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Global Affairs Canada Implementation Plan for Canada’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security – 2023 to 2029

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Table of contents

Acronyms

2SLGBTQI+
2-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, plus
CEDAW
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
CFLI
Canada Fund for Local Initiatives
CRSV
Conflict-related sexual violence
CSO
Civil society organization
FIAP
Feminist International Assistance Policy
FFP
Feminist Foreign Policy
GAC
Global Affairs Canada
GBA+
Gender-based analysis plus
PSOP
Peace and Stabilization Operations Program
SDGs
Sustainable Development Goals
SEA
Sexual exploitation and abuse
SGBV
Sexual and gender-based violence
SRHR
Sexual and reproductive health and rights
TFGBV
Technology-facilitated gender-based violence
UNSC
United Nations Security Council
UNSCR
United Nations Security Council Resolution
HRD
Human Rights Defender
WPS
Women, Peace and Security
WVL
Women’s Voice and Leadership Program
WRO
Women's rights organizations

Introduction

In 2000, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 to recognize the importance of addressing the unique and disproportionate impacts of armed conflict on women and girls, while also acknowledging the potential of women and girls to positively influence global peace and security.

Born of the efforts of a global movement led by women experiencing armed conflict, crisis and instability, UNSCR 1325 was the first of 10 Security Council resolutions that form the foundation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Recognizing that gender equality is a foundation for peace, Canada co-sponsored UNSCR 1325 as a non-permanent member of the Security Council and has since made the WPS agenda a key element of its Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) and Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP).

The WPS agenda goes beyond the traditional characterization of women and girls as solely victims of violence and armed conflict and recognizes their critical role as actors in enabling and achieving long-lasting peace. Typically characterized as having 4 pillars (prevention, participation, protection, and relief and recovery), the agenda calls for women’s full, equal and meaningful participation at all levels of decision making and in all stages of conflict prevention and resolution and post-conflict reconstruction. It also aims to promote and protect the human rights of women and girls, including with respect to conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence.

Through the ongoing leadership of civil society, the WPS agenda has progressed beyond the stage of UNSC resolutions. Prompted by the increasingly complex and changing nature of conflicts, security threats, technology and the geopolitical landscape, the WPS agenda challenges member states to rethink traditional peace architectures and apply a transformative feminist vision to peace and security.

As the WPS agenda has evolved since its inception, the Government of Canada’s implementation approach has also developed. Canada implements the WPS agenda through its National Action Plan on WPS, which has gone through 2 iterations since 2011: Building Peace and Security for All: Canada’s first National Action Plan on WPS (2011-2016) and Gender Equality: A Foundation for Peace. Canada’s second National Action Plan on WPS (2017-2022). The role of Global Affairs Canada (GAC) in this has been twofold, encompassing the implementation of GAC’s departmental commitments on WPS under each National Action Plan and the coordination of the Government of Canada’s implementation of these National Action Plans, including the third and current plan, Foundations for Peace: Canada’s National Action Plan on WPS (2023-2029).

The development of GAC’s Implementation Plan was informed by its engagement with external stakeholders and Indigenous Peoples in Canada over the course of the previous National Action Plan (2017-2022) and the elaboration of Foundations for Peace: Canada’s National Action Plan on WPS (2023-2029). GAC is grateful for their past, ongoing and future contributions.

Purpose

GAC’s Implementation Plan accompanies Foundations for Peace: Canada’s National Action Plan on WPS (2023-2029) and presents pathways that the department will use to contribute to enhancing peace, security and equality for all people, particularly women in all their diversity, primarily (but not exclusively) in the fragile and conflict-affected settings where GAC engages.Footnote 1

GAC’s commitments are reflected throughout the 6 focus areas of Foundations for Peace: Canada’s National Action Plan on WPS (2023-2029):

  1. Building and Sustaining Peace
  2. Security, Justice and Accountability
  3. Crisis Response
  4. Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV)
  5. Leadership and Capabilities (cross-cutting focus area)
  6. Inclusion (cross-cutting focus area)

The 4 pillars of the WPS agenda—prevention, participation, protection, and relief and recovery—are reflected across the focus areas.

Rather than targeting focus countries, the department will aim to remain agile in responding to emerging crises and seek to mainstream WPS across diplomatic, trade, consular and international assistance engagements, and programming across all geographic regions. The commitments listed under each focus area are not exhaustive; rather, they are examples of initiatives that will contribute to the intended results.

Under GAC’s Implementation Plan, effective from 2023 to 2029, the department will focus on breaking down barriers for women and gender-diverse people by working to ensure their full, equal and meaningful participation in peace and security; by promoting their human rights and leadership in preventing violent conflict; and by mitigating the threats and violence they face in fragile and conflict-affected settings. These efforts will build on the achievements of the last implementation plan.

GAC will continue to lead the coordination of the Government of Canada’s WPS efforts under the third National Action Plan and will be diligent, coordinated and strategic in its collaboration with and support to federal National Action Plan partners to advance common WPS priorities.

One of the greatest challenges under the previous plan was to ensure that the department integrated WPS in Canada’s responses to crisis and conflict from the very outset. Under the current plan, GAC will advance efforts to integrate a WPS lens across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus throughout the full cycle of violence and crisis—from prevention and response to reconstruction and recovery.

Foundations for Peace: Canada’s National Action Plan on WPS (2023-2029) implementing partners:

GAC’s commitments will be implemented collaboratively by the department through Canadian missions abroad, bilateral engagements and multilateral forums. GAC will also advance this important work by continuing to collaborate with civil society and Indigenous Peoples and to build strategic partnerships. The breadth and scope of these collaborative efforts to advance Canada’s WPS commitments from 2023 to 2029 will support GAC’s contribution to a more peaceful and secure world, where all can live free from discrimination, violence, hatred, oppression and marginalization based on gender and other intersectional identity factors.

