Fonds F4043 - Inter-Church Fund for International Development Fonds

In 1974 a group of Canadian Churches and their development agencies collaborated to establish a fund for the support of projects and programs for international development. These churches and development agencies included: The Anglican Church of Canada-Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, Canadian Lutheran World Relief, Roman Catholic Church-The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, The Presbyterian Church in Canada-Inter Church Aid World Development Service and Relief Committee, and the United Church of Canada-Division of World Outreach. The purpose of the fund was the following: to increase the capacity of participating Canadian churches to respond quickly and effectively to expressed development needs; to encourage the planning and decision making capacity of churches’ and NGO’s in developing countries and regions; to act on behalf of participating Canadian churches as a receiving body for development funds from governments or other agencies for overseas projects or programs and for interpretation. Types of projects and programs accepted for funding were related to these areas: education, literacy and culture; community development; agriculture, fisheries and animal husbandry; health and welfare; service and credit cooperatives; research, planning and evaluation; leadership training; irrigation, wells and water schemes; small industries; national and regional NGO infrastructure for development planning and implementations; and fostering and pioneering in development creativity and new models. The fund was governed by a Board of Directors which was made up of Church leaders from the representing member churches and Christians working in the field of development. In 1997 a new ecumenical organization was formed called the Inter-Church Action for Development, Relief and Justice (ICA) which ended ICFID. The new entity carried many of ICFID’s responsibilities and also incorporated the experience of the Development and Service Committee of the Canadian Council of Churches.