Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD)

The Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF) supports applied research projects that address food security challenges in the developing world. It is jointly funded, coordinated, and implemented in collaboration with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and uses the combined expertise of both organizations to maximize the impact of the projects funded. Through investments in applied research, the CIFSRF contributes to the development of more productive, sustainable, and gender-sensitive agricultural techniques for women subsistence farmers, with the ultimate goal of making food sources more secure and accessible, and the food produced more nutritious, for poor households. Women and girls are particularly targeted by this project since they face the heaviest burden of chronic hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. The objectives of the CIFSRF are: (1) to increase food security in developing countries by funding applied research in agricultural development and nutrition; (2) to apply Canadian science and technology expertise in collaboration with developing country partners to address food security; (3) to use research results to inform food security policies and programs; and (4) to identify innovations and scale up the most promising research from both Phase I and Phase II of the Fund to help meet future global food demand. Phase II focuses geographically on the 20 countries already targeted under Phase I as well as all other official development assistance-eligible countries in Africa. Project activities for phase II include: (1) developing farming methods that can better withstand the effects of climate change; (2) developing environmentally sustainable gender-sensitive, farmer-led research models for breeding and distribution of new crops or underutilized traditional crops and consumption of sufficient, safe and nutritious food; (3) improving family-based aquaculture; (4) decreasing domestic animal losses through development of vaccines; and (5) reducing post-harvest losses through adaptable and affordable technologies. Partnership is an important aspect of the CIFSRF and all the research projects funded are jointly conducted by Canadian and developing country-based organizations, such as academic institutions, private sector organizations, civil society organizations, or research institutions. These partnerships harness Canada's expertise in agriculture and nutritional science and combine it with first-hand knowledge and expertise in developing countries, to maximize the benefit for development activities.

This project seeks to strengthen radiological security in the Indo-Pacific. It supports activities aimed at strengthening physical protection measures at facilities housing high-activity radiological material. Project activities include: (1) enhancing physical security measures at 2 industrial sterilization facilities in Malaysia; and (2) providing capacity building courses in site response, physical security management, security culture, and radiological source security inspection to Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, and Indonesia.

This project aims to prevent and counter revenues from drug trafficking to tackle terrorism and related conducts. The initiative seeks to enhance the capacities of finance-mandated criminal justice agencies in targeted countries in South Asia, providing knowledge and skills and fostering regional cooperation and coordination. Project activities include: (1) conducting country-focused analysis and research on Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) and their link to financing of terrorism for each recipient country; (2) hosting a regional roundtable for government stakeholders in the recipient countries to share the information collected in the analyses; (3) delivering 2 training sessions for each country for criminal justice practitioners on IFFs and the link to terrorism financing; and (4) organizing a regional workshop on sharing best practices and lessons learned in the application of knowledge and skills gained through national training sessions.

This project aims to foster knowledge sharing by recruiting, training and retaining health providers to serve and advocate for Indigenous, rural and remote communities. The University of Calgary (UCalgary) and institutional collaborators in Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, and the Philippines take part through virtual meetings, model site visits, and a multi-day workshop or symposium hosted by Patan Academy of Health Sciences (PAHS) in Nepal. This year-long project seeks to strengthen relationships and professional networks. It also aims to create new opportunities for co-research and co-learning. These topics include gender-inclusive and anti-racist approaches, Indigenous knowledge, recruitment and retention of remote or Indigenous health provider, and climate impacts on vulnerable groups. The project also aims to plan a visit to UCalgary for 3 to 4 co-leads from PAHS Nepal, a model site visit in rural Nepal for up to 30 participants, and a workshop or symposium in Nepal.

With Canada's support, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) aims to enhance the meaningful participation of uniformed women in United Nations peace operations. UNITAR is working with Troop and Police Contributing Countries (T/PCCs) to ensure barriers to women's meaningful participation are identified and the recommendations implemented. Project activities include: (1) conducting analysis to identify individual T/PCC barriers and opportunities for uniformed women in peacekeeping operations, based on assessment results; (2) supporting institutional reform and developing gender-inclusive policies and practices; (3) conducting training and mentorship programs with a focus on leadership, specializing in mid-level management training for women officers; and (4) conducting awareness-raising activities, within each country, to highlight the importance of gender equality and the benefits of women’s participation in peacekeeping operations.

The Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) supports small projects proposed and implemented by local organizations in Bhutan, India and Nepal. The CFLI contributes to the overall goal of reducing poverty by providing funding for small projects that offer direct social, economic or technical assistance to local populations. The CFLI retains the same broad themes set out since 2016, which align closely with the 6 pillars of the Feminist International Assistance Policy. This allows flexibility to respond to and focus on themes relevant to local needs. The 6 thematic priorities include: (1) contributing to inclusive governance, including diversity and 2SLGBTQI+, democracy, human rights and the rule of law; (2) contributing to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; (3) contributing to peace and security, with a focus on conflict prevention and building peace; (4) contributing to growth that works for everyone, including women’s economic rights, decent jobs and entrepreneurship, investing in the poorest and most vulnerable, and safeguarding economic gains; (5) contributing to environment and climate action, focusing on adaptation, mitigation and water management; and (6) contributing to human dignity, covering health, education and nutrition.