In implementing its departmental commitments, GAC will adhere to the principles of humility, responsiveness, coherence and trust laid out in Foundations for Peace: Canada’s National Action Plan on WPS (2023-2029). GAC will also work to consider the diverse experiences of women facing multiple and intersecting forms of oppression, inequity and exclusion based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, sex characteristics, race, ethnicity, culture, place of birth, religion or belief, language, geography, education, income, age, disability, or other identity factors.

Context

The world is experiencing a reversal of generational gains in women’s rights while witnessing increasing inequality and a record number of violent conflicts.

Source: UN Secretary-General’s 2022 Report on Women, Peace and Security

The world is witnessing the emergence of new risks to democracy, peace and security and to the rules-based international order, all of which have significant and differentiated impacts on women, girls and sexually and gender-diverse people. GAC is responding to increasingly complex and intersecting issues, such as the growing threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and disinformation campaigns and malicious cyber activities, including technology facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV).Footnote 2

When democracy is under attack, women and other marginalized groups are often the first to suffer. Canada has responded and continues to respond to the conflicts in Sudan and Ethiopia, the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan and the Iranian regime’s failure to uphold human rights, which are all examples of places where gender has motivated or informed the actions taken by regimes and warring parties. Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the crises in Haiti and in Gaza have demonstrated that individuals are targeted and impacted differently by instability and conflict depending on their gender and intersecting identities.

Conflict is responsible for an estimated 80% of humanitarian needs worldwide.Footnote 3 The number of forcibly displaced people now exceeds 100 million globally as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order.Footnote 4 Women and children comprise 90% of those forced to flee and often live in situations with heightened risk of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).Footnote 5 Climate change is also a driver of humanitarian need and can lead to climate-related security risks. Under certain circumstances, climate change has the potential to increase instability and lead to a rise in violence, including over contested natural resources, which has greater impacts on women, girls and gender-diverse people.

In the face of these challenges, women and gender-diverse people’s full, equal and meaningful participation in peace and security efforts offers a path to conflict prevention and more sustainable peace. In many countries, women (including young women) are at the forefront of protests against authoritarian leaders and firmly refusing to accept political settlements that do not respect their rights. Elsewhere, women are achieving important progress, including more equal laws and advances in women’s representation in decision-making processes. At local levels, women have led successful negotiations across conflict lines to secure access to water and humanitarian aid, brokered the release of political prisoners, and mediated local ceasefires to halt violations against civilians.Footnote 6 Colombia’s most recent peace negotiations featured gender parity, while some perpetrators of sexual violence in Iraq, Syria and the Central African Republic are being brought to justice.Footnote 7

Canada is committed to supporting these efforts and to ensuring that women in all their diversity, and sexually and gender-diverse people have the same rights as men to participate fully, meaningfully and equally in public affairs, including in matters of peace and security, in the formulation of government policy, and in government representation at the international level.Footnote 8

GAC’s renewed efforts to advance the implementation of the WPS agenda are anchored in the recognition of growing threats and attacks on gender equality advocates and human rights defenders. The department also acknowledges and seeks to counter a mounting backlash against women and 2-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, plus (2SLGBTQI+) rights.

Language matters: Saying what we mean

Sexual orientation and gender identity are important dimensions for everyone to consider, particularly in times of conflict. Peace and security provisions that assume everyone is cisgender or heterosexual fail to take these dimensions into account.

As outlined in Foundations for Peace: Canada’s National Action Plan on WPS (2023-2029), “Women, Peace and Security” is a globally used term that originated in relevant UN Security Council resolutions. However, Canada’s most recent National Action Plan does not use the words “women,” “sex” and “gender” interchangeably, recognizing the difference between the terms. A gender-based approach acknowledges and responds to the structural and individual impacts of socially constructed gender roles, patriarchy and misogyny.

In keeping with Foundations for Peace: Canada’s National Action Plan on WPS (2023-2029), GAC’s Implementation Plan uses the terms “women,” “gender” and “sex” intentionally. It endeavours to avoid a reliance on gender binaries, to be inclusive of non-binary people and to recognize that transgender women are women and inherently part of the Women, Peace and Security agenda as a result.

In this context, it should be understood that references to 2SLGBTQI+ people, groups and organizations throughout the plan are focused on women and gender-diverse people within the 2SLGBTQI+ community.

“Including the stories of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women in the conversation about WPS provides a more complete picture of how gender matters to women in conflict.”

Source: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity as part of the WPS Project

Policy alignment

GAC’s Implementation Plan is a cornerstone of Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy (including its commitments on sustainable peace and security efforts), the Feminist International Assistance Policy (particularly action areas 1Footnote 9 and 6Footnote 10), and GAC’s efforts to strengthen the humanitarian-development-peace and trade-development nexuses.

The plan exists as part of a larger Government of Canada ecosystem of implementation strategies, principles and objectives at the departmental, national and international levels. Specifically, this plan supports the implementation of the following:

The plan reinforces or is consistent with the principles and objectives of domestically focused plans and policies, including:

Lastly, the plan supports the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and advances the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 5 on gender equality and SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions. Its focus on intersectionality and inclusion is aligned with the people-centred spirit of the 2030 Agenda, which aims to leave no one behind.

Focus areas

Focus Area 1: Building and Sustaining Peace

Improved efforts to promote inclusiveFootnote 12 and gender-responsiveFootnote 13 conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding

Women and gender-diverse peacebuilders and women-led organizations, networks, coalitions and movements play vital roles in building and sustaining peace. Their meaningful participation in conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding results in more sustainable outcomes and presents unique and pivotal opportunities to create transformative solutions and, ultimately, more inclusive and stable societies. In addition, it is vital to incorporate gender equality expertise throughout the entirety of peace and political transition processes and to firmly recognize and support the contributions of women’s rights organizations and women and gender-diverse human rights defenders and peacebuilders in these efforts.

