Grants and Contributions

The project aims to support a reformed technical and vocational education training (TVET) system in Bhutan to equip graduates with the knowledge and skills that meet labour market needs and contribute to the country’s sustainable socio-economic development . In Bhutan, the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic exacerbated skills shortages and youth unemployment (22.6% in 2021), with women comprising the majority of the unemployed and under-represented. The BEST project works with key national government agencies, including the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources, to help implement Bhutan’s 2021 National TVET Reform Plan 2.0. This Plan aims to have 20% of high school graduates enter the TVET stream each year and produce work-ready men and women graduates with skills that meet labour market needs and contribute to socio-economic development, thereby helping to alleviate poverty. Project activities include: (1) developing recruitment strategies and systems for bringing students into TVET; (2) delivering leadership and governance training to TVET agencies and TVET institutions; (3) developing industry-responsive courses aligned with the TVET reform agenda and labour market needs; (4) providing training to curriculum developers at the Department of Technical Education and TVET institutions; and (5) establishing partnerships between industry and TVET institutions. The BEST project activities integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment through access to education and employment, and promote gender-sensitive environmental mainstreaming practices in education. The project expects to benefit approximately 16,000 Bhutanese youth (men and women) in technical training institutions.

This project aims to strengthen the resilience of internally displaced persons and host communities in the city of Pemba in Cabo Delgado province. The project focuses on displaced women and girls, and local authorities dealing with the challenges of a massive increase in Pemba’s population. Project activities include: (1) facilitating participatory and gender-inclusive neighbourhood level planning, social service provision and management; (2) promoting community construction of prioritized infrastructure and public services; and (3) building the capacity of local authorities and communities.

This project aims to reduce modern slavery, forced labour and child labour among farmers and workers, especially women and girls, in select districts of Ghana’s palm oil and Cote d’Ivoire’s cocoa producing regions. This project also aims to develop an innovative digital platform to identify and monitor labour rights risks among workers, and to distribute labour rights information to workers, especially women. This digital platform works to empower women and girls with information on their labour rights and to provide a safe and anonymous mechanism by which women and girls and other vulnerable workers can report labour issues such as discrimination, violence, sexual harassment and forced labour.

Project activities include: (1) developing context-specific labour rights content for the digital platform; (2) conducting training and educational campaigns for local partners, communities and work places, on labor rights and how to use the digital platform; (3) providing training to partner organizations on how to leverage the data collected from workers; (4) introducing the data portal to corporate, producer and industry partners; and (5) developing action plans to act on the data collected on a continual basis.

Community Facility: The project aims to construct a building that will include a multi-purpose community hall and housing in Lac-Mégantic in order to foster the development of this community to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Community based facility: The purpose of the project is to improve the community center of Family Ties in New Carlisle in order to foster the development of this community so it can recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Acquisition of digital equipment: The project aims to improve the production of a company that specializes in the manufacture of environmental management solutions for the treatment and rehabilitation of water, soil and air.

Community Facility: The purpose of this project is to construct a community center in the Municipality of Shefford to support the development of this community to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Community Facility: The project will construct a covered outdoor community center to support the development of this community to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Acquisition of equipment: The project aims to improve the tourism offer of Tours Aventure Fjord et Monde Inc. a company that organizes excursions and guided tours, by adapting its services to the current context and by adopting eco-responsible practices.

Community facility: The project aims to build and expand community spaces in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in order to foster the development of this community so that it can recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.