A Registered Canadian Charity Founded in 2005

Aegis Foundation for Development is a Canadian international charity dedicated to assisting the poorest people and communities in the World. Our guiding principle is empowerment through accountability: Often, poor communities lack the technical or financial resources to escape poverty. However, foreign aid is often dispensed in a top-down fashion that gives beneficiaries little control of their own development. Alternatively, many “grass-roots” projects fail to providethe necessary technical and financial interventions or long term strategic thinking necessary for broad based community development. 2.3 trillion of dollars of aid money has been given to developing countries in the past few decades, yet there are still children dying for lack of medicine that costs just twelve cents. This is a clear indicator that a different approach to development is needed.

Aegis Foundation for Development utilizes an innovative, strategic and locally sensitive approach to development. We work with our local partners to help them reach their own goals, and through our technical and financial assistance, Aegis ensures that goals are met in an inclusive, democratic and accountable fashion. Our focus on empowerment makes Aegis projects incredibly effective: Locally designed and driven initiatives avoid the enormous costs of large, foreign, top down interventions. Projects are integrated so that social initiatives are economically viable (i.e. linking an orphanage with a local agribusiness). And through its partnership agreements, Aegis ensures that the community and marginalized groups are involved democratically throughout any project, promoting community cohesion, transparency and good governance.

While it is all to tempting to want to force a quick solution into place in poor communities, the failure of so many years of development assistance demands a more sophisticated approach. Please join us in our attempt to empower the poorest communities in the world, and make development accountable to everyone involved; not just those who fund it.