The Honourable Randeep Sarai, Secretary of State (International Development), announced that Canada will provide more than $123 million in funding to support projects in Vietnam, Indonesia and Fiji. He also announced the allocation of funding for four new initiatives valued at a total of more than $4.2 million, under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-Canada Plan of Action Trust Fund (2023 to 2029).

Projects in Vietnam

Project: Vietnam Climate-Smart Coastal Communities
Partner: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Funding: $20 million over 6 years

The project aims to build the resilience of vulnerable coastal communities by improving the capacity of local governments, communities and women-led organizations to plan for and adapt to climate change. The project will also restore marine and coastal biodiversity to improve livelihoods and reduce poverty through ecosystem recovery.

Project: Vietnam Climate Resilient Municipalities
Partner: Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Funding: $10 million over 6 years

This project will enhance climate resilience in several Vietnamese municipalities by improving infrastructure and waste management through training and technical advice and by promoting the involvement of women-led organizations in decision making while strengthening policy coordination between local and national governments.

Project: Advancing Growth Innovation and Leadership for Enterprises
Partner: World University Service of Canada
Funding: $10 million over 5 years

This project will expand on Canada’s engagement in impact investment by supporting the local ecosystem for social businesses. It will also provide opportunities for engagement with Canadian institutions and experts on climate adaptation solutions. 

Project: Biodiversity and Livelihood Opportunities for Ethnic Minority Women
Partner: SOCODEVI and Desjardins International Development
Funding: $10 million over 6 years

The project will help strengthen the conservation of high-value forests, promote climate-smart and biodiversity-friendly agroforestry production in forest buffer zones and improve the participation of ethnic minority women in developing and implementing biodiversity and climate change adaptation policies at the central and local levels of government.

Project: Inclusive Local Governance in Vietnam
Partner: Canadian Bureau for International Education
Funding: $9.7 million over 6 years

This project will strengthen inclusive governance in Vietnam by enhancing the skills of civil servants to deliver services that meet the needs of all citizens, including marginalized groups. It focuses on building the capacity of the Academy of Public Administration and Governance, modernizing its curriculum and fostering leadership development for women in the civil service to improve their career prospects.

Project: Vietnam-Canada Judicial Capacity Development
Partner: National Judicial Institute
Funding: $8.15 million over 6 years

This project will improve practices among judges and court officials to help increase access to justice for the most vulnerable groups of people. Working closely with the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam, the project will train judges based on Canadian and international best practices and provide them with opportunities to apply their learnings through pilot demonstration courts.

Project: Impact Investment Readiness Vietnam
Partner: Impact Investment Exchange Global Charitable Limited
Funding: $5 million over 5 years

The project aims to improve the economic well-being of vulnerable groups in Vietnam by increasing the impact investment readiness of targeted social-impact businesses (SIBs), particularly women-focused SIBs. SIBs are enterprises that create financial returns while securing social impacts or environmental impacts or both for communities. The project is expected to unlock private investment in SIBs in Vietnam.

Project: Women’s Political Participation
Partner: UNDP
Funding: $4.58 million over 5 years

This project will provide support to advance the meaningful participation of women in Vietnam’s National Assembly and People’s Councils in the next national elections, slated for May 2026, and will directly contribute to advancing Vietnam’s National Gender Equality Strategy’s political participation targets. These include training, mentoring and networking for women candidates and parliamentarians.

Project: Gender-Responsive Resilient Recovery of Typhoon-Affected Livelihoods in Northern Mountainous Provinces of Vietnam
Partner: Food and Agriculture Organization
Funding: $2 million over 2 years

This project aims to restore resilient, inclusive and sustainable agricultural livelihoods in northern Vietnam, especially for ethnic minority women affected by Typhoon Yagi in 2024. It will focus on enhancing climate-smart agriculture practices and disaster risk reduction, particularly among women and ethnic minority groups most affected by the natural disaster.

Project: Women Entrepreneur Facility
Partner: Asian Development Bank
Funding: $2 million over 6 years

This project aims to increase access to finance for women-owned and -led small and medium-sized enterprises (WSMEs) in Vietnam. It will create a financing facility that provides grants and technical assistance to support financial institutions’ outreach and WSME loan portfolios (including for green loans), building enhanced banking practices and knowledge on tapping into this underserved market segment.

