Women’s 7 2025 – Thematic Overview Papers

Context 

Canada will chair the G7 in 2025. The W7 or Women’s 7 is one of many ‘engagement groups’ that  provides recommendations to G7 countries and holds governments accountable for commitments  made. The W7 focuses on advancing women’s rights and gender equality as both a standalone priority  and a set of issues that requires attention and robust action in each ministerial meeting and theme  discussion. Each year, the W7 is organized by civil society organizations from the host G7 country. 

The objectives for the 2025 W7 are:  

• Host the 2025 W7 during Canada’s G7 presidency (involving feminist activists from across  Canada, G7 countries, and the Global South). 
• Engage G7 actors in 2025, bringing feminist proposals (analysis, language, initiatives, etc.) to the  discussions of Canada’s G7 priorities. 
• Where possible, influence outcome documents and commitments. 

The 2025 W7 organizing committee has begun preparing for next year. We would like to have strong evidence from which to advance policy dialogue. Our organizing committee currently has  representatives from: Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, Canadian Labour Congress, Canadian  Women’s Foundation, Equality Fund, Nobel Women’s Initiative, Oxfam-Canada, Women’s Shelters  Canada, and a Senior Fellow – Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative 

In parallel, the 2025 W7 will draw on past W7 Communiques to develop an updated communique for  next year. This communique will provide calls to action and include the aspirational visions of feminists  from around the world. 

The Products 

In order to strengthen the W7 policy advocacy, we are commissioning five (5) background papers that  correspond to the emerging Canadian priorities for the 2025 G7. The themes are: ∙ Artificial intelligence/emerging technologies 

• Economic resilience 
• Democracy 
• Climate crisis
• Care (including social protection and public services). 

Each background paper will be approximately 20-30 pages including notes and references. 

The 2025 W7 will establish five working groups – one for each of these themes and an additional  working group that will develop specific recommendations focusing on gender justice issues. These  working groups will engage in substantive, specific discussions with G7 officials and develop concrete  recommendations for outcomes. Our goal is that these papers provide analytical inputs, background,  evidence, context, and inspiration for these discussions.  

What We Are Looking For 

We are planning on engaging with G7 issues in substantive and concrete ways. These papers will provide  inputs, inspiration, and background in order to strengthen the effectiveness of the policy/advocacy. 

Clearly our themes are very broad. We’re looking for papers that take past G7 formulation/discussions  as the jumping off point and then bring feminist curiosity to the discussion.  

Each paper must include: 

• A review of the focus/orientation of past G7 discussions on the theme and relevant  commitments relating to gender equality (going back 7 years). In particular the paper should  identify the ‘best language’ to date on gender equality that could be built on in 2025. 
• A brief survey of feminist analysis of the theme (with key resources), highlighting key policy  recommendations (including Global South references and perspectives). Ideally this section  would include agreed language from other global processes that we can bring to G7 discussions  (but this is not required). 
• The identification of four (4) to six (6) promising areas/asks under this theme that bridge past G7  outcomes/discussions/communiques with current global feminist priorities. 
• The identification of additional themes/topics that would benefit from more investigation but  the timeline did not allow for full exploration. 
• The papers should be grounded in the ‘world of the G7’. We’re looking for researchers who can  take the broad feminist analysis and priorities and help us formulate key ‘asks’ that we can use  in dialogue and discussion with G7 officials. We are not looking for broad, academic, abstract  literature reviews.  

We have some background documentation (including a compilation of the recommendations of past G7  Gender Equality Advisory Councils) that we will share with authors once contracts are signed. We will  also hold discussions with the authors to clarify the scope, objectives and priorities.  

Budget 

The budget for each paper is CAD 15,000 (all in). The exception is the paper on care (including social  protection and public services), which has a budget of CAD 9,000 (all in). This is not negotiable and  applicants must be able to complete the paper for this amount. Payment will be made upon successful  completion of the paper.

Process 

We thank all applicants for their submissions and appreciate your time and effort, however only  shortlisted candidates will be contacted. 

We will contact candidates as soon as possible and make a quick decision. We will have initial  discussions with the successful candidates to help frame the topic and clarify expectations. We will ask  for an initial draft, then provide feedback, and then ask the writers to provide a final draft. 

Our plan is to publish the papers online (provided the papers meet quality standards) and authors will  be acknowledged. 

The 2025 W7 Organizing Committee will be available for discussions with the successful writers to  ensure coherence between our vision and needs and the work to develop the papers.  

Timeline 

Time is of the essence. This is our current timeline: 

• November 12, 2024 – deadline for proposals 
• Week of November 18 – successful candidates informed and meetings to discuss the scope of  work/brief 
• January 2^nd, 2025 – first draft due 
• January 17, 2025 – feedback provided to authors 
• January 26, 2025 – final draft due 

We realize this is a tight schedule and regret the lack of flexibility.

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How to Apply:

Send your CV, a proposal (no more than 700 words) on how you would approach the task highlighting your relevant skills/experience, and your commitment to meeting/ability to meet our timelines to: [email protected]

Please note W7 RFP response in the subject line and provide a separate application for each theme if you are bidding on more than one paper.

Deadline: November 12, 2024 – 11 pm EST

Two or more individuals may join together to submit a proposal, however, the contract will be with one individual or entity.

If you have additional questions, please contact [email protected].