However, there remain persistent obstacles to the full, equal and meaningful participation of these actors in efforts to build and sustain peace. Many forms of exclusion are amplified for those already facing intersecting types of discrimination, such as Indigenous women, minorities, women with disabilities, 2SLGBTQI+ people and youth. For example, as a result of their gender and the nature of their work challenging the status quo, women and gender-diverse peacebuilders and human rights defenders, including Indigenous land rights and environmental defenders, are increasingly the target of online and offline attacks to silence their advocacy and thwart their peacebuilding efforts.

Women and gender-diverse people also face obstacles in formal peace and security processes and in political decision making. Between 1992 and 2019, women represented on average only 13% of negotiators, 6% of mediators and 6% of signatories in major peace processes around the world.Footnote 14 There is no data available on the representation of gender-diverse people.Footnote 15 Similar trends in other areas show insufficient progress on women and gender-diverse people’s participation in decision-making processes more broadly.

Education, health and economic autonomy are crucial for enabling women and gender-diverse people’s effective participation in peace and political processes. For example, the delivery of targeted education programs for boys and girls that integrate human rights, gender equality and violence prevention into curricula is a key long-term strategy for the prevention of conflict, violence and violent extremism. Women’s meaningful participation in production, trade, and investment and entrepreneurship has also helped countries to become more resilient and rebuild faster after conflict.Footnote 16 Canada recognizes that more needs to be done to remove the barriers that prevent women and marginalized people from actively engaging on issues that fundamentally affect their day-to-day lives.

Canada has recognized the importance of supporting grassroots actors and locally led initiatives and of publicly recognizing the contributions that local women and gender-diverse peacebuilders, women’s rights organizations (WROs) and feminist movements make to peace and security in their communities. Canada is also transforming its approach to risk appetite, oversight and compliance for international assistance programming by focusing on transparency and efficiency for partners. This will enable funding to women’s rights organizations that is more responsive and adaptive to their needs and the circumstances in which they operate and that continues to support their safety from threats and violence.

Global bilateral financial support to feminist, women-led, and women's rights organizations and movements in fragile or conflict-affected countries represents less than 0.5% of bilateral aid.

Source: Global Affairs Canada - The Equality Fund: Transforming the way we support women’s organizations and movements working to advance women’s rights and gender equality - Canada.ca

Objectives:

Under Focus Area 1, GAC will continue to support the efforts of feminist movements, women’s rights organizations, and women human rights defenders (WHRDs) and peacebuilders in all their diversity, in addition to enabling funding that is better adapted and more responsive to their needs and circumstances.

GAC will continue to advocate for the representation of women, particularly from marginalized groups, in public sector organizations and to prioritize the advancement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

GAC will continue to use diplomatic channels to advocate for their inclusion in peace processes and to firmly maintain that there are no excuses for systematically excluding women and gender-diverse people from decisions that impact their futures. GAC will also push for the adoption and implementation of gender equality provisions in peace agreements.

Commitments:

Efforts under Focus Area 1 will support the work of women and gender-diverse peacebuilders and human rights defenders, women’s rights organizations and feminist movements to actively and meaningfully participate in peace and security decision-making processes, including conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding, whether at subnational, national or international levels. These activities will include the following:

At least 95% of GAC’s bilateral international development assistance will target or integrate gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. 15% of GAC’s overall bilateral international development assistance will specifically target gender equality. Similarly, 95% of all investments of the Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (PSOPs) will explicitly target or integrate WPS activities. Of this total, at least 15% will specifically target WPS activities. The department will continue tracking and reporting on GAC’s WPS-related funding.

Efforts under Focus Area 1 will also contribute to the safety of WROs, feminist movements, WHRDs and women peacebuilders working to advance the WPS agenda. These activities will include the following:

Focus Area 2: Security, Justice and Accountability

Enhanced inclusivity and gender responsiveness of security and justice sectors and of accountability mechanisms

The foundations of peaceful societies rely on security and justice institutions and accountability mechanisms that are inclusive and responsive to the needs of women, girls and gender-diverse people. At the same time, it is important to recognize the role played by some security and justice institutions in perpetuating insecurity and systemic harm, both in the past and the present.

Women and gender-diverse people have the same right as men to participate fully, meaningfully and equally in public affairs, including matters of peace and security. From space and climate security to arms control, non-proliferation, disarmament and mine action, to countering radicalization and violent extremism, to peacekeeping, the meaningful participation of women and gender-diverse people is needed to ensure that these sectors better reflect the diverse populations they seek to serve and protect. This is true from the operational to the decision-making levels.

As state and non-state actors work to navigate the challenges of newly emerging and non-traditional security threats, women remain at the forefront of communities’ responses, acting as first responders and mitigating the impact of threats on security. For example, while climate change and climate-related security risks, violence and conflict disproportionately affect women, girls and marginalized groups, they are not solely victims of conflict or climate threats—they are also uniquely positioned to contribute their contextualized knowledge and perspectives to achieve sustainable natural resource management, climate-resilient communities, and enhanced peace and stability.

Integrating a gender-responsive approach into GAC’s understanding of emerging threats will enable the department to better meet the needs of diverse demographic groups and to address barriers preventing the meaningful participation of women, girls and gender-diverse people.

Objectives:

Under Focus Area 2, GAC will support security and justice institutions to better reflect and meet the needs of the populations they serve and will promote means to increase accountability for crimes like conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV).

Canada will advance reform efforts abroad to help ensure that women and gender-diverse people can fully, equally and meaningfully contribute to and participate in the security and justice sectors, including law enforcement and the military, and in peacekeeping contexts.

