Gender-based analysis plus: 2021-22 Departmental Results Report, Women and Gender Equality Canada

Institutional GBA Plus Capacity

Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) is responsible for the promotion of a greater understanding of the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors that include race, national and ethnic origin, Indigenous origin or identity, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic condition, place of residence and disability.

Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) is the intersectional analytical tool that the Government of Canada uses to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs, and initiatives. GBA Plus is a process for understanding who is impacted by the issue we seek to address; identifying how initiatives could be tailored to meet diverse needs of the people most impacted; and anticipating and mitigating any barriers to accessing or benefitting from government initiatives. GBA Plus is most impactful when undertaken at the very beginning of an initiative’s lifecycle, when the issues that we seek to address are formulated and should also be applied at all stages of initiative development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

The federal government has been committed to using GBA Plus in the development of policies, programs and legislation since 1995. It provides federal officials with the means to continually improve their work and 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 Women and Gender Equality 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.

GBA Plus is fundamental in the design, delivery monitoring and evaluation of all programs and initiatives undertaken by WAGE. It is embedded in all the Department’s internal and external activities.

In addition to the systematic application of GBA Plus in WAGE’s core activities and decision-making processes, the Department also has the mandate to support GBA Plus implementation across the federal government and to work to improve its quality and scope in decision-making documents. As a centre of expertise for advancing gender equality and supporting the application of GBA Plus across government decision-making processes, WAGE works to:

• Promote a greater understanding of GBA Plus as an intersectional tool for advancing fairness, equality, and inclusion for people from different communities;
• Provide guidance, develop tools and training, support the implementation of GBA Plus across federal departments and agencies; and
• Contribute to evidence-based practices, including those related to policy and program development, and gender budgeting.

The Department’s GBA Plus Directorate had 14 FTE’s that were specifically dedicated to the implementation of GBA Plus in 2021-22, which includes WAGE’s GBA Plus Champion. The GBA Plus Champion reports to the Deputy Minister (DM) and works with senior managers and employees to ensure that GBA Plus is implemented in all departmental activities. They do this by providing oversight, guidance and accountability for how GBA Plus is integrated throughout WAGE and other departments’ Treasury Board Submissions, Memoranda to Cabinet, legislation, regulations, budget proposals and other initiatives.

In addition to having a Champion for GBA Plus, the following frameworks, governance bodies and accountability mechanisms support the systematic application of GBA Plus in WAGE’s activities and helps ensure that GBA Plus is integrated into all departmental decision-making processes:

WAGE’s Departmental Results Framework (DRF):

The Departmental Results Framework (DRF) is WAGE’s performance measurement framework. It presents the Core Responsibility, the results the organization is seeking to achieve, and the indicators to measure outcomes. The DRF is complemented by Performance Information Profiles (PIPs), which support performance measurement, evaluation and reporting for each Program in WAGE’s Program Inventory. Gender, diversity and inclusion considerations are incorporated throughout WAGE’s DRF and PIPs, which form the basis of annual plans and performance reports including the Departmental Plan and the Departmental Results Report. As a result, the DRF and PIPs act as accountability mechanisms to ensure that GBA Plus is integrated into departmental decision-making processes.

Executive Committee (EXCOM):

The Executive Committee (EXCOM) is WAGE’s senior decision-making and priority-setting body. It is chaired by the Deputy Minister and composed of senior management from all departmental areas and functions, including the GBA Plus Champion. EXCOM meetings take place weekly and serve to establish priorities, oversee the delivery of the organization’s work, and take stock of progress. As a permanent member of EXCOM, the GBA Plus Champion ensures that GBA Plus is considered in all departmental activities and integrated into all decision-making processes.

Diversity and Inclusion Committee (D&I):

The Diversity and Inclusion Committee aims to implement initiatives to increase diverse representation and support inclusion in the department; raise awareness about diversity and inclusion and the challenges diverse staff face; celebrate diversity at WAGE; and provide departmental staff a forum for discussing contemporary issues related to social inclusion.

Indigenous Advisory Network (IAN):

The Indigenous Advisory Network is comprised of Indigenous employees within WAGE. It serves as a platform and community to provide advice and mentoring to one another, to support and foster wellness among Indigenous employees, to provide opportunity for professional development, and to tap into and leverage other networks and relevant resources.

