Class is (almost) in session: CanWaCH Academy
We’re thrilled to welcome you to the CanWaCH Academy from November 19 to 22!
This year’s CanWaCH Academy has something for everyone, with a wide range of practical workshops and training sessions to challenge your thinking and spark new ideas.
Sessions will focus on knowledge and professional development to support CanWaCH member organizations and their team members in advancing health and rights for women, children and adolescents globally.
Please note you must register for each academy session separately.
- 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST – CanWaCH Annual General Meeting
- 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST – GAC Grants and Contributions Transformation Initiative (GCTI) forum for partners
10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST
- Implementing the humanitarian-development-peace nexus or (triple nexus) approach in the health sector
- Championing change: Equipping advocates to advance the health and rights of women and children globally
11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. EST
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EST
- Tools and policies to protect local and international workers
- Social media for social change: looking ahead at trends and platforms for 2025
10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. EST
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EST
3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST
- Navigating GAC 101 for health/SRHR partners
- Building resilience: Crisis communications for Canadian NGOs in global development
9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. EST
11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EST
11 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST – CanWaCH Annual General Meeting
Complex challenges hinder progress for the health and the empowerment of women and children worldwide. Following the business meeting portion of our AGM on November 19 at 11 a.m. EST, we’ll explore the transformative potential of futurist thinking to unlock solutions and new possibilities through an engaging keynote session.
In a dynamic discussion moderated by Michael Messenger, CEO and President of World Vision Canada, participants will hear from Dr. Geeta Nayyar, a globally recognized chief medical officer and leading voice in health technology and Dan Pallotta, a trailblazer in non-profit innovation and voice of the documentary UnCharitable, on how they are redefining the status quo to build a more equitable future.
1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST – GAC Grants and Contributions Transformation Initiative (GCTI) forum for partners
Join Global Affairs Canada for the second Grants and Contributions Transformation Initiative (GCTI) Forum for Partners of 2024. The GCTI team will share exciting updates on collaborative efforts with partners to transform grants and contributions at Global Affairs Canada. Your insights have been valuable, and we look forward to your continued feedback at this session on the latest initiatives, including principles to promote locally-led development, streamlined business processes, and IT solutions.
10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST – Implementing the humanitarian-development-peace nexus or (triple nexus) approach in the health sector
A growing number of Canadian Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are adopting a humanitarian-development-peace nexus (also known as triple nexus) approach for their work in fragile and conflict affected countries. This engaging 90-minute session will examine the various dimensions of the triple nexus approach and its practical implications. Special emphasis will be placed on innovative ways to adapt current practices in the health sector. By the end of the 90-minute session, participants will:
- Gain a greater understanding of the triple nexus approach
- Increase awareness of how Canadian actors are using the triple nexus approach
- Identify ways to adapt existing practices
- Develop an appreciation for the scope of conflict sensitivity analysis
*Please note this event includes English and French simultaneous translation.
10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST – Championing change: Equipping advocates to advance the health and rights of women and children globally
Advocacy is an essential tool for driving sustainable and equitable impact in global health that affects women, children, and adolescents around the world. Join Results Canada in this informative and interactive workshop to strengthen your advocacy skills and amplify your organizational voice for global health equity for all. Participants will gain the foundational knowledge necessary to build compelling advocacy strategies, effectively engage decision-makers/parliamentarians, and create compelling communications. By learning the basics of advocacy, you can propel impact, create lasting policy change, mobilize resources, and build community with like-minded stakeholders to advance global health for women, children, and adolescents.
*Please note this event includes English and French simultaneous translation.
11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. EST – Making stats matter: Effective storytelling for communications and programming success
When it comes to advancing women’s, children’s and adolescent health, data alone doesn’t inspire change—stories do. This session helps you uncover and communicate the stories behind your statistics, transforming complex data into compelling narratives that drive engagement and action. Whether you’re shaping public engagement campaigns, crafting internal reports or supporting broader program goals, you’ll learn how to make your numbers come alive. This interactive session offers hands-on exercises, real-world examples and live editing to illustrate storytelling strategies that work across sectors. Participants will walk away with immediately applicable tools for crafting stories that resonate.