To be impactful, Canada’s approach to preventing conflict and countering radicalization and violent extremism abroad will be underpinned by an understanding of the complex and intersectional gendered dynamics that drive recruitment and the perpetuation of violent attacks. To achieve this, Canada will adopt and promote the application of robust gender analysis in a global context where nuclear tensions remain high, biological threats are serious, cyber and outer space are emerging as potential theatres of conflict, weapons systems are increasingly automated and contain gender biases, and undeclared stockpiles of chemical weapons persist in multiple countries.

Under the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations, Canada funded the Measuring Opportunities for Women in Peace Operations barrier assessment for troop- and police-contributing countries, in partnership with Norway. 27 security institutions from 18 countries have undertaken or are in the process of undertaking this assessment, and several are addressing the findings in their security institutions. Such barrier assessments meaningfully guide gender-responsive approaches in the security sector, including support for gender targets, reviews of recruitment and retention policies, and organizational culture reforms that address and prevent workplace and sexual harassment and repeal discriminatory laws.

GAC will continue to stress the critical importance of including the perspectives of women, gender-diverse people and youth in weapons removal, arms control and conflict prevention in mine-affected regions. Canada will also advocate for and mainstream gender perspectives in relevant space security meetings and space-related bilateral engagements in collaboration with civil society, in addition to calling for a more inclusive approach to disarmament, mine action, non-proliferation and arms control.

Given the unequal treatment of women, girls and gender-diverse people and the barriers to access to justice that they face, GAC will also support efforts aimed at enabling the security and justice sectors to address their needs and priorities. This includes ensuring that the justice sector is responsive to the needs of the disproportionate number of women and girls that are targeted by gender-based violence in order to end impunity for these crimes. In seeking to prevent these acts and facilitate a response to them, survivor-centred and trauma-informed approaches must be prioritized to not revictimize or retraumatize survivors, including when reporting a crime to law enforcement.

Commitments:

Efforts under Focus Area 2 will contribute to increasing the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and gender-diverse people in the security and justice sectors and promote accountability for human rights abuses. These activities will include the following:

Efforts under Focus Area 2 will also contribute to the delivery of gender-responsive interventions to prevent and counter terrorism, radicalization to violence and transnational organized crime. These activities will include the following:

Lastly, efforts under Focus Area 2 will support gender-responsive interventions on non-proliferation, arms control, disarmament, and climate-related and cyber insecurity. These activities will include the following:

Focus Area 3: Crisis Response

Enhanced inclusivity and gender responsiveness in Global Affairs Canada’s coordination of Canada’s crisis response efforts internationally

The current global context is experiencing a state of polycrisis—a cluster of related global risks with compounding effects leading to an overall impact that exceeds the sum of the parts.Footnote 17 The accelerating pace of complex, protracted and interconnected crises continues to threaten Canada’s national interests and peace and security objectives, contributing to the rollback of hard-won gains in gender equality and sustainable development. Furthermore, as the nature of armed conflict has moved far beyond more conventional approaches, state and non-state actors alike face the challenge of redefining the bounds of conflict, fragility and insecurity.

During times of crisis, pre-existing inequalities and discriminatory social norms are exacerbated as women, girls and gender-diverse people are distinctly and disproportionately impacted. They often face increased risk of SGBV, including CRSV, and have restricted or unsafe access to basic social and life-saving services, such as sexual and reproductive health care. In situations of forced displacement, women and girls face barriers to completing the requirements to be considered for resettlement, experience increased risks of human trafficking, and have limited access to livelihood opportunities.

Protecting the rights of women, girls and gender-diverse people and promoting their agency to make decisions, including in humanitarian settings and conditions of forced displacement, is foundational to gender equality. These efforts directly impact the ability of women and gender-diverse people to meaningfully contribute to peace and security efforts, leading to more enduring peace.

Crises are often multidimensional, touching on consular, political, security and humanitarian interests and necessitating a more coordinated and integrated approach by Canada. Under these circumstances, the department recognizes that it must do better to integrate gender considerations and WPS in crisis response.

Objectives:

Under Focus Area 3, GAC will strengthen its integration of an intersectional feminist lens to its crisis response efforts—from stabilization efforts to humanitarian assistance, development programming and post-conflict recovery—to ensure it responds to the needs and priorities of women, girls and gender-diverse people and supports the efforts of women’s rights groups, peacebuilders and local actors trying to advance inclusive peace and democracy.

GAC will apply a humanitarian-development-peace nexus approach to its efforts in crisis settings and will ensure its programming is conflict-sensitive.

This will take a deliberate and sustained effort from the analytical stage to implementation and will rely on diverse perspectives, including those of people directly affected by crises.

Commitments:

Efforts under Focus Area 3 will increase GAC’s capacity to promote a gender-responsive approach to crisis response, including across humanitarian, security/political and consular efforts. These activities will include the following:

Efforts under Focus Area 3 will also improve coordination across GAC’s humanitarian implementing partners and promote the delivery of gender-responsive programming that advances women’s participation in decision-making processes. These activities will include the following:

Focus Area 4: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Enhanced inclusivity and gender responsiveness in GAC’s efforts to address sexual and gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence and sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated by peacekeepers and humanitarian, development and other international personnel

No country is immune to SGBV; it remains one of the world’s most pervasive, deadly and deeply rooted human rights violations. Women, girls and 2SLGBTQI+ people are disproportionately affected by all forms of SGBV. Apart from the harm it causes to individuals, families and communities, SGBV has multidimensional and intergenerational impacts on the ability of survivors to reintegrate into society, secure a livelihood and participate in decision-making processes, whether the harm is caused by sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), CRSV or other types of GBV, in part due to the stigma and trauma that survivors face. Research shows that SGBV also has great economic impacts, costing up to 3.7% of gross domestic product in some Sub-Saharan African countries, due to consequences such as lower labour supply, reduced productivity per hour worked and less investment in human capital for both women and children.Footnote 18 The implications for sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) are also significant, as limited SRHR restricts choices and decision making for those who experience SGBV.

