General

This grant represents Canada’s long-term institutional support to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The UNCCD uses these funds and other donors’ funding to deliver its mandate. Established in 1994, the UNCCD is the only legally binding agreement that brings together the environment, development, and sustainable land management. Accelerating rates of desertification, land degradation, and drought in developing countries exacerbate poverty and reduce resilience in the face of environmental crises, particularly for women and girls. Every day, women and girls face discrimination, unequal rights to land and other resources and a disproportionate amount of care and domestic work. However, they are key agents of change for the world to collectively manage land more sustainably, reduce biodiversity loss and adapt to and mitigate drought impacts. Since rejoining the UNCCD in 2017, Canada has underlined the importance of advancing gender equality and promoting the empowerment of women and girls to enhance global efforts in achieving land degradation neutrality and Sustainable Development Goal 15 – Life on Land. Through long-term institutional support strengthening the integration of gender equality, Canada supports the Convention Secretariat and the Global Mechanism in implementing the UNCCD’s Gender Action Plan.

General

December 2016 - The humanitarian situation in Syria continues to deteriorate as a result of the civil war in the country. An estimated 13.5 million people continue to be in need of humanitarian assistance, 6.1 million of which are displaced internally by violence and 975,080 located in besieged communities according to the United Nations. Repeated and deliberate attacks on humanitarian and medical workers continue to plague the conflict, adding to the vulnerability of millions of people, particularly women and children, who are affected by the conflict and struggle for access to the most basic services. With GAC’s support, this project provides livelihood opportunities and psychosocial support to up to 36,800 conflict-affected people. Project activities include: (1) provision of critical agricultural inputs at key times; (2) training on better farming techniques and increase productivity of cultivated land; (3) supporting conflict-affected rural women in sustaining productive animals; (4) supporting conflict-affected rural women in establishing and maintaining sustainable keyhole gardens; and (5) building and sustaining Child Friendly Spaces (CFSs).

General

The project aims to secure private land titles registered in the handwritten registers centralized at the Direction Générale des Impôts in Port-au-Prince, in Haiti. The implementation of a computerized land registry system aims to facilitate the registration of notarial records and the search and identification of land titles by the general public. The activities of the project include: 1) digitizing and indexing over one million pages; 2) integrating the data in a database; 3) archiving manuscripts in a safe environment. The direct beneficiaries are the staff already in place, the national institutions responsible of land reform in Haiti, as well as 700 notaries and 600 surveyors operating on Haitian territory.