Term
- 7 years
Years
- 2020-2027
Direct Beneficiaries
- 50 000 people (60% women and 40% men)
Implementation Partners
Financial Partners
VOICE for Women and Girls (VOICE), funded by the Government of Canada, is a volunteer cooperation program (2020-2027) that aims to strengthen the performance of developing country partner organizations to advance gender equality and economic empowerment of 50,000 co-operative and credit union members from marginalized communities in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi.
The program, supported by volunteers, strives to address the challenges and barriers that adversely affect the economic and social well-being of vulnerable groups, with particular emphasis on women and girls. VOICE aims to respond to the needs identified by these groups, and to increase the capacities of individual producers and primary co-operatives, to support more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient growth. Supporting institutions, such as apex co-operatives, co-operative colleges, and government/regulatory bodies, will also be engaged to increase the capacity and prioritization of vulnerable groups.
VOICE will utilize CDF Canada’s expertise in the co-operative and credit union sectors to address challenges and empower women and communities through interventions such as:
The Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) is a key component of the VOICE Project. The aim of the fund is to facilitate innovative feminist approaches to the inclusion of marginalized persons, including women, people with disabilities, minorities, indigenous groups, and LGBTQ2 groups, into economic development and financial inclusion. Volunteers will be required to collaborate with local partners on application designs to foster buy-in and embed knowledge and encouraged to reach out to diverse networks in Canada and in the target country to integrate increased sustainability and future revenue streams for the project.
In the seven years of the project, CDF Canada and partners will improve women and girls’ economic well-being in project countries. We aim to reach 30,000 vulnerable women and 20,000 men.
Our aim is to engage trained Canadian volunteers to create enabling settings for mainstream FIAP principles, i.e., integrating gender-responsive practices across sectors. Secondly, we will also train country partners to integrate the principles and approaches in the FIAP action areas as per their local context. This approach will provide support and uplift the vulnerable communities, especially women and girls.
