The Baltic Initiatives Program (BIP) was a CIDA funding mechanism established to support small-scale projects in countries in transition within the Baltic States. BIP enabled Canadian organizations, including non-profit organizations and NGOs, to share expertise and skills with their counterparts in the Baltic through projects that promoted democratic development and the transition to market-based economies. The BIP funded projects in diverse sectors such as training for capacity building in the NGO sector, community approaches to health care services, modernizing mental health service policies, housing policy formulation, creation and development of an NGO with focus on housing and information technology to support women entrepreneurs.
Over the term of the Program, FIT disbursed over $3M and approved and monitored 100 initiatives in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The third and final phase of the Program concentrated on supporting CIDA’s Central and Eastern Europe Branch (CEE) to manage the process of graduating Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as recipients of Canadian official development assistance. FIT continuously reviewed and revised the Program’s guidelines and training support to Canadian partners to better address changes to CIDA’s and the various Baltic governments’ priorities during the implementation of the graduation strategy.