Defence Team Gender-based Analysis Plus Awareness Week 2024
Intersectionality in Action: Moving forward on an enhanced approach to GBA Plus
Each year, in the second week of May, the Government of Canada, led by Women and Gender Equality (WAGE), recognizes the value and importance of GBA Plus in shifting programs, services and policies closer toward inclusivity and equity for everyone.
Join the conversation
This year, join the Defence Team as we discuss how GBA Plus can help strengthen our institutional culture and operational effectiveness.
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We’re committed to serving and supporting all Canadians. When we integrate intersectional analysis in our planning and decision making, we contribute to more equitable outcomes that take people’s diversity into account, and we improve our capacity to respond more effectively to complex security challenges.
What: Virtual live panel discussion
When: Thursday, May 9, 2024, at 11 AM to 12 PM (ET)
Where: Online via Teams
How: Defence Team members are invited to join virtually through the original (bilingual) stream | English only stream | French only stream
Note: The stream of the live event can be viewed only by Defence Team users via their D365 accounts.
Trailer: In case you missed it: see below.
Video / August 16, 2024
Transcript
MGen Jeannot Boucher: Intersectional analysis is an enabler. It provides insights. It illuminates areas around us. It basically helps us understand our external environment, but also the makeup of our team, and it illuminates those areas so then we can think about them in more depth. Think about accessibility, official languages, and basically everything pertaining to DEI.
Anne Rahming: When we think about being client focused as an organization, we forget that we ourselves are also clients, that our workforce is a client that we have. We have responsibilities to it. And if you take that tack, or if you consider that when we’re, you know, out in operations, that we have other stakeholders who are in a sense clients as well, then it’s incumbent upon us to have a better understanding of their perspectives to be able to respond in a more resilient and agile way to challenges.
Cdr Jonathan Kouwenberg: Applying an intersectional lens to both our workforce and the operating environment allowed us to better understand and prepare the team and the team leadership, as well as the supporting structure back at CJOC. There’s lots of micro-decisions that we make at all rank levels, whether you’re a private or whether you’re an admiral, and being able to apply an intersectional lens to how you do that I think is important.
Samantha Moonsammy: When we say significant impacts, there’s two things that come to mind. So one, I truly believe for GBA Plus to thrive, we need to have a psychologically safe workplace. And part of the tenets of that is open communication. So I just want to give a shout-out to our Defence Team news. I’ve seen just such great work happening there, including a lot of contributions from us at Mat group. We do a lot of initiatives, we do a lot of learning events. And just seeing it out there like that, you know, when people have access to information, they feel safe, they feel seen.
Dr. Barbara Waruszynski: So GBA Plus, taking on the intersectional approach, is very very important and it contributes to cultural evolution, because we need to understand the intersecting factors and how that intersection, based on all the different factors, are impacting individuals. So in essence, we need to look at GBA Plus from the get-go if we can, not as an afterthought. It should be part of our everyday lives, and we need to ensure that we are creating greater equity, diversity, inclusivity across the Defence Team.
Cdr Teri Share: You know implementing GBA Plus and intersectional perspectives cannot be seen, and please do not see it as a roadblock to approval for your policy, program, project or planning in operations. It needs to be engrained into the process. It is really a key enabler to helping us identify risk, and establishing courses of action which help mitigate that risk. It makes our policies, programs, operations, and projects so much more effective.
MGen Jeannot Boucher: So in the year ahead, what we aim to do is decentralize the capacity we have in order to integrate it across all our work and all our decision-making. In essence, we need to mainstream GBA Plus. We need to make sure we work towards being a diverse, inclusive, ready, and effective Defence Team that’s able to anticipate, adapt, and act in an increasingly complex world.
Opening remarks
- Lieutenant-General M.A.J Carignan (she/her), Chief Professional Conduct and Culture
Panel moderator
- Anne Rahming (she/her), Culture & Executive Director, Gender Equality and Intersectional Analysis, Chief Professional Conduct and Culture
Panelists
- Commander Jonathan Kouwenberg (he/him), Canadian Joint Operations Command Gender Advisor
- Samantha Moonsammy (she/her), Section Head, Diversity and Inclusion, Assistant Deputy Minister (Materiel)
- Commander Teri Share (she/her), Royal Canadian Navy Gender Advisor
- Dr. Barbara Waruszynski (she/her), Senior Defence Scientist, Director General Military Personnel Research and Analysis
Closing remarks
- Major-General Jeannot Boucher (he/him), DG Culture, Chief Professional Conduct and Culture
WAGE events
- For events hosted by WAGE, visit GBA Plus Awareness Week: May 6 to 10, 2024.