Grants and Contributions

This project seeks to enhance equitable health systems responding to and managing the long-term health needs of targeted vulnerable communities. This includes Tonj North County, Warrap State, South Sudan and Tulo Woreda, West Hararghe, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Project activities include: (1) establishing a Health Training Fund (HTF) and supporting the diversification of funding for student loans in Ethiopia; (2) conducting awareness-raising sessions on sexual and reproductive health and rights conducted for women and girls; (3) supporting health centres to provide sexual and reproductive health (SRH). This includes access to contraception and family planning, mental health, prevention and treatment of STIs, safe abortion and post-abortion care and access to youth-friendly health services; and (4) providing capacity building training to health care and nutrition center staff including community members on basic emergency care, maternal, infant, and young child nutrition (MIYCN), STI prevention, Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (BEmONC), integrated community case management of common childhood illnesses (ICCM), wash for nutrition, and nutritional screening. The project benefits 75,000 rights-holders including men, women, girls, boys and people with disabilities in both Ethiopia and South Sudan.

This project aims to address key gender inequality and human rights issues, particularly: harmful social norms regarding gender and sexuality; lack of adequate information on or access to comprehensive SRH services particularly for safe abortion; lack of decision-making power by girls and women regarding their health and sexuality; as well as limited capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) including women’s rights organizations and youth-led organizations to effectively advocate for SRHR at local, national, regional and international levels. SHIFTS will also strengthen the resilience of health systems in the focus countries to deliver integrated SRHR services through focusing on the WHO’s building blocks of health systems including service delivery health workforce, access to essential medicines, and leadership/governance.

Project activities include: (1) Providing technical support to selected facilities for the development and implementation of quality improvement mechanisms (including procurement); (2) delivering trainings to health care providers on gender responsive SRH services including abortion; (3) delivering comprehensive sexuality education to adolescents and young people from marginalized communities in and out of schools; (4) providing SRHR awareness campaigns to community influencers; (5) providing technical assistance to local CSOs in project countries on advocating for SRHR at local, national, regional and international levels; and (6) delivering technical assistance to Canadian CSOs on promoting human rights based approaches to SRH among Canadians.

The project is expected to directly benefit 2 450 094 people ( 2,039,193 women, girls and young women and 410 901 men and boys) targeting adolescent girls, women and the most marginalized communities in the three focus countries including persons with disabilities, LGBTQ communities and internally displaced persons. The project will also indirectly benefit 4 697 990 people including community members, health care workers, teachers, youth peer educators, youth networks and community leaders.

This project aims to enhance participation in inclusive governance, in particular by women and girls in Mali, the DRC, Somali Diaspora in Kenya, Kenya, South Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Iraq, Syrian Diaspora in Turkey, and the Philippines. Project activities include: (1) Journalists and content-creators trained on inclusive governance principles, countering gendered- information manipulation, gender-transformative reporting, and on digital, physical, and psycho-social security strategies; (2) Journalists and content-creators trained on content monetization strategies, grant writing, digitalization, and revenue diversification; (3) Local grassroots women rights movements, CSOs, CBOs & activists trained on media relations, digital & media campaigns, communication planning, and digital, physical, & psycho-social security strategies; (4) Civil servants, government officials, and political aspirants trained on gender-sensitive communication strategies, and GBA+ analysis in data collection, policy-formulation, budgeting and service delivery; and (5) Thematic Roundtable discussions between media, government officials, and women’s rights CSOs and CBOs on gender equality, women representation and civic engagement.

This project aims to improve the economic empowerment of 25,200 marginalized youth, including 15,120 adolescent girls and young women, in Rwanda, Somalia and Tanzania by providing skills development and Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) through the Building leadership, Opportunities and options for marginalized women and girls (BLOOM) Africa initiative. BLOOM Africa is implemented through a multifaceted approach to address issues across individual, community, and systemic levels. At the individual level, the project supports empowering marginalized adolescent girls and young women to develop skills, advocate for their rights to skills development and access economic opportunities, overcome barriers and promote safe work environments. At the community level, the project promotes social and behavior change to support equitable community structures, challenge traditional gender norms, and address discriminatory practices and power imbalances. At the systemic level, it aims to create compreh

The project aims to address the disproportionate effects of gender inequality, climate change, and conflict on women and girls in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and the West Bank. Led by KAIROS, a Canadian civil society development partner, and in collaboration with local human rights organizations, the project focuses on empowering women peacebuilders and local networks to lead interventions at the intersection of the triple nexus of climate change, conflict, and gender inequality. The initiative seeks to foster more sustainable, equitable, resilient, and peaceful societies in these regions by enhancing local capacity and strengthening the impact of gender-transformative approaches to these interconnected challenges.