WAGE Reconciliation Circle

The Reconciliation Circle was created to facilitate intra-departmental collaboration on the development, implementation and monitoring of WAGE’s Reconciliation Framework. The Reconciliation Circle is comprised of employee representatives from across the department.

Indigenous Women’s Circle (IWC):

The Indigenous Women’s Circle plays an advisory role to WAGE. The membership of the IWC includes representation from First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women, youth, and Elders from a broad range of sectors across the country. The IWC provides strategic guidance, as well as expertise, to inform federal efforts to address the systemic inequalities that Indigenous women experience, particularly those related to issues of GBV, economic insecurity, and Indigenous leadership. IWC’s advice and guidance provides an opportunity to learn from best practices in both Indigenous communities and the Government of Canada.

Forum of Federal-Provincial and Territorial Ministers responsible for the Status of Women:

WAGE’s Minister co-chairs the Forum of Federal-Provincial-Territorial (FPT) Ministers responsible for the Status of Women which meets at least once a year at the Ministerial level and monthly at the working level. Since 2014, one of the ongoing ministerial priorities for the FPT Forum has been GBA Plus to advance gender and diversity analysis approaches across FPT jurisdictions. Since that time, significant work has been done by the Department in collaboration with the provinces and territories in identifying promising practices to applying GBA Plus. For example, in December 2021, and to address gaps that create challenges to measuring GBA Plus impacts and to proceed with a more meaningful evaluation, the FPT Ministers endorsed the implementation of a two-year plan to develop a common data collection tool.^{Footnote 1} 

GBA Plus Directorate:

WAGE’s mandate includes the promotion of a greater understanding of the intersections of identity and social factors that shape how individuals and groups experience government initiatives and the world around them. In addition to implementing GBA Plus in its own programming areas, the Department acts as the centre of expertise for advancing gender equality and applying GBA Plus across the Government of Canada. The GBA Plus Directorate provides policy guidance, develops and disseminates learning materials and training tools, and organizes events to support GBA Plus integration across the federal system. To achieve this, WAGE:

• Promotes coordination in the application of GBA Plus across federal departments and thematic areas, by hosting quarterly interdepartmental meetings of GBA Plus Focal Points.
• Facilitates knowledge-sharing and collaboration platforms for a wide range of stakeholders, including federal-provincial/territorial networks.
• Coordinates monitoring and evaluation activities to support accountability and a whole-of-government approach to GBA Plus, including by administering the annual GBA Plus Implementation Survey to assess system-wide performance, learn about ongoing challenges, identify impactful practices and leverage findings to plan and prioritize actions.
• Supports Finance Canada, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and the Privy Council Office in exercising their challenge function and ensuring the integration of GBA Plus considerations as a mandatory part of key government decision-making processes.
• Collaborates with a variety of partners to design and deliver training and other initiatives to build capacity for the application of GBA Plus to decision-making. Amongst training opportunities, is the Department’s Introduction to GBA Plus online course. Over the 2021-2022 Fiscal Year 47,876 people took the training.

Gender and Diversity Impacts, by Program

Core Responsibility: Advancing Gender Equality

The Department for Women and Gender Equality advances gender equality, including social, economic, and political equality through leadership, support and coordination of targeted policies and programs. It undertakes research, collects, and analyzes data and raises awareness of gender equality issues through outreach and engagement. The Department provides advice to government to achieve Canada’s gender equality outcomes and goals, including advocacy for gender-based budgeting, and facilitates the advancement of gender equality among other partners and stakeholders, through its expertise, contribution to research, and funding to community initiatives. The Department serves as a central point for sharing expertise across Canada and with international partners and uses this knowledge to inform and support Canada’s gender equality priorities.

Program Name: Expertise and Outreach

Through its Expertise and Outreach program, the Department for Women and Gender Equality provides tools, expertise and advice: (1) to federal organizations and central agencies on their proposals to Cabinet and the Treasury Board, (2) to further develop the federal government’s intrinsic capacity to conduct GBA Plus at all stages of policy development and program delivery, including gender-based budgeting; (3) to provincial, territorial and local governments, private sector and civil society organizations that have the levers to address gender equality issues through policy, programming and organizational practices; and (4) to increase public awareness through outreach to the general public.