By the end of the session, participants will:
- Understand when and how statistics enhance storytelling in a programming context.
- Identify key elements of stories that can be drawn from research findings, program data or evaluation results.
- Learn strategies to package data stories in ways that engage both public audiences and internal stakeholders.
- Create clear, relatable data visualizations that communicate results effectively.
- Translate complex measures into meaningful stories for diverse audiences.
- Develop a “story checklist” for identifying stories within program data.
*Please note this event includes English and French Simultaneous Translation.
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EST – Tools and policies to protect local and international workers
This session provides an in-depth presentation of tools and resources designed for protecting and safeguarding local and international workers of civil society organizations. Participants will leave with actionable insights on developing sustainable and effective strategies to protect and empower their workforce in diverse operational contexts. A key highlight of this session is the introduction of a country-specific guide. The guide provides a roadmap for identifying and addressing support gaps, enhancing survivor care policies and ensuring effective responses to trauma. By the end of the session, attendees will be equipped with actionable steps to strengthen their organizations’ approaches to worker protection and trauma-informed care.
*Please note this event includes English and French simultaneous translation.
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EST – Social media for social change: looking ahead at trends and platforms for 2025
Join communications expert Kathryn LeBlanc in a workshop on leveraging social media for social change and looking ahead at trends and platforms for 2025. This workshop will pull examples from the social impact context, with a focus on the CanWaCH membership. We will unpack how to navigate the changing social media landscape and how to effectively use the platforms to get your message across.
*Please note this event includes English and French simultaneous translation.
10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST – From data collection to use: Enhancing your monitoring and evaluation journey
In this interactive session, participants will journey through the entire data process—from effective data collection to real-time analysis and collaborative data review. Led by experts from Salanga and World Vision Canada, we’ll explore practical strategies for collecting data and hosting impactful data review workshops that drive data-informed decisions and continuous program improvement.
Combining hands-on tools, best practices, and live demos, this session covers key aspects of real-time data analysis and facilitating data review workshops, with a strong focus on data use and informing project activities. We’ll explore options for data management, and you’ll learn how to engage teams in meaningful data discussions. Participants will also have the chance to share their own tools, experiences and challenges, fostering a collaborative exchange to enhance effective data collection, review and application.
*Please note this event includes English and French simultaneous translation.
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. EST – The climate – gender – health nexus: From theory to practice
The climate crisis has tremendous impacts on the poorest and most marginalized people in developing countries, especially women and girls. It increases the demand to address the injustice of poverty and gender inequalities in communities and the demand to respond to urgent humanitarian needs. Climate change also has profound impacts on human health, exacerbates existing health disparities, undermines healthcare systems and challenges efforts to achieve global health goals. Following the climate-gender nexus, women are more vulnerable to the health-related consequences of climate change. Join the CARE Climate and Resilience Academy for a half-day online training on community-based resilience and adaptation, focusing on climate change impacts on health from a gender-transformative perspective.
- Refresh or increase your understanding of key climate concepts and the link between climate change and health.
- Learn to use CARE’s Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (CVCA) tool, integrating gender and identifying health-related vulnerabilities.
- Understand how to integrate health and gender in a community-based adaptation project.
Please note that space is limited to 50 participants. We appreciate all interested in attending and request that up to two individuals per organization register at this time.
The training will be held in English only.
Prior to the training, and to ensure that you can benefit most from this interactive training, we recommend you enroll in a set of short, self-paced courses on Climate Justice and Gender Justice and CARE’s Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis: CVCA 1 and CVCA 2,. You will be asked to create an account on the e-learning platform of the CARE Climate & Resilience Academy which will provide you free access to these courses.