From SGBV to CRSV and TFGBV, SRHR issues must be addressed through both preventative and responsive measures, including strengthened compliance with international humanitarian law in conflict settings and international human rights law more broadly; changes in attitudes, beliefs, social norms and practices; accountability and meaningful justice for victims and survivors (including minimizing risks of re-victimization); and survivor support, including medical, psychosocial, socio-economic and legal assistance.

It is vital to take an intersectional approach to any SGBV prevention and response efforts given the strong link with gender norms and heightened risk for individuals living in conditions of vulnerability, including forced displacement settings. Partnerships with local women’s rights organizations and feminist networks are critical as they play a vital role in advocating for women’s rights, building awareness in communities and with decision makers, and supporting service delivery and other response efforts. Engaging men and boys is a proven and critical approach to promoting gender equality and changing harmful social and cultural norms and plays a central role in preventing and combatting SGBV and CRSV and ensuring SRHR. These efforts increase the safety of women and remove barriers to their full, equal and meaningful participation in peace and security processes and decision making.

Objectives:

Under Focus Area 4, GAC will continue its efforts to prevent SGBV and CRSV, end impunity, and deliver meaningful justice and support services for survivors in fragile, crisis and conflict-affected settings. The department will work to prevent and address SEA perpetrated by peacekeepers and humanitarian, development and other international personnel. GAC will also support efforts to counter technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV).

Commitments:

Efforts under Focus Area 4 will advance international assistance programming and policy initiatives that prevent and respond to SGBV and CRSV; promote the rights of women, girls and gender-diverse people; and accelerate efforts to eliminate violence against them. These activities will include the following:

Efforts under Focus Area 4 will also increase the capacity of state and non-state actors to strengthen and implement inclusive and gender-responsive policies, legislation and programs to address SRHR, including to prevent and respond to SGBV, sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment, and hold perpetrators to account. These activities will include the following:

Focus Area 5: Leadership and Capabilities

Improved organizational capability of GAC and its partners to effectively implement the WPS agenda

Canada’s long-standing commitment to and expertise on gender equality, developed through its previous National Action Plans on WPS, FFP and FIAP, are among its greatest strengths in advancing the implementation of the WPS agenda.Footnote 19 In recent years, Canada has seized new opportunities to lead global WPS initiatives, advanced WPS in regional and international forums, stood firmly against attempts to roll back gains made on WPS and strengthened partnerships with other countries and civil society. For example, Canada was among the first countries in the world to appoint an Ambassador for WPS. Canada is an active member of the WPS Focal Points Network, which it co-chaired with Uruguay in 2020 and 2021. Canada also established the Group of Friends of WPS at the United Nations in New York City and remains its chair.

The department has come to understand the importance of better capturing, demonstrating and communicating the results of its work to implement the WPS agenda and FIAP. This will ensure that GAC can learn from both challenges and successes, build support, mobilize resources and identify implementation gaps.

Leadership and sustained commitment to gender equality is needed if there is to be continued progress in a time of increasing backlash against the Women, Peace and Security agenda and against women and 2SLGBTQI+ rights.

GAC recognizes the importance of enhancing its own organizational capabilities to ensure it has the necessary tools and expertise required to deliver on its commitments. This could include equipping staff with specialized training and capacity building, investing in tools and resources, and rethinking internal processes to improve efficiency and ensure the department is fit for purpose.

Leading with humility to advance the WPS agenda and making sure GAC and its partners have the capacities required to do this work are foundational to advancing work across all focus areas in this Action Plan.

Objectives:

Canada will maintain its leadership role internationally to ensure its FFP and FIAP are on track to maintain and bolster the WPS agenda. GAC will continue its coordination function with oversight from the ministers of the 10 federal partnersFootnote 20 to ensure effectiveness, collaboration, maximum impact and fulfillment of National Action Plan commitments.

Canada will continue to advance WPS through programming and bilateral and multilateral advocacy, namely by chairing the Group of Friends of WPS at the UN in Geneva and New York and at NATO in Brussels, and to seek new opportunities to advance WPS, including at the UN, the African Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),Footnote 21 the EU, NATO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the G7, the G20 and the Organization of American States, as well as in collaboration with other states and partners.

Going forward, GAC will strengthen internal accountability mechanisms by developing more robust and comprehensive external reporting processes on the outcomes of international assistance and by making greater use of information on results for internal tracking and decision-making purposes.

To maximize implementation and impact of the National Action Plan, a coordination hub will be established at Global Affairs Canada. This hub will increase coordination across implementing partners and with external stakeholders, strengthen implementing partners’ capacities, increase efficiencies, and support timely and effective monitoring, evaluation and learning.

Commitments:

Efforts under Focus Area 5 will contribute to strengthening GAC’s organizational capability to effectively implement the WPS agenda and to support the capabilities of its partners in their respective efforts. These activities will include the following:

Focus Area 6: Inclusion

Improved application by GAC and its partners of an inclusive approach based on human rights in their implementation of the WPS agenda

Ensuring an intersectional, human rights-based and feminist approach is central to the progression of the WPS agenda towards a broader understanding of peace and security. By failing to identify and address the barriers facing women and gender-diverse people in all their intersecting identities, we risk perpetuating the existence of these obstacles and continuing to underserve equity-deserving communities.

An integral part of operationalizing an intersectional lens will be to ensure that groups living in conditions of marginalization and inequity are active partners who participate in the planning, implementation and evaluation of programming in their own communities. This process will also require GAC to look inward and reflect on the ways in which its internal structures may inadvertently perpetuate barriers and systemic discrimination. As such, GAC will be challenged to act with humility in critically assessing its own approaches to anti-racism, decolonization and accessibility.