The project supports Indigenous-led conservation in Guatemala, Panama, Tanzania, and Nepal. It is co-designed and co-led by the International Union on Conservation (IUCN), Indigenous leaders, and the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity. Project activities include: (1) building capacity for Indigenous leaders on biodiversity conservation; (2) contributing to National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs); (3) supporting Indigenous Peoples, particularly women and girls, participation in global biodiversity fora; (4) organizing events to raise awareness on Indigenous rights, natural resource management, and biodiversity conservation; (5) training on the use of cooking stoves and grazing plans; (6) organizing learning exchanges; and (7) establishing a working group to guide the design of an Indigenous direct financing mechanism. The initiative supports the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Article 8(j) via the integration of Indigenous knowledge. Indigenous partners executing the project include: Asociacion Sotz’il (Guatemala), Ujamaa Community Resource Team (Tanzania), and Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (Nepal). Additional partners include: (1) IUCN Indigenous Peoples Organization Members, (2) International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity, (3) Inclusive Conservation Initiative, (4) IUCN Protected and Conserved Areas Team-Act 30 initiative; and (5) IUCN National Offices.

The project aims to strengthen the climate resilience of Indigenous peoples in the Indo-Pacific through Indigenous-led climate action. Peer-to-peer learning between First Nations in Canada and abroad seeks to contribute to enhanced capacity to implement climate solutions for Indigenous peoples, in particular women and youth. The project equips Indigenous peoples to organize, strategize, and lead actions at the local, regional, and international levels that address climate change and biodiversity. Strengthened partnerships aim to increase the use of nature-based solutions. These solutions aim to benefit climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation. The project centers the self-determined priorities and needs of Indigenous peoples. The project aims to build on local partner Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact’s (AIPP) ongoing efforts to enhance knowledge-sharing and capacity-building among Indigenous peoples and their active participation in decision-making related to conservation and climate action. The project aligns with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples. Project activities include: (1) convening knowledge circles on indigenous knowledge systems and indigenous governance as climate and biodiversity solutions; (2) identifying guidelines and tools that enable indigenous communities to participate in and lead climate action; and (3) supporting peer-to-peer knowledge sharing workshops between First Nations women and youth and Indigenous women and youth from Thailand and Nepal to empower Indigenous women and promote their climate leadership.

This project funds the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to establish or strengthen national regulatory infrastructure for nuclear security and radiation safety in 28 countries in the Indo-Pacific region.

This project aims to improve equality and enjoyment of human rights among grassroots, Dalit, Indigenous, and religious minority women and girl’s rights holders living in poorest, most marginalized conditions in Nepal, Bangladesh and the Indo-Pacific. The project seeks to increase meaningful participation of an estimated 950 minority women living in poorest most marginalized conditions in public leadership, decision-making and democratic processes. It also aims to increase transparency and accountability in inclusive, gender-responsive public planning and service delivery for minority women and girls’ rights holders. This is done through training of an estimated 740 responsibility holders, 670 elected officials, 10 networks and 390 community based organizations and women’s rights organizations (CBO/WROs). Project activities include: (1) training existing and potential duty bearers on feminist leadership; (2) expanding capacities and connections between existing and potential women leaders; (3) conducting awareness and learning campaigns in support of women’s leadership with community stakeholders; (4) conducting intergenerational dialogues with political parties and leaders on women’s leadership potential; (5) facilitating workshops with local governments on power analysis, critical self-reflection and feminist leadership; (6) training women leaders, community based organizations, women’s rights organizations and networks on inclusive citizen-led accountability practices and advocacy; (7) training local media on investigative methods for promoting accountability; and (8) facilitating dialogues among minority women leaders, women’s rights organizations, civil society organizations, networks and local government institutions.

This project aims to improved equality and the quality of life for women, children, youth, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable people in 9 participating Indo-Pacific countries. This includes Fiji, Laos, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Vietnam. The project seeks to enhance effectiveness of performance audits by Indo-Pacific SAIs by increasing accountability and transparency in public services for vulnerable populations, especially women, children and youth. It also aims to increase gender responsiveness and inclusivity in the performance audit practices of these Indo-Pacific SAIs, primarily through delivery of the well-established Fellowship program to 16 Fellows (8 men and 8 women) for SAIs and training 578 performance auditors (306 men and 260 women). Audit topics are selected using a three-pronged approach that includes consulting with 16 CSOs and 9 media outlets with CSOs, considering gender, human rights, the environment and impacts of climate change. Project activities include: (1) providing professional development (courses, work experience and mentoring) on conducting performance audits consistent with international standards; (2) providing technical courses, mentoring and support on each phase of a performance audit; (3) mentoring audit teams on developing audit report executive summaries, briefing notes, and formulating questions for oversight committee hearings; (4) providing capacity strengthening to supreme audit institution on civil society organizations engagement; and (5) developing and delivering training on audit planning (risk, scoping and knowledge of business) focusing on gender and human rights within audit topics.

