Grants and Contributions

This project’s purpose is to educate, train and actively engage as many students (college, bachelors, masters and doctorate) as possible in STEM and in particular, space technology and science. The mechanism to achieve this STEM engagement is the opportunity to design, build, assemble, integrate, test and launch a 3U CubeSat (small satellite) into low-Earth orbit. The goal is to collect the scientific data and analyze it to develop tools and insight to monitor and study climate change. The scientific objective is to analyze the multispectral camera imagery to assess how well harmful algal blooms could be detected with onboard machine learning models and whether tree events could be monitored well in-orbit.

Killick-2 is a project proposed by Memorial University (MUN) for the Canadian Space Agency CUBICS initiative. The MUN team proposes a 3U CubeSat called Killick-2 containing a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) Reflectometry payload to measure ocean parameters from space. The applications proposed for Killick-2 are sea ice detection and concentration estimation and ocean dynamic parameters (wind and wave). The Killick-2 supervisory team will select a mission development team from the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, and will consist of lead researchers in postgraduate studies and an engineering team consisting of undergraduate electrical and mechanical engineering students. The postgraduate team will lead the GNSS-R payload development, while the undergraduate team will lead the satellite bus development. The undergraduate design team will be composed primarily junior and senior students. The Killick-2 project has significant benefits to Canada in the context of development of highly qualified personnel (HQPs) in space systems and earth observation. Furthermore, Killick-2 will gather a significant GNSS-R dataset that will be useful for the understanding the impacts of climate change.

The RADSAT-SK2 project’s main purpose is to enable Saskatchewan post-secondary students to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to participate in the Canadian aerospace industry, while contributing to scientific research in space technologies. A major goal of the project is to bring together the University of Saskatchewan and University of Regina under the common effort of demonstrating and evaluating the effectiveness of new radiation mitigating technologies for computer hardware in space, engaging students in unique hands-on learning, and educating the public about Canada's and Saskatchewan's contributions to STEM. Images from the camera installed on the satellite will be shared publicly as part of an advocacy campaign to spark more interest in space exploration, Earth observation, and climate science.

This project seeks to reduce climate and disaster risk in Latin America and the Caribbean through the accelerated implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, ensuring that it incorporates a climate-smart, gender-responsive approach to foster greener, more sustainable, and equitable communities. It also seeks to improve climate-smart disaster prevention by reducing existing climate and disaster risks and avoiding generating new and emerging risks. Project activities include: (1) creating conditions to strengthen gender equality and women’s empowerment in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction processes throughout the region; and (2) strengthening the understanding of disaster risks, including vulnerability, exposure, a lack of coping capacity. This allows for more comprehensive, climate-smart and risk-informed decision-making at the individual, household, community, national, and regional levels.

February 2023 – The humanitarian situation in Turkey deteriorated significantly following powerful earthquakes that struck south-east Turkey on February 6 and February 20. The earthquakes and aftershocks resulted in widespread damages and high casualties. The UN estimates that at least 9.1 million in Turkey have been affected by the earthquake, with the majority anticipated to need some form of humanitarian assistance in the coming months.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) oversees the coordination of international humanitarian responses in partnership with national and international actors. With GAC’s support, OCHA supports the coordination and scale-up of earthquake relief efforts in Turkey.

Project activities include: (1) strengthening humanitarian leadership; (2) establishing and overseeing coordination systems; (3) monitoring and reporting on humanitarian situations; (4) advocating on behalf of affected people; (5) supporting the assessment and prioritization of humanitarian needs and strategic planning; (6) promoting emergency preparedness; and (7) mobilizing funding for humanitarian assistance.

The project seeks to enhance food and nutrition security and resilience for people in Lebanon by increasing the adoption of gender-responsive, nutrition-sensitive climate smart agricultural practices amongst farmers, improving the performance of selected fruits and vegetables value chains (VC) through cooperation at farmers’ and VC actors’ level, and creating an inclusive enabling environment in which VC actors – from farmers to distributors – operate.
The project will build the technical and organizational capacity of small-scale fruits (apples) and vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and eggplants) farmers – women in particular – and their organizations, allowing them to participate more effectively in selected value chains. The project also supports other VC actors – from input producers to processors and traders – to adopt innovative technologies at the production or marketing and processing levels and to become more inclusive and responsive to farmers’ needs. At a policy level, the project facilitates dialogue between VC actors and the government to promote the design and implementation of inclusive policies, legislation and programs that meet the needs of farmers and orientes toward developing sustainable and inclusive value chains.

