Gender-based analysis plus – Supplementary information table

Introduction

Gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus) is an analytical tool used to assess how different groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience policies, programs and services based on multiple factors including race, ethnicity, religion, age, and mental or physical disability. The federal government uses GBA Plus in the development of policies, programs and legislation. GBA Plus helps the government attain better results for Canadians by being more responsive to specific needs and circumstances.

In response to recommendations from the 2015 report of the Auditor General of Canada, the government renewed its commitment to GBA Plus and mandated the Minister for the Status of Women ¹ to work with the President of the Treasury Board to ensure that GBA Plus is incorporated into Departmental Results Frameworks, Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, and performance reporting.

In 2018, Parliament passed the Canadian Gender Budgeting Act. The Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports are being used to fulfil the President of the Treasury Board’s obligations to make public analysis on the impacts of expenditure programs on gender and diversity.

More information on GBA Plus is available on the GBA Plus Portal (accessible only on the Government of Canada network) in GCpedia.

Gender-based analysis plus

Section 1: Institutional GBA Plus capacity

PCO’s GBA Plus Focal Point (1.5 FTE) continues to develop GBA Plus tools and resources for analysts in the department. The Focal Point also participates in the PCO Employment Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee (EEDAC).

PCO continues to maintain a GBA Plus Champion. The GBA Plus Champion is responsible for the promotion of GBA Plus at PCO. 

The Canada School of Public Service’s GBA Plus training, in collaboration with Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), is mandatory for over one third of positions at PCO. This includes all executives in the EX-01 to EX-05 levels, as well as employees in EC, LP and LC positions. The GBA Plus course is also recommended to all other employees, and promoted on PCO’s internal website.

As part of PCO’s role of supporting Cabinet operations, PCO analysts provide the “challenge function” for departments to advance policy, legislative and government administration proposals through Memoranda to Cabinet (MCs) and other Cabinet documents. GBA Plus is a mandatory component of MCs.

The GBA Plus Focal Point continues to work across PCO to support the GBA Plus challenge function through tool development, training for PCO staff, case study development, and ad hoc support for PCO analysts to help them provide advice on GBA Plus to departments. In addition, the GBA Plus Focal Point is engaged on all PCO-led MCs, to ensure that GBA Plus is properly applied and completed.

PCO’s GBA Plus Focal Point continues to provide ongoing updates on the quality of GBA Plus in Cabinet documents to the Deputy Secretary, Cabinet Affairs analysts as well as policy and program leads.

PCO continues to develop an evergreen GBA Plus framework for the department, with a first iteration that is completed by the end of 2022.

Section 2: Gender and diversity impacts, by program

Core responsibility: Serve the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Social and economic policy

PCO continues to collaborate with the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS), Finance Canada (FIN), and the Department of Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) on the implementation and refinement of GBA Plus as it applies to Cabinet documents.

The GBA Plus Focal Point and PCO analysts support the delivery of the Canada School of Public Service courses on GBA Plus. PCO is also collaborating with the Canada School of Public Service on new learning tools on GBA Plus.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity

PCO’s Impact Canada Initiative (ICI) continues to consider GBA Plus in the design, delivery and measurement of its lines of business, including: Impact Canada Challenges; behavioural science programs of research; and Impact Canada Fellowship program.

Impact Canada Challenges

The Impact Canada Initiative completed a GBA Plus assessment at its inception (2017), and has advanced several projects that focus on equity-deserving groups in terms of specifically focusing challenges and initiatives on inclusion of underrepresented groups based on evidence of efforts that could improve outcomes as part of core program design (e.g., Women in Clean Tech challenge; Indigenous Off-Diesel Initiative; Indigenous Homes Innovation Initiative, etc.). A GBA Plus lens is also applied to business model challenges, such as in the Afri-Plastics Challenge, which is contributing to Global Affairs Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy by engaging women entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa to develop solutions to repurposing plastic waste – both to create economic opportunities but also address other social issues related to waste. Data is collected and tracked towards achievement of outcomes and in terms of participation of diverse solvers in challenge competitions. Relevant data on challenge participants is also collected via the Impact Canada challenge website and can be used for evaluative purposes.

Behavioural science programs of research

Behavioural science projects aim to understand attitudes, beliefs, and barriers that might influence behaviours in multiple areas. This involves using data on citizen perceptions (including surveys and other data collection), including detailed sociodemographic breakdowns across multiple areas to understand the experiences of diverse groups in multiple policy domains. In addition to sub-population breakdowns in nationally representative samples (based on census sociodemographic categories), some initiatives have employed oversampling techniques to derive more statistically meaningful insights (e.g., oversampling of Indigenous and Black Canadians to understand attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination). Going forward, subject to cost considerations and resources, additional efforts will be made to engage more priority populations and generate statistically valid results.

Impact Canada Fellowship program

The Impact Canada Fellowship program was created in January 2018 to attract external talent with specialized skills in key disciplines linked to the Impact Canada mandate, with aim to increase capacity and upskill the existing workforce. The Fellowship program has created equal opportunity for both men and women, with ~50% of applicants, and of pre-qualified candidates representing women.

In 2021–22, Impact Canada launched and completed two Fellowship recruitment campaigns – one each in Behavioural Science and Challenges. 59% of applicants to these two campaigns were women (n=304), and 54.5% of candidates in the pool (pre-qualified experts) were women (n=6). 13.4% of applicants identified as members of a visible minority and 2.4% as persons with a disability at the intake stage, compared with 10% identified as members of a visible minatory and 0% as persons with a disability in the pool. Throughout fiscal year 2021-22, 26 Fellows worked across eight partner departments and agencies to support both Impact Canada Challenges and behavioural science projects. 38.5% of these Fellows were women.

Impact Canada Challenges

Impact Canada challenges attract a diverse, national, and international pool of applicants. Challenges have been successful in attracting new talent and engaging non-traditional actors: among applicants, more than two thirds had never applied to government funding before. Impact Canada Challenges are also supporting a higher proportion of women-owned and youth-owned businesses than the average in the Canadian economy:

Other key program impacts on gender and diversity

Impact Canada Challenges

Some Challenges in particular, such as the Afri-Plastics Challenge have a large focus on women and youth, and others, such as the Women in Cleantech Challenge have a dual focus of increasing equity for Canadian women-owned clean tech businesses, and incubating technologies that will help to reduce climate impacts in Canada.

In 2018, the Women in Cleantech Challenge was launched to empower women to succeed in Canada’s clean tech economy and help bring needed diversity of thought to yield real technological answers for some of the biggest global problems. This Challenge recognized that women are a powerful force in Canada’s innovation economy, but are significantly underrepresented in the area of clean technology. Through this Challenge, six finalists were chosen from approximately 150 applicants to participate in an intensive 3 year incubation program. In 2021-22, a $1 million grand prize was awarded to Amanda Hall of Summit Nanotech to support the development of a green lithium-ion extraction process to reduce the world’s reliance on fossil fuels.

2021-22 also saw the launch of the Afri-Plastics Challenge with Global Affairs Canada aimed at reducing marine plastics in Sub-Saharan African countries by developing and scaling innovative solutions to plastic mismanagement in a way that promotes gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

GBA Plus data collection plan

As a specific example, the Impact Canada Fellowship program has initiated a partially “blind” recruitment process (e.g., applicants pass initial screening without divulging gender, identity, educational information, etc.), which intends to reduce potential inherent biases in hiring processes. The results of this initiative are being assessed but could be useful to inform other hiring processes in government.

More generally, GBA Plus data collection plans will continue to be implemented and strengthened to support the ongoing measurement and assessment of program impacts.