2020-21 Departmental Plan
Gender-based analysis plus

General Information

Governance structures

In 2020-21, ACOA will continue to update and promote its gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) framework. The Agency will work toward the integration of GBA+ in all aspects of business using a three-pronged strategy to collect and analyze data, build awareness and track progress.

The Agency is accountable to the Government of Canada’s Gender Results Framework, notably on the goals of economic participation and prosperity and leadership and democratic participation. ACOA is also accountable to the Government’s Directive on Results, the Canadian Gender Budgeting Act and the policy direction to Modernize the Government of Canada’s Sex and Gender Information Practices. The Agency respects these obligations and reports on them to the federal Department for Women and Gender Equality.

ACOA’s responsibility centre leads, supports and monitors GBA+ implementation and serves as a point of liaison with the broader Government of Canada GBA+ network. In addition, ACOA has an intra-agency GBA+ working group, a GBA+ champion, and tools and resources to assist employees in applying GBA+ in their work and to connect with the broader federal and stakeholder-led GBA+ networks. This includes a GBA+ Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, Terms of Reference for a GBA+ Working Group, a GBA+ analysis of Atlantic Canada’s economy that is updated as appropriate, data collection and analysis capacity, and an annual awareness campaign throughout the Agency.

ACOA’s program evaluations will reflect GBA+ considerations, including in the scope of each evaluation project, the design and implementation of data collection methods, and the synthesis of findings. Rigorous GBA+ assessments will be included in all major policy proposals and validated by departmental centres of expertise at ACOA and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

Human resources

The Agency will dedicate one full-time equivalent (FTE) to implement GBA+ in the Agency in 2020-21. The FTE count will represent the combined resources assigned to work on GBA+, including one director-level champion and a working group representing different units within the Agency (e.g. Policy, Programs, Evaluation, Communications, Human Resources).

Planned initiatives

In 2020-21, ACOA will continue to update and promote its GBA+ framework, including tools and analyses for all aspects of the Agency’s work. This will include promoting better awareness of GBA+ standards and the impacts of GBA+ on economic performance.

ACOA’s departmental plan includes gender and diversity-specific performance indicators (as found in the Regional Economic Growth through Innovation Program and the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy), such as the percentage of small and medium-sized enterprises that are majority owned by women. ACOA will also work with its partners to enhance GBA+-related information about the Community Futures Program. Performance on these indicators will be monitored by ACOA’s Planning, Performance and Results Unit and the Evaluation Unit, in collaboration with the GBA+ champion and focal points.

ACOA will continue its awareness campaign, leading discussions and organizing activities to increase awareness of GBA+ and implementation of this tool into ACOA’s work environment. For example, the Agency will review its suite of human resource guidelines with a GBA+ lens. These will include such policies as flexible workplace guidelines, performance management, disability management, official languages, employment equity, and plans to develop and launch a diversity and inclusion curriculum.

ACOA will continue to request, collect and analyze data by gender and other demographic groups in Atlantic Canada when it is possible and reasonable to do so. GBA+ considerations will be incorporated into ACOA’s new administrative data system. This additional data will help strengthen analysis and decision making.

ACOA’s Evaluation and Advisory Services will examine the implementation of GBA+ in two recent program evaluations to identify best practices and lessons learned for future projects. Specifically, the analysis will propose solutions to address gaps in the Agency’s ability to collect performance information related to particular population groups.

Reporting capacity and data

As part of its Departmental Results Framework, the Agency will ensure that reports on its departmental result called “Communities are economically diversified in Atlantic Canada” is measured by adopting several GBA+-related indicators. These indicators were made public in GC InfoBase and ACOA’s Departmental Plan for 2019-20 and 2020-21, as well as part of its internal performance inventory profiles.

To be able to report on these indicators, the Agency will continue to add various client tags in its internal system in 2020-21, including tags for women-led and women-owned businesses, people living with disabilities, Indigenous groups, recent immigrants, visible minorities, official language minority communities, and people in rural or remote regions. This will allow ACOA to collect microdata on GBA+ related to its programs. The Agency will also purchase custom data analyses from Statistics Canada to report on indicators such as the “percentage of ACOA-assisted firms that are majority owned by women.”

The Agency will report on its results publicly in GC InfoBase and in its 2019-20 Departmental Results Report. ACOA will also release any new evaluation findings related to GBA+ on its website.

ACOA will request that Statistics Canada provide data by gender and other demographic groups in Atlantic Canada, including Indigenous groups, immigrants, visible minorities, official language minority communities, and people in urban and rural communities when it is possible to do so. These additional data will be further analyzed to help strengthen analysis and decision making within the Agency.