This project aims to increase the economic empowerment of women and adolescent girls as well as their access to mental, sexual, and reproductive health services in the Niamey and Agadez regions of Niger. Project activities include: (1) setting up a transformational leadership school for women's economic groups members; (2) providing training for peer educators to carry out awareness-raising activities on the health rights of women and adolescent girls; (3) supplying medicines and medical equipment to health facilities; and (4) training and mobilizing educators and ambassadors of change to promote the right to health and the economic empowerment of women and adolescent girls. The project's direct beneficiaries are estimated at 33,000 women and adolescent girls. Indirect beneficiaries are estimated at over 348,000 members of the communities targeted by the project.

February 2023 – The humanitarian situation in Turkey deteriorated significantly following powerful earthquakes that struck south-east Turkey on February 6 and February 20. The earthquakes and aftershocks resulted in widespread damages and high casualties in both countries. The UN estimates that at least 9.1 million in Turkey have been affected by the earthquake, with the majority anticipated to need some form of humanitarian assistance in the coming months.

With GAC’s support, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) provides assistance to address growing humanitarian needs in Turkey. IOM is expanding ongoing operations, including a nationwide refugee response programme already active in affected areas, to meet the basic needs of earthquake-affected persons. This project supports IOM’s emergency response scale-up in providing emergency shelter assistance, non-food items and cash, and emergency mental health and psychosocial support.

Project activities include: (1) providing multi-purpose cash, vouchers and non-food items assistance to earthquake-affected women, men, girls and boys; (2) providing emergency shelter assistance to earthquake-affected women, men, girls and boys; and (3) providing mental health and psychosocial support to earthquake-affected women, men, girls and boys.

The Facility for Resilient Food Systems aims to enhance people’s food security, food system resilience and well-being through improved food availability and food affordability in developing countries. The Facility leverages Canada’s concessional finance alongside the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to mobilize private capital and accelerate the response to the global food security crisis. The Facility rapidly addresses critical financing needs and disruptions to agricultural production and agri-food supply chains. It makes strategic investments in private sector-led solutions to build more diversified, productive and resilient local food systems in the long term. The Facility also provides advisory and technical services to financial intermediaries, agribusinesses and farmers along the food value chain to improve their long-term financial sustainability, gender responsiveness and resilience to climate risks so they can continue to deliver much needed food to vulnerable communities. In doing so, the Facility contributes to increasing the resilience of food systems to future shocks in developing countries and reducing the number of people at risk from food insecurity, including women and the most vulnerable.

Projects supported by the Facility might include but are not limited to: (i) working capital and longer-term financing to resume food production in areas affected by conflict; (ii) financing to help diversify production to new origins; (iii) investments in warehousing or storage to reduce vulnerabilities to global supply chain disruptions; and (iv) support to supply lower carbon fertilizers and crop inputs. Project activities include: (1) supporting financial intermediaries and other clients to provide financial products to agribusiness and other agri-value chain actors; (2) providing financial and technical support to agribusiness firms and agri-food value chain actors to support improvement in local production; and (3) providing support and capacity building to agribusiness firms to incentivize more climate-sustainable and gender-responsive business practices.

he Facility for Resilient Food Systems aims to enhance people’s food security, food system resilience and well-being through improved food availability and food affordability in developing countries. The Facility leverages Canada’s concessional finance alongside the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to mobilize private capital and accelerate the response to the global food security crisis. The Facility rapidly addresses critical financing needs and disruptions to agricultural production and agri-food supply chains. It makes strategic investments in private sector-led solutions to build more diversified, productive and resilient local food systems in the long term. The Facility also provides advisory and technical services to financial intermediaries, agribusinesses and farmers along the food value chain to improve their long-term financial sustainability, gender responsiveness and resilience to climate risks so they can continue to deliver much needed food to vulnerable communities. In doing so, the Facility contributes to increasing the resilience of food systems to future shocks in developing countries and reducing the number of people at risk from food insecurity, including women and the most vulnerable.

Projects supported by the Facility might include but are not limited to: (i) working capital and longer-term financing to resume food production in areas affected by conflict; (ii) financing to help diversify production to new origins; (iii) investments in warehousing or storage to reduce vulnerabilities to global supply chain disruptions; and (iV) support to supply lower carbon fertilizers and crop inputs. Project activities include: (1) supporting financial intermediaries and other clients to provide financial products to agribusiness and other agri-value chain actors; (2) providing financial and technical support to agribusiness firms and agri-food value chain actors to support improvement in local production; and (3) providing support and capacity building to agribusiness firms to incentivize more climate-sustainable and gender-responsive business practices.