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EST – Data (in)equities in AI: Visualize, understand and act
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes an integral part of decision-making across sectors, ethical dilemmas and the risk of reproducing existing inequalities become increasingly concerning. In this session, we will present a framework that contextualizes AI train and test datasets within existing data inequities. Participants will iteratively build the framework through the training, learning the importance of asking: who is in the data? How are they in the data? What are the politics of the data? And what are the politics of how they are in the data? Applying the framework in practice will focus attention on the action needed to achieve inclusive, responsible AI.
*Please note this event includes English and French simultaneous translation.
TechnoSocio Advisory retains all copyrights and intellectual property for this session. Keep building your AI literacy: this framework and more at The Inclusive AI Lab.
3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST – Navigating GAC for health/SRHR partners
Since June 2023, Global Affairs Canada has started a major transformation initiative that aims to revitalize the Department on many fronts, including organization structure, human resources, information technology and systems, etc.
This initiative recently led to the implementation of a newly reorganized Departmental structure. The Navigating GAC 101 session thus aims to provide participants with a general update on how to navigate the Department at this time, placing particular focus on the health/SRHR prism.
Please submit any questions you have in advance to help guide session development using this form! Please note there will be time for Q&A during the session as well.
*Please note this event includes English and French simultaneous translation.
3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST – Building resilience: Crisis communications for Canadian NGOs in global development
In today’s landscape, Canadian organizations working in international development and humanitarian aid often encounter public skepticism, pushback and negative comments regarding their missions and projects. This interactive training session is designed to equip communications and program staff, from organizations of all sizes, with the skills needed to navigate these challenges effectively. Participants will learn practical tools to manage crisis situations, counter negative narratives, and respond to online and media pushback with confidence and credibility.
Led by a seasoned communications strategist with extensive media experience, Shirlee Engel will guide participants through the essentials of crisis response in high-stakes environments with effective communication strategies. Attendees will learn how to craft messages that resonate, the importance of creating proactive strategies that build resilience against public criticism, and tips and tricks to cultivate long-term trust with audiences. With a focus on real-world scenarios and hands-on practice, this session will empower organizations to reinforce their mission, maintain public support, and respond effectively in challenging situations.
9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. EST – Utiliser le guide terminologique sur l’égalité des genres : nouvelles perspectives et échanges
Dans un contexte où le lexique de l’égalité des genres évolue constamment, il devient essentiel de créer une cohérence entre les langues. L’été dernier, le guide terminologique en français du CanSFE a été mis à jour pour inclure de nouveaux termes et révisions. Cette séance interactive offre un espace de réflexion et de consultation, invitant les participant.e.s à explorer ces mises à jour et à partager leurs impressions. Ensemble, nous examinerons les subtilités de la traduction de termes techniques en matière d’égalité des genres, et vos retours seront précieux pour affiner et enrichir le guide. Ce sera une occasion unique de contribuer activement à l’évolution d’un outil essentiel pour le secteur.
Objectifs de la séance :
- Offrir un espace d’échange pour recueillir les retours des participant.e.s
- Découvrir les mises à jour du guide terminologique
- Réfléchir aux défis de traduction de termes techniques en contexte d’égalité des genres
*This session will be presented in French only.
11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EST – Data in debate: Navigating the complexities of qualitative and quantitative measurement
This session delves into how qualitative and quantitative research and evaluation methods complement each other in programming. Attendees will learn through real-world examples of how these approaches have been applied to achieve different objectives. The session will focus on how to effectively integrate qualitative and quantitative methods in programming to enhance data collection and analysis, as well as generate recommendations to improve projects. Participants will gain insights from case studies, highlighting practical uses of these approaches in various contexts.
More specifically, at the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Gain a balanced understanding of when and how qualitative and quantitative methods best apply.
- Learn to use qualitative data to contextualize quantitative findings and develop actionable recommendations for programming and project activities.
- Explore examples of method selection between qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods based on program needs.
- Practice integrating both approaches with real-world data and tools.
