Backgrounder - Women Deliver 2019 Conference

As a global champion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, girls, transgender, non-binary, and two-spirit people, Canada is looking forward to hosting the Women Deliver 2019 conference in Vancouver June 3-6, 2019. The world’s largest conference on gender equality and the health, rights, and wellbeing of girls and women, it will bring together more than 7,000 world leaders, influencers, advocates, academics, activists and journalists from more than 160 countries with an additional 100,000 people joining virtually.

Women Deliver 2019 is not just a conference; it’s a global movement to promote gender equality worldwide. A movement to advance the health, rights and well-being of women and girls. A movement that gives voice to a broad spectrum of people, including Indigenous peoples, youth and people living in conflict and crisis settings. It is a movement for transformational change which inspires everyone, everywhere, to take action. Canada is proud to be a part of this movement.

Mobilization initiatives

The Government of Canada is calling on all Canadians to mobilize to advance gender equality in their communities, in Canada, and around the world.

Today’s announcement in Toronto, Ontario, profiled two initiatives that are part of this mobilization effort, and which will stimulate partnerships between communities, civil society organizations, and the public and private sectors:

Bank of Montreal (BMO) Financial Group

BMO Financial Group will design and deliver a training program for women’s organizations across Canada to improve their strategic and financial planning. A recent of survey of Canadian women’s organizations conducted by the Department for Women and Gender Equality and BMO identified gaps in these areas, which can result in challenges to these organizations receiving much-needed funding. The training program will include a series of three webinars, available in both English and French, which will be hosted by BMO experts and will include an interactive Q&A.  The webcasts will be available at no cost to all women’s organizations nationally, including those that applied under the Department for Women and Gender Equality’s Capacity-building Fund. Each webcast will be aired twice live and will be available as archived versions to maximize audience viewing.

BMO is committed to economic empowerment and driving long-term systemic change to better improve the lives of women and girls in Canada and the U.S. In 2018, BMO announced that $3 billion in capital would be available over three years for Canadian businesses owned by women, which will also create new jobs and strengthen communities. Additionally, BMO offers educational tools such as its website, www.bmoforwomen.com, and a podcast series, Her Money, Her Way, to help inform women on a wide array of relevant topics.

Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial services provider – the 8th largest bank, by assets, in North America. With total assets of $807 billion as of January 31, 2019, and a team of diverse and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.

Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH)

CanWaCH is receiving $366,800 from the Department for Women and Gender Equality’s Women’s Program to coordinate domestic mobilization efforts leading up to and following the Women Deliver 2019 Conference. Through this project, CanWaCH is rallying partners and leaders from diverse sectors to highlight critical discussions, events, and initiatives that are needed to promote and achieve equality for all. CanWaCH is also using part of the funding to provide over 50 bursaries to gender equality advocates and mobilizers from across Canada to sponsor their participation at the conference.

CanWaCH has a membership of more than 100 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic institutions, health professional associations and individuals partnering to improve health outcomes for women and children in more than 1,000 communities worldwide. The organization represents Canada in championing the health rights and needs of the world’s most marginalized people.