Program Overview

Under the authority of the Canadian Ambassador to Egypt, the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) or Canada Fund (CF) is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and, for the current year until April 2011, managed by the Aid section of the Canadian Embassy in Cairo. The Canada Fund provides direct funding assistance mainly to Civil Society Organizations (CSO), NGOs and Community Groups for small projects addressing economic, educational, social and sustainable development issues.

The general objective of the Canada Fund in Egypt is to enhance the economic and social conditions of marginalized communities and citizens especially women, youth and children. The Canada Fund assists Egyptian organizations in their efforts to pursue self-reliance and contribute to long-term sustainable development, while maximize the use of limited resources. The Human Rights Approach to Development (HRAD), institutional capacity building, active citizenship engagement, child rights/protection, environment and gender equality are themes that CFLI initiatives take into consideration.

Consistent with the CIDA Egypt program objective to promote economic growth to improve the enabling environment to MSMEs and to address issues of employability for marginalized youth and women, the Canada Fund will support, in priority, innovative and sustainable development initiatives that will benefit youth and women. The areas of specific interest for the CFLI initiatives are: 

• Small scale initiatives in the private sector (e.g. green business,
• renewable energy, etc); Income-generating activities (e.g. agri-business, handicrafts etc);
• Entrepreneurship programs; Skills Development and capacity building; Vocational Training; Safety in the Workplace; Labor Rights; Gender Equality and rights;
• Active Citizenship Engagement; Sustainable community development initiatives.