This project aims to improve equitable participation and representation of women and marginalized groups in the democratic space in Nepal and the Philippines. Project activities include: (1) establishing government-to-citizen platforms technical hubs; (2) creating a peer support program for women and youths; (3) supporting data and evidence-based action-researches; (4) organizing solidarity tours; (5) establishing the Future Leaders' Empowerment program; (6) establishing micro-grant program for evidence-based advocacy campaigns; (7) establishing capacity building programs for women candidates and locally elected women office-bearers. The Project targets women and marginalized groups in selected geographical sites based on the project’s implementing partners' extensive, long-term experience working with these communities.

This integrated climate adaptation solutions for the Hindu Kush Himalaya region (ICAS-HKH) project aims to increase resilience to climate change impacts and improve the livelihoods of rural women, Indigenous Peoples and local communities in Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. Reviving springs and managing springsheds are crucial for water security in the Hindu Kush Himalaya, especially amid climate change challenges. Working primarily with women, ICAS-HKH aims to support communities, women’s and Indigenous Peoples’ groups and local institutions to design and implement gender-responsive interventions to improve springshed management, address water scarcity and provide renewable energy technology for irrigation systems. ICAS-HKH seeks to promote the development and implementation of policies, strategies and guidelines by local government institutions to enable the scaling up of the approach. It also aims to enhance the capacity of beneficiaries to access other sources of climate adaptation funding to sustain this approach in the long term.

This project aims to improve comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for marginalized women, children and adolescents in Bangladesh, Nepal and Vietnam. Project activities include: (1) training healthcare workers to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and nutrition services that are gender-responsive, adolescent-friendly, and culturally sensitive; (2) raising awareness and promoting supportive households and community environments for comprehensive SRHR; (3) strengthening leadership capacities of government bodies to promote policy changes and planning for resilient health systems responsive to the SRHR needs of women, adolescents and children. In Bangladesh, the project is implemented in the underserved urban areas of Chattogram and is expected to reach a total of 150,000 direct beneficiaries, of which 112,500 women, 450 health workers and 185 key stakeholders. This includes government officials, community leaders, youth leaders, and school teachers. In Nepal, the project is implemented in 12 municipalities across 4 districts in Karnali province. It directly benefits 11,700 children with improved nutrition, 82,080 women of reproductive age with improved comprehensive SRH services and 7,860 mother’s group members and their male partners with better SRHR and nutrition knowledge. In Vietnam, the project is implemented in 15 communes in the province of Son La. It benefits 5,200 children under 5, improving health and nutrition knowledge for 10,000 people, and building capacity for 150 health workers and 80 teachers on comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and communication skills.

This project seeks to improve the health and resilience of vulnerable households, particularly women and girls, in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Project activities include: (1) providing training to women Community Health Facilitators (CHF’s) to deliver gender-sensitive, primary health services; (2) delivering modular rights-based, gender-sensitive basic health education through multiple touchpoints to community members. This is done through loan meetings, workshops, community events and household outreach; and (3) equipping CHF ’s and health supervisors to respond to critical health issues relevant to target communities (i.e. increased communication about dengue outbreaks, etc.) via face-to-face and digital information sharing. This project expects to reach and positively impact at least 6.4 million direct beneficiaries, encompassing 1.5 million people in Bangladesh, 3.2 million in India and 1.7 million in Nepal. Also, the project aims to reach over 1 million indirect beneficiaries, bringing its total reach to 7.4 million direct and indirect beneficiaries. Beneficiaries include youth and adolescents (aged 15 to 19 years), poor households, and men and boys, recognizing the importance of engaging men that support women’s and family health.

The Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) supports small projects proposed and implemented by local organizations in Bhutan, India and Nepal. The CFLI contributes to the overall goal of reducing poverty by providing funding for small projects that offer direct social, economic or technical assistance to local populations. The CFLI retains the same broad themes set out since 2016, which align closely with the 6 pillars of the Feminist International Assistance Policy. This allows flexibility to respond to and focus on themes relevant to local needs. The 6 thematic priorities include: (1) contributing to inclusive governance, including diversity and LGBTQ2, democracy, human rights and the rule of law; (2) contributing to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; (3) contributing to peace and security, with a focus on conflict prevention and building peace; (4) contributing to growth that works for everyone, including women’s economic rights, decent jobs and entrepreneurship, investing in the poorest and most vulnerable, and safeguarding economic gains; (5) contributing to environment and climate action, focusing on adaptation, mitigation and water management; and (6) contributing to human dignity, covering health, education and nutrition.