Projects in Indonesia

Project: Climate Resilient Agri-Food Trade Promotion Support
Partner: Trade Facilitation Office Canada
Funding: $5 million over 6 years

This project supports the growth of Indonesian small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the processed food sector, with a focus on women-led and under-represented enterprises. It strengthens trade support services and access to climate-resilient agricultural technology, helping SMEs increase productivity and international market access. The project advances Indonesia’s economic development and SME competitiveness priorities while fostering Canada–Indonesia SME linkages and supporting the eventual implementation of the Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

Project: Economic Linkages for Enhanced Value, Trade and Exports
Partner: Catalyste+
Funding: $5 million over 6 years

This project supports 200 Indonesian SMEs, particularly women-led firms, in improving export readiness and competitiveness through targeted capacity building with national trade ministries. The initiative contributes to Indonesia’s SME development and trade diversification priorities, strengthens business linkages with Canada and Southeast Asia and supports the eventual implementation of the CEPA while helping diversify supply chains.

Project: Youth Networks for a Sustainable Gender Movement and Climate Action
Partner: Plan International
Funding: $4.1 million over 4 years

This project supports youth in advancing gender equality and strengthening climate and economic resilience in vulnerable communities. It will enhance the resilience of marginalized rural youth in climate-vulnerable provinces by building skills in climate-smart agriculture, inclusive climate adaptation and land management and climate-resilient technologies.

Project: Women Lead in Climate Action
Partner: Humanis dan Inovasi Sosial Foundation
Funding: $3.9 million over 4 years

This project strengthens women’s leadership in climate mitigation and adaptation and advances gender-responsive climate governance. It supports women’s rights organizations and grassroots groups, promotes safeguards for human rights of women and for environmental defenders and expands women-led green enterprises and local value chains to strengthen sustainable livelihoods and market resilience.

Project: Canada-Indonesia Partnership for Midwifery Strengthening
Partner: United Nations Population Fund in collaboration with McMaster University
Funding: $4.6 million over 3 years

This project will strengthen midwifery education to improve the quality and professionalism of midwifery services. It aims to reduce maternal mortality and support universal and equitable access to reproductive health services in Indonesia.

Projects in Fiji

Project: Pacific Women Entrepreneurs as Island Guardians
Partner: Alinea International
Funding: $7.85 million over 5 years

The project aims to strengthen the climate resilience of nature-based businesses led or owned by women, especially women of Indigenous heritage, in rural communities of Fiji, Samoa and Tuvalu. Its objective is to improve sustainable use practices in approximately 500,000 hectares of tropical forests, coral reefs and coastal mangrove ecosystems.

Project: Support to the Pacific Resilience Facility
Partner: Pacific Islands Forum
Funding: $7.5 million over 5 years

The Pacific Resilience Facility is the first Pacific-led and -owned financing facility dedicated to Pacific communities on the frontlines of climate change. Canada’s contribution to the facility will scale up Pacific Islands countries’ access to climate finance and will help support at-risk communities in adapting to climate change and in disaster preparedness and response, as well as provide funding for loss and damage.

Project: Pacific Oceanic Women Enhancing Resilience
Partner: Oxfam Canada
Funding: $5 million over 5 years

The project focuses on improving community resilience and strengthening women and girls’ leadership in Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Training is provided in sustainable agriculture and fisheries, financial literacy and business development. Resources, such as climate-smart technologies and seeds and support to gain market access, are provided.

Projects under the ASEAN-Canada Plan of Action Trust Fund (2023 to 2029)

Project: Development of the ASEAN Socio-cultural Development Outlook Volume 2
Partner: ASEAN Secretariat and The Asia Foundation
Funding: $385,000 over 1 year

This initiative will support research to assess progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals in ASEAN member states. The research will focus on digitalization megatrends, including cybercrime, online scams, misinformation and the digital divide.

Project: Canada and ASEAN Artificial Intelligence (AI) Connect: Partnership with Canada on Responsible AI Governance
Partner: Atlantic Council
Funding: $1.8 million over 2 years

This initiative aims to enhance regional and ASEAN-Canada collaboration on issues of responsible AI governance, aligned with international frameworks and supported by technical assistance.

Project: CANSAFE: Canada-ASEAN Exchange for Safer Food Systems and Agricultural Trade Opportunities
Partner: Indo-Pacific Agriculture and Agri-Food Office and Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International
Funding: $659,000 over 1 year

This initiative aims to strengthen ASEAN’s regional capacity to implement harmonized, science-based agricultural and food safety standards through Canada-ASEAN technical exchange.

Project: Study on Driving Decarbonization for ASEAN Competitiveness: Deploying Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) for Industrial Hubs in ASEAN
Partner: ASEAN Centre for Energy
Funding: $1.4 million over 1 year

This initiative aims to support research to accelerate the deployment of CCUS technologies across industrial hubs in ASEAN member states. It will leverage Canadian expertise in clean energy through a study; a visit to Canada for workshops; capacity building; site visits to CCUS projects; and a public-private round table to strengthen knowledge exchange and strategic partnerships.