forced out from where they live and where they're coming from. Unfortunately, a lack of support means that many of these people are forced into migration camps, forced into refugee camps, forced to cross the channel now from France to England, forced to cross the different treacherous seas and put their lives at risk.
Therefore, it's really important that we consider the 0.7% that we have committed to. This is not lobbying to make a commitment; this is a commitment we have already made, and we try as best we can to meet that commitment.
More aid is actually good aid, and Canadian organizations are well placed to deliver that aid. As a member of the Humanitarian Coalition, Islamic Relief serves with 12 of the best and most respected Canadian organizations in Canada. We work together and collectively to remove the confusion around whom to give to in a time of crisis when all these people are asking for whatever it is.
We came together and we committed to reducing the noise in a humanitarian crisis, saying, look, all these organizations you know, which you give to for child welfare projects, which you give to for these types of projects, are coming together under one banner and working together to support the most vulnerable people on the ground. Canadian organizations are well placed to do this.
All across the globe, there are Canadian humanitarian workers working day and night, risking their lives, running into the fire when others are running out. You have exemplary organizations such as Oxfam, World Vision, Plan International, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and others that are part of this coalition moving forward, but we find sometimes that the commitments made from an international development perspective are made and given to unilateral agencies, UN agencies.
Here's the real kicker from our perspective: We have a high burden of showing our direction and control. That same burden does not apply to these multilateral agencies such as the UN agencies.
I will end my comments there.