Champion’s Message for GBA+ Awareness Week 2020

November 2, 2020 – Defence Stories

Defence Team Colleagues,

This week across Defence, we take the time to recognize GBA+ Awareness Week.

The Defence Team is home to approximately 25,000 public servants and100,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces, who represent communities from coast-to-coast-to-coast and walks of life from around the world. Our members each bring with them a unique and meaningful perspective to their work and to our Defence Team community.

At Defence and in organizations across government, Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) is an analytical tool used to identify and address systemic inequalities as well as inequities in experiences of policies, programmes and operations for diverse women, men and non-binary people.  It supports effective and evidence-based decision-making to build a more inclusive Defence Team, and to inform how we engage with Canadians and communities abroad.

Factors such as ethnicity, age, ability, class, language, education, rank and other factors, intersect with gender and can have an influence on how individuals are treated and experience conflict and crises, policies, programs, or procured goods and services. GBA+ can help us better meet our duties, advance core Canadian values and enhance our operational effectiveness. GBA+ can also help us to create more innovative and inclusive teams.

This week and every week, I encourage you to have ongoing conversations with friends and colleagues about how you can use GBA+ as a force multiplier and to advance gender equality and the meaningful inclusion of diverse women, men and non-binary people in all of the work that we do. Doing so helps us be better team members, supervisors, managers and leaders by enabling us to build a more cohesive and inclusive Defence Team that is more effective and capable of meeting the needs of all Canadians.

Thank you, stay safe.

Respectfully yours,
MGen Aitchison, CDA, Commander
Gender and Diversity Champion

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