The project focuses on capacity-building for partner staff and local groups in areas like fundraising, accounting, and digital communication. It will offer training on financial literacy, community savings, and socio-environmental issues for economic empowerment. The

This project aims to achieve more equal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for women, adolescents and children, especially those in vulnerable or marginalized situations. The project will be implemented in partnership with Avocats sans frontières Canada. The main activities are 1) technical and material support for mobile outreach and delocalized health services, 2) training for primary health care providers, including community and outreach health care providers, particularly in family planning and the prevention/management of gender-based violence, 3) awareness-raising among women and adolescent girls on the concepts of good sexual health practices, and 4) technical assistance to institutions and organizations in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of SRHR policies and programs. The project will reach more than 1,151,983 women and adolescents directly and 5,010,826 people indirectly.

This project aims to improve the agency of women and girls, including marginalized populations, to exercise their sexual and reproductive health and rights, in Malawi and South Sudan. Project activities include: (1) training midwives to deliver evidence-based, rights-based, gender-responsive sexual and reproductive health services; (2) implementing digital platforms with sexual and reproductive health and rights content on services and information; (3) training district health staff and community facilitators in a social accountability tool to identify service vulnerabilities; (4) providing midwifery associations with technical assistance on advocacy for the integration of midwifery services into health systems; and (5) strengthening women's health and rights organizations.

The Increasing Economic Opportunities for Youth in Uganda and Tanzania project aims to increase economic opportunities for youth (30 and under) in Uganda and Tanzania through financial inclusion and entrepreneurship. The project seeks to address the socio-economic inclusion of youth (30 years and under) and particularly marginalized and vulnerable young women, in Uganda and Tanzania, by enhancing the skills, financial inclusion, and employability of youth, ultimately contributing to economic growth and reducing poverty for themselves and their families. To achieve this, the project will employ an innovative two-pronged approach targeting youth that will couple vocational training and employment enhancement initiatives alongside financial literacy development. By offering vocational training, the project will offer skills development opportunities to youth that are relevant to the current and local job market, in each target country. Financial and non-financial products directly targeting the needs of youth, and marginalized and vulnerable young women in particular, will be developed to further enable them to apply the skills that they’ve gained and start a new business or expand pre-existing enterprises. Finally, to ensure gender-equal financial inclusion, all financial services and products offered through the project will be reviewed with a gender-lens to ensure equal access and benefits for young women.

This project aims to improve quality reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) services in Liberia, Pakistan and Zambia. Project activities include: (1) training primary health care workforce to provide gender-responsive RMNCH and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs; (2) teaching hygiene behaviour change interventions in health and community settings; (3) training and supporting the community in advocacy and leadership for gender-responsive, inclusive health and WASH services and rights; (4) training health system duty bearers at national, subnational and district levels in gender-responsive budgeting, planning, monitoring and reporting of inclusive WASH services; and (5) generating and sharing evidence on integrated WASH and health intervention models among health and WASH sectors in target countries and globally. The project seeks to benefit over 1 million women, 700,000 men, 800,000 adolescents and 100,000 children, including those living with disabilities, in the target countries. It works in partnership with WaterAid’s local offices in the target countries, as well as local organizations.

This initiative aims to strengthen the economic empowerment and resilience of women in all their diversity through their increased participation in digitally enabled economy in Cameroon and Senegal. With a focus on women in the informal agriculture sector and those in the early stages of business development (1 to 5 years), the project addresses barriers that limit technology use for business growth. Project activities include: (1) training women entrepreneurs to use digital tools, strengthen cybersecurity, and improve marketing; (2) providing gender-responsive business management training, an online hub with templates and resources, and pathways to financing to help women access broader markets; and (3) building capacity in local partner organizations to sustain women’s empowerment and gender equality initiatives.
The project directly benefits 1,000 urban and rural women entrepreneurs (500 per country) and indirectly benefits 5,000 to 7,000 family members, plus 300 women accessing services and training through local partner organizations.