Establishing Canada’s new “Partnership for gender equality”: Framework document

The Government of Canada has signalled its intention to establish a unique and innovative partnership to catalyse new investments to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, including by helping to address the funding gap faced by women’s rights defenders and gender equality advocates in developing countries and regions. To achieve this, development assistance must be financed and delivered differently by collaborating across sectors and mobilizing collective resources and expertise.

As announced on May 25, 2018, the Partnership will draw on the strengths of the private sector, philanthropic community, civil society and the Government of Canada to mobilize unprecedented levels of resources to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. The establishment of such a Partnership can only be realized with the engagement, expertise and networks of various sectors. To demonstrate the Government’s commitment to establish this Partnership, Canada will contribute up to $300 million.

The purpose of this framework discussion is to outline key issues and questions to help guide discussions with stakeholders to help inform the design and development of this new Partnership.

Canada’s feminist approach

The Government of Canada has suggested a number of elements to help guide the design and development of the Partnership. These elements are informed by relevant advice obtained through recent consultations, in particular, consultations held in relation to Canada’s 2016 International Assistance Review which led to the launch of Canada’s first Feminist International Assistance Policy in 2017, and recent technical workshops with civil society focused on how Canada can best strengthen women’s rights organizations, funds and movements in developing countries.

Canada has become a global champion of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, both at home and abroad. In launching the Feminist International Assistance Policy, Canada outlined its feminist approach to international assistance, prioritizing the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as central to all international assistance efforts. This feminist approach necessarily addresses the root causes of gender inequalities and seeks to transform systems and structures of power while recognizing that inequalities exist along intersectional lines. The Policy commits to expand innovative partnerships that have the greatest potential to close gender gaps, eliminate barriers to gender equality, and help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The Policy also recognizes the importance of investing in and engaging with diverse and inclusive women’s rights organizations, funds and movements working to promote women’s rights and advance women’s empowerment and gender equality in developing countries.

While there are a number of international donors and organizations working to support women’s rights and gender equality efforts at grassroots, national, regional and global levels with grants and capacity-building assistance, there is currently no single-window entity or global funding platform where interested partners from across sectors can pool and leverage their funds for impact, ensuring long-term sustainable, predictable and flexible financing for gender equality and women’s rights organizations, funds  and movements. The Partnership for Gender Equality is an opportunity for collective Canadian leadership from the private sector, philanthropic community, civil society, and government to collaborate to build an initiative with long-term global impact.

Issues for discussion

Mandate

The Partnership would focus on supporting women’s rights organizations, funds and movements in developing countries and regions to build capacity to advance the empowerment of women and girls and gender equality, and promote and protect women’s rights. This would include helping to address the funding gap faced by women’s rights defenders and gender equality advocates in those countries and regions. Recent reporting by the OECD Development Assistance Committee has identified that, in 2014, only 8% (USD 836 million) of gender equality focused aid to civil society went directly to civil society organizations in developing countries, and only 2% (USD 192 million) of this went directly to women’s rights organizations in the North and South combined. These organizations often lead the way in efforts to advance gender equality and promote and protect the rights of women and girls, playing a key role in advancing human rights while helping to strengthen their communities and countries.

The Partnership would seek to engage organizations and individuals from Canadian and international civil society, private sector and philanthropic community to establish a common vision and agenda to carry out this goal. Input and knowledge is being sought on the principal functions of the Partnership including grant-making, governance, transparency, accountability, and financial investment for social impact.

Structure

The Partnership would have three complementary functions:

• It would be able to receive financial contributions from government, individuals, philanthropic foundations, the private sector, and other donors;
• It would be a grant-maker in support of gender equality and the promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls in developing countries and regions; and
• It would include a social impact and gender lens investment arm that would generate financial returns and finance the grant making activities.

Governance, transparency, accountability and sustainability

The governance structures of the Partnership will be defined in the coming year. The Partnership would be able to facilitate grant-making and support gender equality advocacy and capacity-building activities for organizations, funds and movements based in developing countries. It would have an oversight mechanism that will include monitoring, reporting and evaluation functions, including the tracking of ODA-eligible funding by the Partnership, impact assessments of results achieved, and the use of gender-sensitive approaches to evaluation. Its governance structure would have as a central component due diligence and fiduciary risk monitoring and management of investments and funding. The Partnership would function in a manner that is ethical, transparent, and respectful of gender equality and women’s human rights, and espouse a feminist organizational culture to ensure that it acts as an agent of change to address unequal power relations and gender-based discrimination in all its policies, systems and functions.