Similar to Focus Area 5 (Leadership and Capabilities) in its cross-cutting function, GAC recognizes that inclusion is necessary to deliver results and maximize impact potential across all focus areas. Inclusion must be central to GAC’s internal functions and reflected in its interactions across the various spaces where Canada engages, most especially where it is viewed as a leader.

While “intersectionality” as a term is widely used within the WPS community, the concept’s integration into implementation efforts has been limited and its transformative potential largely untapped.

Objective:

GAC will continue striving to bring WPS considerations into every discussion and decision made on peace and security, including by adopting new ways of working that integrate the WPS agenda instead of treating it as a standalone agenda item. The department has also committed to addressing gender equality barriers within its own structure and decision-making processes. Gender parity among heads of missions abroad has almost been achieved, but other representation gaps remain. GAC is committed to increasing representation of women in all their diversity and of members of underrepresented and marginalized groups.

Commitments:

Efforts under Focus Area 6 will promote inclusivity and diversity in the GAC workforce and within its partners’ operations to advance the full, equal and meaningful representation, participation and leadership of women and gender-diverse people in processes related to peace and security. These activities will include the following:

Monitoring, evaluation and learning

A strong commitment to monitoring, evaluation and learning is critical to ensuring transparency and accountability towards the communities GAC engages with and provides important mechanisms for the department to continuously grow in its implementation of the WPS agenda. The Government of Canada will report to Parliament on the Action Plan annually through a progress brief that reports on key performance indicators, noting year-over-year changes. Every second year, the progress brief will be accompanied by a narrative report with additional detail on efforts by partners. The Action Plan will also undergo midterm and summative evaluations.

Additionally, as part of the Government of Canada’s work to improve its own capacities and continue to demonstrate leadership related to Women, Peace and Security, it will initiate 2 thematic studies over the course of the Action Plan. The Government of Canada will work with internal and external partners, particularly the Advisory Group, to identify areas where focused research and reporting could improve Action Plan implementation. Themes may correspond to relevant geopolitical issues, emerging peace and security challenges, geographic areas or other issues. Thematic studies will be publicly available.

Global Affairs Canada will contribute to all reporting as a National Action Plan partner and will oversee the coordination of reporting and evaluation processes, as well as the Thematic Studies.

To reflect the cross-cutting nature of the department’s implementation of Focus Area 5 (Leadership and Capabilities) and Focus Area 6 (Inclusion), Global Affairs Canada has integrated these themes into intermediate and immediate outcomes in its logic model across Focus Areas 1 to 4 and will integrate information on these themes into reporting for all the focus areas. The department will also continue to monitor and report on progress on Action Plan initiatives through regular project and program monitoring, evaluation and learning, as well as through reporting captured in the Departmental Results Report and the annual Report to Parliament on the Government of Canada’s International Assistance.

Logic model

Ultimate outcome

1000 Enhanced peace, security and equality for all people, particularly women in all their diversity, in fragile and conflict-affected settings where Global Affairs Canada engages.Footnote 22

Focus Area 1: Building and Sustaining Peace

Intermediate outcomes

1100 Improved efforts to promote inclusiveFootnote 23 and gender-responsiveFootnote 24 conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

Immediate outcomes

1110 Increased capacity of change agents to participate equally to men in subnational, national or international peace and security efforts and related decision-making processes.

1120 Increased capacity of WROs, feminist movements, women human rights defenders and women peacebuilders to advance the WPS agenda.

Example outputs

1111 Support and technical assistance provided to WROs, feminist movements, WHRDs and women peacebuilders to build and sustain peace, as well as to strengthen institutional capabilities.

1112 Training provided on gender-responsive and conflict-sensitive educational practices to state and non-state actors.

1113 Initiatives implemented to facilitate better understanding of and effective responses to the root causes of conflict, including through gender analysis and gender-responsive peacebuilding approaches. 

1121 Emergency financial assistance, advocacy, grants, legal aid and defence provided to diverse WHRDs who are under threat or attack.

1122 Voices at Risk guidance provided to GAC staff.

1123 Funding for safety measures (online and physical) allocated to budgets of Canadian implementing partners, including women and gender-diverse peacebuilders and HRDs.

1124 Engage WROs, Feminist Movements, and women and gender-diverse HRDS and peacebuilders to advance gender-responsive peacebuilding.

1131 Advocacy and funding for measures to support WPS/gender mainstreaming in multilateral organizations.

1132 Meetings, speaking engagements, interventions and outcomes documents at international forums (multilateral, multi-stakeholder, Indigenous) where Canada has advocated for the meaningful participation of women and marginalized groups in political leadership and peace and security decision making (also listed under Focus Area 3).

Focus Area 2: Security, Justice and Accountability

Intermediate outcomes

1200 Enhanced inclusivity and gender responsiveness of security and justice sectors and of accountability mechanisms.

Immediate outcomes

1210 Increased capacityFootnote 25 of state and non-state actors, internationally, nationally and sub-nationally,

to be accountable and to develop or strengthen the inclusiveness and gender responsiveness of formal and informal justice and security institutions, policies and procedures.

1220 Increased capacity of state and non-state actors to deliver gender-responsive interventions to prevent and counter terrorism, radicalization to violence and transnational organized crime.

1230 Increased capacity of state and non-state actors to deliver gender-responsive interventions to support non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament and prevent climate-related insecurity and cyber insecurity.

Example outputs

1211 Key initiatives undertaken in implementation of the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations.

1212 Police officers from equity-seeking groups attracted to deployment opportunities through the Canadian Police Arrangement.

1213 WPS resources provided for Canadian police and experts deployed to multilateral peace operations.

1214 Measures implemented to ensure a survivor-centred, trauma-informed approach to addressing CRSV, including through Canada’s deployments to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its support of the rapid deployment of gender experts through UN Women to increase accountability for CRSV (also listed under Focus Area 4).

