Grants and Contributions

Protecting Deshkan Ziibii, Together

Canada's Fisheries Fund will transform and drive innovation in the fish and seafood sector in Canada with a focus on developing the sector to better meet growing market demands for sustainably sourced, high-quality fish and seafood products.

This project seeks to support rural, mostly women-led businesses, in some of Colombia`s most fragile rural areas, through high quality technical assistance and innovative finance mechanisms that can improve their chances of being sustainable and viable over time. The initiative would seek to empower rural entrepreneurs, mainly women, in shaping the sustainable development in post-conflict regions, by investing in businesses with high potential and promoting agents of change in their communities. The project will promote a rural transformation approach in order to be inclusive, creating opportunities for women’s economic empowerment and ensuring marginalised groups are not left behind.

More specifically, the project would invest hand in hand with participating communities in inclusive productive projects with proven value added. The participating communities (women owned/lead business) would contribute to the business idea their knowledge and fixed assets, while Acumen would provide patient capital, its networks, its knowledge on business development, along with capacity building on women’s economic empowerment and local leadership. The partnership would be created between communities and Acumen with a clear exit strategy following the consolidation of these businesses through tailor-made technical assistance throughout the investment and accompaniment process. By investing alongside with communities the sustainability of the interventions would improve in the long term as actions are taken based on a business-oriented angle; the role and ownership of participants, especially women in the management and decision-making expand; and the impact in the communities deepen as clear results are expected with valuable demonstrative effects for other actors to emulate. In the end, what is proposed is a new form of impact investing where women’s economic empowerment and communities are at the center of the entire process. With a view to broaden access to capital for similar businesses over time, innovative finance mechanisms such as equity, debt with variable repayment options and/or revenue based financing could be considered and lessons from their use systematized and disseminated among the impact investment community. To complement these efforts, and to foster a more inclusive, stronger socio-economic environment in the targeted regions, leadership training would also be provided to a targeted number of women rural leaders based on a set of criteria with a view to create a pool of effective female leaders and promoters of change. This initiative would promote recognition and concrete actions of women as economic actors and agents of change capable of contributing to the generation of new narratives and better living conditions for them, their families and their communities.

The UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme to Eliminate Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) contributes to ending female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM or cutting) by 2030 through accelerated collective and multi-sectoral action by mobilizing a broad spectrum of actors at community, national, regional and global levels. It is the largest global programme to accelerate the abandonment of this harmful traditional practice and thereby advance women’s and girls’ rights, health and well-being.

Project activities include: (1) providing capacity development (including comprehensive sexuality and life skills education) that promotes gender-equitable norms, including the eliminating FGM or cutting; (2) implementing an alternative rites of passage programme by supported communities; (3) supporting medical and paramedical schools to mainstream FGM or cutting into curricula training; (4) supporting institutions and systems (education, health, child protection) to integrate the prevention of and response to FGM or cutting in policies and plans; (5) creating a multi-sectoral evidence-based, gender-transformative FGM or cutting elimination policy or strategy; and (6) supporting the development of budgeted emergency preparedness and response and disaster risk reduction plans that integrate sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence and harmful practices.

Direct beneficiaries are girls and women at risk of (68 million) or affected by (200 million) FGM or cutting, and their families, communities, local and national institutions, particularly in 17 targeted countries (Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and Yemen) and especially in hard-to-reach areas.

This will be accomplished in the following ways:
• Through partnership and joint management of distinctions based investments that will enhance and expand Indigenous ELCC, and support the transfer of ELCC to Indigenous organizations;
• Strengthening foundational supports for Indigenous ELCC through, for example, Indigenous led quality improvement projects; and
• Adapting and improving existing federal programs to be more flexible, adaptable and horizontal across federal departments as a first step prior to transferring control, so that programs cohesively support the goals of the Framework including supporting self determination.

The objective of this Project is to increase capacity to prepare for and respond to wildfires.

Develop digital adoption plan

Develop digital adoption plan

Develop digital adoption plan

Develop digital adoption plan