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The Honourable Randeep Sarai, Secretary of State (International Development), announced that Canada will provide $11.75 million in new funding to support humanitarian and development projects in Kenya, the surrounding region and the Indo-Pacific. He also highlighted five active projects underway in Kenya in partnership with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to which Canada has provided approximately $3 million.
Project: United to Protect Human Rights
Partner: Equitas
Funding: $9.5 million (2026 to 2028)
This project aims to help human rights defenders get the training, tools and support they need to work more effectively with governments and other authorities. It will bring people together from different sectors and levels of society—local, national, regional and international—to share information, learn from one another and promote practical, rights-based solutions. This initiative will focus on East and West Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and the Indo-Pacific. Through Equitas’ global network, this project will encourage collaboration, support new and innovative approaches and help spread best practices that strengthen the protection of human rights.
Project: 2026 Humanitarian Assistance
Partner: UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)
Funding: $1.5 million
This funding will enable UNHCR to provide life-saving assistance to refugees and other people in need. This assistance includes protection, shelter and core relief items; water, sanitation and hygiene; cash assistance; livelihoods and socio-economic inclusion; and health care services, including mental health and psychosocial support.
Project: 2026 Humanitarian Assistance
Partner: World Food Programme (WFP)
Funding: $500,000
This funding will enable the WFP to provide targeted emergency food assistance to crisis-affected populations, reduce acute food insecurity and malnutrition and protect livelihoods in Kenya. Project activities include distributing food and cash-based transfers, providing supplementary feeding for children under the age of five, as well as for pregnant and lactating women and girls, providing logistical support to humanitarian agencies and enabling access to the most remote and hard-to-reach locations.
Project: Kenya Grid Integration Readiness for Future Nuclear Power Development Program
Partner: Manitoba Hydro International (MHI)
Funding: $250,000 (2026 to 2027)
This initiative aims to help Kenya prepare its electricity grid for future low-carbon power generation, including potential nuclear energy. MHI will work with Kenya’s Ministry of Energy, the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) and Kenya Power to assess how ready the grid is, improve transmission planning and strengthen system stability analysis. The project will also help build local institutional capacity so Kenya can better integrate new clean energy sources in the years ahead.
This initiative supports Canada’s foreign policy goals by advancing climate-aligned, sustainable infrastructure and strengthening public sector governance. It also promotes Canada’s trade and development interests by highlighting Canadian expertise and creating opportunities for long-term collaboration on clean energy and grid modernization solutions.
Project: Championing responsible artificial intelligence policy in Africa
Partner: IDRC
Funding: $250,000 (2024 to 2028)
This initiative seeks to strengthen responsible and ethical AI policy-making in Kenya. It helps equip policy-makers, civil society groups and technical experts with the evidence, capacity and engagement needed to develop AI policies that reflect local priorities and safeguard human rights. It builds on earlier work that mapped Africa’s AI landscape to support more informed and inclusive decision‑making through research, policy dialogue and community participation. As part of the AI4D partnership with the United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, it seeks to improve national and regional AI governance, ensure institutions are better prepared for emerging technologies and support policy processes that advance an inclusive, safe and development‑focused AI ecosystem across East Africa.
Over the past few months, the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law, in collaboration with the Kenyan judiciary, have been completing the AI Adoption Policy Framework, designed to guide the responsible integration of AI within the justice system. It seeks to ensure that any use of AI tools aligns with constitutional guarantees, safeguards due process, protects judicial independence, preserves procedural fairness and strengthens public confidence in the administration of justice.
Project: Fostering inclusive trade within the African Continental Free Trade Agreement
Partner: IDRC
Funding: $1.25 million (2025 to 2027)
This initiative supports more inclusive trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Working with the Trade Law Centre, the project focuses on helping countries put the AfCFTA’s Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade into action. It seeks to make it easier for women and young entrepreneurs in Kenya, Cameroon, Egypt, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia to benefit from new trade opportunities.
This work is being carried out in close collaboration with government ministries, national AfCFTA teams, business associations and other partners in each country. In addition, the IDRC is partnering with the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance to build long-term capacity by strengthening trade expertise within universities, regional economic organizations and the AfCFTA secretariat, helping ensure that inclusive AfCFTA implementation is sustained over time.
Project: Unlocking climate finance for women and girls in Africa
Partner: IDRC
Funding: $600,000 (2024 to 2026)
This project addresses financial barriers that keep clean-cooking businesses from reaching remote, low-income, climate-fragile communities in Ghana and Kenya. The initiative aims to expand access to clean, modern cooking solutions, such as solar-powered cookstoves, to ease climate risks and the disproportionate share of unpaid household and care work that falls on women. The work strengthens women’s resilience, improves health and safety and creates more opportunities for women to generate income.
Through engagement with private‑sector partners, investors and local stakeholders and by adapting lessons from similar initiatives in Asia, this work contributes to a more inclusive climate‑finance ecosystem – one that supports the adoption of clean‑cooking technologies, strengthens market pathways for women‑focused climate innovations and ensures financial tools reach those most at risk from climate change.
Project: Using drone technology to improve medical supply chain logistics in rural Kenya
Partner: IDRC
Funding: $480,000 (2022 to 2026)
This project is testing whether drones can help improve the delivery of essential medical supplies in rural Kenya. Many remote health facilities in the Lake Victoria Basin face frequent shortages because poor roads and long travel times make it difficult to transport medicines, lab samples and other critical items. The project team is collecting evidence on how well drone deliveries work, how much they cost and how comfortable health workers and supply chain staff are with using them. Early findings show that drones can speed up deliveries, reduce the spoilage of sensitive lab samples and help clinics maintain more-consistent services, without requiring staff to leave their facilities to fetch supplies.
Project: Blended finance for health‑care facility electrification in Kenya
Partner: IDRC
Funding: $250,000 (2024 to 2026)
This project focuses on providing reliable, clean electricity for primary health care facilities in Kenya. Many of these facilities currently have little or no access to power, which affects their ability to deliver consistent, high-quality care.
This project is developing a financing model that makes it easier for private investors to support solar energy solutions for health centres. To do this, the project team has gathered data from energy service providers, health facilities, local banks and development partners to understand what kinds of financial products could attract private investment. They are also looking at what health facilities can afford, what risks investors need covered, and which tools—such as loan guarantees, customized loans or technical support—could make long-term electrification both viable and sustainable.