1221 Guidance and tools developed for the integration of gender and intersectional factors to counter terrorism, prevent violent extremism and fight transnational crime.

1222 Evidence-based interventions undertaken to integrate and build capacity of frontline women within the justice and security sectors.

1223 A conducive environment established to increase the number, seniority and skills of women in the fields of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear security, as well as in conventional weapons and ammunition management.

1232 Women, Peace and Security integrated across the efforts of the NATO Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence.

1233 Gender-responsive mine action efforts implemented to ensure that land mine clearance is conducted in an inclusive, impactful and sustainable way by sharing expertise with local personnel, especially women, engaged in demining activities.

Focus Area 3: Crisis Response

Intermediate outcomes

1300 Enhanced inclusivity and gender responsiveness in GAC’s coordination of Canada’s crisis responseFootnote 26 efforts internationally.

Immediate outcomes

1310 Increased operational capacity of GAC humanitarian partner organizations to provide principled and gender-responsive humanitarian assistance, including fulfilling unmet needs of individuals that belong to vulnerable and marginalized populations.

1320 Increased capacity by GAC to promote gender-responsive approaches to crisis responses involving humanitarian, consular or political/security efforts.

Example outputs

1311 Interventions delivered to address the specific barriers to women’s and girls’ ability to realize their full potential, including improving SRHR and PSEA and countering SGBV.

1312 Policy and advocacy initiatives implemented to strengthen the humanitarian system’s capacity to deliver gender-responsive action.

1313 GAC funding provided for projects that target the unmet needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized in a gender-responsive manner.

1314 Advocacy initiatives undertaken to promote and support the full and meaningful participation of women and sexually and gender-diverse persons in decision making related to humanitarian assistance and crises response.

1321 Gender-responsive and intersectional approach applied to analyses of conflict and crises in countries where GAC engages.

1322 Meetings, speaking engagements, interventions and outcomes documents at international forums (multilateral, multi-stakeholder, Indigenous) where Canada has advocated for the meaningful participation of women and marginalized groups in political leadership and peace and security decision making (also listed under Focus Area 1).

1323 Intersectional feminist approach applied to operations policies of GAC’s Emergency Response Team.

1324 Consular services provided by Canada in a manner consistent with intersectional feminist principles.

1325 Promotion of good practices in gender-inclusive and accessible approaches to consular services.

Focus Area 4: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Intermediate outcomes

1400 Enhanced inclusivity and gender responsiveness in GAC’s efforts to address sexual and gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence and sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated by peacekeepers and humanitarian, development and other international personnel.

Immediate outcomes

1410 Increased awareness of community influencers and leaders of harmful and protective gender-related sociocultural norms and practices.

1420 Increased capacity of state and non-state actors to design/plan or strengthen, coordinate, implement and measure inclusive and gender-responsive policies, laws/regulations and programs to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence, sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment, including conflict-related sexual violence.

Example outputs

1411 Funding and other support provided to partner organizations to raise awareness among community influencers and leaders of SGBV and harmful and protective gender-related sociocultural norms and practices.

1412 Multilateral advocacy and diplomatic efforts undertaken to eliminate violence against women and girls and promote SRHR.

1421 Initiatives undertaken to strengthen safe and ethical SGBV and CRSV data collection and case management that is survivor-focused to ensure non-discrimination and confidentiality and protect victims and survivors from harm.

1422 Implementation of best practices to prevent SEA across international assistance, especially by Canadian international assistance implementing partners.

1423 Measures implemented to ensure a survivor-centred, trauma-informed approach to addressing CRSV, including through Canada’s deployments to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its support of the rapid deployment of gender experts through UN Women to increase accountability for CRSV (also listed under Focus Area 2).

1424 Dedicated initiatives implemented to increase capacities of other states to combat sexual and gender-based violence as it relates to organized crime, including to counter trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling.

Cross-cutting (organizational effectiveness outcomes)Footnote 27

Focus Area 5: Leadership and Capabilities

Improved organizational capability of GAC and its partners to effectively implement the WPS Agenda.

Focus Area 5: Leadership and Capabilities

Improved organizational capability of GAC and its partners to effectively implement the WPS Agenda.

Focus Area 6: Inclusion

Improved application by GAC and its partners of an inclusive approach based on human rights in their implementation of the WPS agenda.

Example outputs include:

Definitions

NB: It is important to keep in mind that much of this terminology is still evolving and the evolution of language within communities may inform future developments.

2SLGBTQI+: “2SLGBTQI+” is the preferred initialism of the Government of Canada. “2S” recognizes 2-spirit people as the first 2SLGBTQI+ communities. This term describes non-heterosexual and/or non-cisgender Indigenous sexual and gender identities and expressions and comes from the Northern Algonquin word niizh manitoag, meaning 2 spirits. The term 2-spirit refers to the presence of masculine and feminine traits within an individual. “LGBTQ” stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer. “I” stands for intersex, which describes a person whose primary sex characteristics at birth do not meet the medical criteria of the male or female sex, while the plus sign stands for all other minority sexual and gender identities.

2030 Agenda (see also Sustainable Development Goals): The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a 15-year global framework centred on an ambitious set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 169 targets and over 230 indicators. The 2030 Agenda envisions a secure world free of poverty and hunger, with full and productive employment, access to quality education and universal health coverage, the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, and an end to environmental degradation.

Crisis response: Departmental efforts to manage and respond to multidimensional crises, including those with a consular, humanitarian, geopolitical or security dimension.

Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV): Refers to rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage and any other form of violence of comparable gravity directly or indirectly linked to a conflict. Depending on the circumstances, it could constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, torture or other gross violations of human rights, or, in some instances, genocide.Footnote 28

Diversity: A term used to encompass all the various national, racial, ethnic, religious and other backgrounds of people in a group, organization or society. The dimensions of diversity include ancestry, culture, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, ethnicity, language, race, religion, disability and socio-economic status.

