Gender equality

In the 1980s and 90s CIDA’s policies on equality between women and men were on the leading edge of international practice but that has changed dramatically over the last few years.  While CIDA at one time was seen as a leader in the field others donors have now surpassed CIDA.
Since producing its 1976 guidelines and releasing its innovative 1984 policy on Women in Development (WID), CIDA has worked consistently – internally and with its partners, other donors, and international institutions – to promote women’s full participation as both agents and beneficiaries of development. ¹
It worked to promote a deeper understanding within CIDA and globally of the systemic causes of women’s subordination and the social construction of gender relations, and translated that understanding into policies and programming.  
CIDA’s programming came to be based on the understanding that an important underpinning of prosperous and peaceful societies was equality – between women and men as well as between different races, classes and ethnic groups. Recognizing that gender is an important social and economic dimension marked by inequality, CIDA revised its 1984 policy in 1995 to emphasize the importance of gender equity and women’s empowerment. The 1995 policy on WID and Gender Equity was widely used by partners in their policy dialogue work and as a model for the development of their own policies.²
CIDA consolidated this experience in a policy statement in 1999 which it developed through a broad consultative process. The 1999 policy brought CIDA national and international recognition. ³  The policy reaffirmed CIDA’s long-standing commitment to the pursuit of gender equality internationally, and introduced a new vision which emphasized Gender Equality as an end result and linked it to the Agency’s poverty reduction strategy.⁴
The 1999 Policy Framework outlined three programming objectives:

• To advance women's equal participation with men as decision-makers in shaping the sustainable development of their societies;
• To support women and girls in the realization of their full human rights;
• To reduce gender inequalities in access to and control over the resources and

benefits of development.
This meant funding multilateral organizations in their efforts to promote and contribute to gender equality – both financially and by advocating for gender equality as Canadian delegates governing those organizations.  It meant respect and support for indigenous organizations supporting the advancement of women, often through CIDA ‘gender funds’.
Although the 1999 statement remains CIDA’s official policy, the Agency is implementing it selectively.

• Whereas CIDA used to fund projects aimed at promoting women’s rights and strengthening women’s organizations, its gender-related projects now focus on service delivery.
• CIDA has cut local funds to support women’s advancement organizations despite a 2006 evaluation that found the funding program highly effective.
• Several organizations ( Kairos, International Planned Parenthood) that support a broad range of women’s rights have not had their funding renewed.
• Canada has moved out of several of the poorest African countries where many of the world’s poorest women live.
• Canada is no longer a strong advocate for women’s rights in multilateral organizations

A prime example of this approach was the Prime Minister’s March 2010 announcement that Canada’s G8 signature project will be a Maternal Child Health Initiative.  However, the Conservative government is vacillating on whether to include the provision of family planning services, contraception and access to safe abortion in this initiative. Including these services is essential, say experts in this field, and would be in accordance with the practice of other G8 members.  In hewing a conservative line on gender, family planning and abortion, the government drew the opposition parties into the fray, making maternal child health a divisive Canadian issue rather than one of social justice and good health for the world’s poorest.
The current government’s position is no longer to support equality between men and women – with our voices or with our dollars – in global fora where the struggle for women’s place in the world is at stake.   Our current government believes it is more important to use foreign aid to divide the Canadian public along partisan lines and hopefully win a few votes from those who believe that treating symptoms is more important than making real progress through dealing with causes – that imposing made-in-Canada solutions is better than building alliances. 
This needs to change.
Canada, through CIDA and Canadian Civil Society Organizations, has a long history and deep experience in promoting gender equality and women’s rights globally. Canada could again take up that role and reestablish its international reputation by seriously implementing the1999 CIDA Policy on Gender Equality as a foundation for an agency-wide vision and framework for gender equality in CIDA’s international cooperation as confirmed and recommended by the extensive 2008 evaluation. Using Canadian aid policy on gender equality for narrow partisan purposes is unworthy of a government aspiring to G8 leadership. 
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 APPENDIX 1 
OVERVIEW OF CIDA ACTIVITIES ⁵
Three Decades of Commitment
The following list of activities gives a sense of the breadth and depth of CIDA’s activities to promote gender equality and women’s rights over the last 3 decades.

• 1976: CIDA adopted initial policy guidelines on Women in Development (WID).
• 1984: WID Directorate established and first CIDA WID Policy developed.
• 1986: CIDA's five-year WID Plan of Action launched.
• 1993: CIDA's WID Policy and activities evaluated.
• 1994: WID and Gender Equity Division established in Policy Branch.
• 1995: WID Policy update: WID and Gender Equity Policy.
• 1995: Government of Canada Policy for CIDA on Human Rights, Democratization and Good Governance released; it recognizes the centrality of women's human rights.
• 1995: Support for the full participation of women as equal partners in the sustainable development of their societies is identified as one of CIDA's six programming priorities in the Government's foreign policy statement, Canada in the World, Government Statement.
• 1995: CIDA performance review conducted focusing on the WID and Gender Equity Policy.
• 1995: CIDA's Policy on Poverty Reduction released; it commits the Agency to address gender equality as part of poverty reduction.
• 1996: CIDA's Strategy for Health released, emphasizing the importance of women's and girls' empowerment to improving their health.
• 1997: CIDA's Basic Human Needs Policy launched, emphasizing the promotion of gender equality as a necessary strategy to meet the needs of women and their families.
• 1997: CIDA's draft Strategy for Children released for consultation; it declares gender  equality and women's empowerment essential for girls' and boys' well-being.
• 1997: CIDA strategy Our Commitment to Sustainable Development released; it acknowledges that achievement of CIDA's sustainable development and poverty reduction mandate depends on support for the full participation of women, along with CIDA's five other programming priorities.
• 1999: CIDA's Policy on Gender Equality launched; the Policy update is created to support the achievement of equality between women and men to ensure sustainable development in the 21st century.
• 2005: Gender equality seen as a crosscutting theme throughout Canada’s development cooperation. Gender equality results intended to be systematically and explicitly integrated across all programming within each of the five sectors of Agency focus: governance, health, basic education, private sector development, and environmental sustainability.
• 2005: Canada’s International Policy Statement reaffirmed CIDA’s policy commitments to gender equality, specifically that: “Gender Equality results will be systematically and explicitly integrated across all CIDA programming.”
• 2006: CIDA’s latest Business Process Roadmap reiterates the Agency’s commitment to integrate gender equality in all its initiatives.
• 2006: On October 31, 2006, the Minister of International Cooperation, in a speech to the International Cooperation Days, declared that: “…we need programs and funding that specifically target support to the economic and social development of women. We need to combine forces and work in collaboration with developing countries to speed up progress for women and girls….”
• 2007: CIDA adopted gender equality as the central theme for International Development Week in February 2007.
• 2007: The new Minister of International Cooperation, announced on October 4, that Canada will contribute $60 million over four years to EQUIP, which is managed by the World Bank. EQUIP invests in educational facilities and human resources, while placing a special emphasis on the promotion of education for girls.  Canada’s investment in EQUIP is the largest investment made by any donor in the world to date.

¹ This historical background is drawn from the Evaluation of CIDA’s Implementation of its Policy on Gender Equality, Final Report, April 2008, prepared by Bytown Consulting and C. A. C.  International, Only the Executive Summary is available on CIDA’s web site -  http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/ACDI-CIDA.nsf/eng/NAT-2375240-H4Y  (accessed April 2010). [back]

² Ibid p. 18 [back]

³ Ibid p.19 [back]

⁴ Ibid p.19 [back]

⁵See Evaluation p.17 [back]