Target Population:

• While all Canadians benefit from greater gender equality, certain populations are more likely to benefit from this Program, specifically:  women, girls, 2SLGBTQI+ and non-binary individuals, including those who are Indigenous, racialized, youth, non-status, refugees, immigrants or newcomers, seniors, living in a northern, remote or rural area, living on a low income, living with disabilities, or living in an official language minority community.

Program Name: Community Action and Innovation

Through its Community Action and Innovation program, the Department for Women and Gender Equality provides grants and contributions to organizations to implement projects that are designed to strengthen the sector working to advance gender equality and bring some degree of systemic change in the underlying factors that perpetuate inequality at a local, regional, and national level.

Target Population:

• Although all Canadians ultimately benefit from greater gender equality, certain groups facing systemic barriers that limit their access to opportunities stand to particularly benefit from the Department’s funding to equality-seeking organizations, specifically: women, girls, 2SLGBTQI+ and non-binary individuals, including those who are Indigenous, racialized, youth, non-status, refugees, immigrants or newcomers, seniors, living in a northern, remote or rural area, living on a low income, living with disabilities, living in an official language minority community.

Key Program impacts on Gender and Diversity:

Other Key Program impacts on Gender and Diversity:

Women’s Program: Encouraging women’s leadership and democratic participation

This year, WAGE invested $8 million in 85 projects focused on encouraging women’s leadership and democratic participation. Funded projects in this area that were completed in 2021-22 created and disseminated more than 50 different resources to increase awareness of what services and supports were available and how to access them. As a result of these projects, 179,292 people gained access to services and supports that resulted in better opportunities in education, employment, health, and social services.

Women’s Program: Increasing women’s economic security and prosperity

This year, WAGE invested nearly $18 million in 173 projects focused on increasing women’s economic security and prosperity. Funded projects in this area that were completed in 2021-22 roles developed and disseminated 258 resources, including toolkits, guides and various models. As a result, over 283,856 people gained skills and knowledge to create more equitable conditions for women in various spheres.

Women’s Program: Ending violence against women

This year, through the Women’s Program, WAGE invested nearly $9 million in 161 projects focused on ending violence against women. Funded projects in this area that were completed in 2021-22 developed over 155 resources to increase awareness about services and supports, as well as how to prevent GBV and to support survivors. As a result of these projects, 350,556 people gained access to services and supports related to gender-based violence, including access to counselling, court services, and trauma-informed victims’ services.

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

In 2021-22, WAGE continued to develop and implement reporting tools tailored to each of the grants and contributions program for which it is responsible. The tools were designed to better collect project data to monitor indicators and 2) allow the Department to systematically collect project data in a format that greatly improved its ability to analyze the information being collected. In addition, reporting tools were revised to collect data disaggregated by identity and social factor, to monitor outcomes for those population groups. These data will be available in the 2022-23 fiscal year Departmental Results Report.

Supplementary Information Sources:

None

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

WAGE collects credible, useful, and timely information related to the activities funded by the Department, through annual progress and final reports submitted by funded organizations/researchers. Through data collection and funded research, the department focuses on intersectionality and the disaggregation of data by identity factors in order to ensure a comprehensive understanding of issues that can be experienced differently by certain groups, including: Indigenous Peoples; women and girls; men and boys; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and non-binary individuals, queer, two-spirit (2SLGBTQI+) individuals; visible minorities; those living in northern, rural, and remote communities; people with disabilities; children and youth; people living on a low income; newcomers and immigrants to Canada; religious minorities; and seniors. These data and research inform direction of WAGE and other Government of Canada initiatives by powering more robust GBA Plus throughout the initiative lifecycle; they also allow the Department to monitor and report on the impacts of its Initiatives on diverse populations.

In 2021-22, WAGE continued to refine data collection tools for each of its programs.  The tools were designed to better collect data on initiatives in ways that are aligned with the department’s Departmental Results Framework, as well as Canada’s Quality of Life Framework and Gender Results Framework.  In addition, reporting tools were revised to better collect data disaggregated by identity and social factor, to monitor outcomes for those population groups. These data will be available in the 2022-23 fiscal year Departmental Results Report. 

Finally, in refining performance frameworks for key departmental initiatives, the department identified challenges related to the collection of disaggregated data, and began working on potential mitigations.  For example, in refining its performance framework for the Federal Gender-based Violence Strategy in June 2021, the department identified several challenges to disaggregating certain key performance indicators.  Where gaps were noted and solutions identified, the department began developing solutions to filling these gaps.