On June 9, 2017, Canada launched the Feminist International Assistance Policy anchoring its commitment to put gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls at the heart of its international development, humanitarian, and peace and security efforts.
Evidence clearly demonstrates that this is the most effective way to reduce poverty and create a world that is more inclusive, more peaceful and more prosperous. By eliminating barriers to equality and helping create better opportunities, women and girls can be powerful agents of change and improve their own lives and those of their families, communities and countries. This requires engaging men and boys in transforming the rigid roles and norms that lead to inequalities. Gender equality benefits everyone.
This means Canada prioritizes the investments, partnerships and advocacy efforts that have the greatest potential to close gender gaps, eliminate barriers to gender equality and help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
As such, partners seeking international assistance from Global Affairs Canada (GAC) are expected to ensure active and meaningful participation and decision-making by women and girls in all initiatives—from project design to implementation and through monitoring and evaluation. It is important that women and girls know about their rights, and that they have advocates working on their behalf, to promote and defend those rights. To do so, it is necessary to work closely with stakeholders that advance women’s rights—including local women’s organizations.
This toolkit provides guidance for designing and implementing feminist international assistance programming. Stronger projects are those that are rights-based and that focus on addressing the root causes of gender inequalities within historical, social, cultural, economic and political barriers.