Gender: Socially constructed roles, behaviours, expressions and identities of girls, women, boys, men and gender-diverse people. It influences how people perceive themselves and each other, how they act and interact, the distribution of power and resources in society, and people’s social, health and economic outcomes.Footnote 29

Gender-based analysis plus (GBA+): An analytical tool to support the development of responsive and inclusive initiatives, including policies, programs and other initiatives. GBA+ is a process for understanding who is impacted by a given issue, identifying how the initiative could be tailored to meet diverse needs of the people most impacted, and anticipating and mitigating any barriers to accessing or benefitting from the initiative.

Gender equality: Refers to equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities for women, men and gender-diverse people with various intersecting identities.

Gender-responsive: Gender-responsive policies or programs are developed with the consideration of gender norms, roles and inequalities, with measures taken to actively address them.

Gender-sensitive: Gender-sensitive policies or programs demonstrate a cognitive awareness of gender differences, but the actions supported by this approach remain at the level of raising awareness of gender inequalities without questioning and transforming social norms.

Gender-transformative: Gender-transformative interventions go beyond gender responsiveness and specifically aim at transforming unequal gender relations to promote shared power, control of resources and decision making, as well as support for women’s and girls’ empowerment.

Inclusive: Used to describe an approach that promotes human rights, gender equality, peaceful pluralism and respect for diversity. A particular focus is placed on the inclusion of marginalized groups and persons at risk, such as religious and ethnic minorities, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, and persons targeted or at risk of persecution by state or non-state actors as a result of their gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, social caste or race.

Intersectionality: A framework for understanding how multiple overlapping social and structural factors shape experiences, opportunities and outcomes for people, while also creating barriers, discrimination and exclusion.

Marginalized individuals or groups: Individuals or groups situated at the margins of society and relegated to an unimportant or powerless position, either economically, politically, socially or culturally, as a result of exclusion and discrimination on the basis of identity factors (such as sex, race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability) or other factors (such as socio-economic status, geographic location, migrant labour or worker status, displaced or refugee status). Marginalized individuals or groups are denied equal rights, opportunities and resources for the realization of their human potential. Marginalization is a long-term, structural process of systemic discrimination that creates disadvantaged groups.

Non-binary: Refers to a person whose gender identity does not align with a binary understanding of gender. This gender identity may include descriptors such as man, woman, androgynous, fluid, multiple, no gender, or a different gender outside of the “woman-man” binary. Sometimes referred to as genderqueer or gender-diverse people.

Oppression: The unjust use of power to disempower, marginalize, silence or otherwise subordinate specific groups or categories, often to further empower and/or privilege the oppressors.

Organizational capability: The combination of processes, tools, skills, behaviours and organization that delivers a specified outcome.

Meaningful participation: The presence and leadership of women in peace and security efforts like conflict resolution, conflict prevention and peacebuilding processes, where they have the opportunity to contribute to and are included in all aspects of planning and decision-making processes; hold leadership positions; have equal access to training, promotion and career advancement opportunities; hold positions corresponding with their training and expertise; and are in a workplace free from all forms of harassment, bullying and intimidation.

Peacebuilding: Peacebuilding focuses on strengthening the institutions, actors and structures capable of establishing and sustaining inclusive peace.

Security and justice sectors: The security and justice sectors are composed of the structures, institutions and personnel responsible for security and justice service provision, management and oversight at national and local levels. Institutions that are part of these sectors include the armed forces, police, courts, corrections, ministries of defence, prosecutors, border management agencies and ministries of internal security, among others.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR): Sexual and reproductive health and rights apply the concept of human rights to sexuality and reproduction. According to this understanding, all individuals have the right to make informed decisions governing their own bodies and to access a full range of services, education and counselling and information, and the gendered inequalities, discriminatory social norms and institutional structures that limit the attainment of SRHR are addressed. SRHR includes 4 distinct yet interconnected fields: sexual health, sexual rights, reproductive health and reproductive rights.

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV): The term “sexual and gender-based violence” refers to any act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and based on gender norms and unequal power relationships. SGBV encompasses harassment, intimidation and threats of violence and coercion, as well as exploitation and abuse in public, private or digital contexts. It can be physical, sexual, emotional, psychological or economic, and can form the basis for discrimination, social exclusion and stigmatization, denial of resources or work, or access to services. It can inflict physical, psychological, sexual and economic harm on women, girls, men, boys and gender non-binary individuals. It can refer to domestic and intimate partner violence and forced labour, including indentured and domestic labour, and includes all forms of sexual violence, such as rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, human trafficking and sexual exploitation in exchange for services, among other forms of sexual violence. It includes harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting.Footnote 30

Systemic discrimination: Occurs when policies, practices or procedures within a system of power create or perpetuate discrimination against marginalized groups through unequal access, distinction or exclusion. This can apply to gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, etc. It is often a mixture of intentional and unintentional actions that have a more serious effect on one group than on others.

Transformative change: A process by which positive results are achieved and sustained over time through their institutionalization in policies, laws, programs, practices, attitudes and behaviours. The process addresses the root causes of inequality (in other words, unequal power relations) by shifting power into the hands of the marginalized and thereby creating more sustainable change.

Women in all their diversity: The term recognizes that women are not a homogenous group. They have different perspectives, needs, interests, roles and resources which are influenced by their intersecting identities based on sex, race, ethnicity, culture, place of birth, religion or belief, language, geography, education, income, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, or other identity factors. Using an intersectional feminist approach ensures that policies, programs and projects address the differences in experiences and situations between and among women, men and non-binary people, in an effort to advance human rights and gender equality

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