Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+)
Table of contents
Governance
To ensure GBA+ was integrated into departmental decision-making processes, ISC had the following framework and strategies in place:
- An Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM)-level Departmental Champion for GBA+, to ensure integration of GBA+ into decision-making, policy and service delivery
- Departmental GBA+ focal points across the National Capital Region and regions, to support the inclusion of GBA+ in service design and delivery
- An Indigenous Women's Well-being Advisory Committee, established in December 2018, to advise on GBA+ considerations in the delivery of First Nations and Inuit health services
- An informal Feminist Government / GBA+ Network, shared with CIRNAC, to contribute an Indigenous gender and diversity lens to policy discussions, and to gather and disseminate information and best practices in GBA+ across both departments
- An Interdepartmental GBA+ Committee with Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) to obtain training and learning materials
- Engagement with WAGE's Indigenous Women's Circle to gain Indigenous female perspectives on the impact of GBA+ on the delivery of ISC's programs and services
- A joint ISC-CIRNAC ADM-level Working Group to engage with Indigenous partners on the co-development of an Indigenous-First GBA+ Framework and Toolkit
Human Resources
- 2 FTEs (across 6 positions) supported a Senior ADM in her role as Departmental Champion of GBA+, and supported an ADM in her role as Departmental Champion of Gender Inclusive Services
- 1 FTE (across 2 positions) dedicated to GBA+ Annexes in Memoranda to Cabinet and Treasury Board Submissions pertaining to First Nations and Inuit Health
- 1 FTE (across several positions and sectors) dedicated to GBA+ Annexes in Memoranda to Cabinet and Treasury Board Submissions pertaining to other programs and services
- 1 FTE dedicated to GBA+ in performance measurement, evaluation, and strategic operational planning and analysis with respect to First Nations and Inuit Health
- 0.5 FTE (across several positions and sectors) dedicated to GBA+ in performance measurement, evaluation, and strategic operational planning and analysis pertaining to other programs and services
- 0.5 FTE (across several positions and sectors) dedicated to supporting the preliminary work to establish an ADM-level Working Group on co-development of an Indigenous-First GBA+ Framework and Toolkit
Major initiatives: results achieved
In 2018–19 the Department applied and monitored GBA+ in several initiatives, including the following:
Urban Programming for Indigenous Peoples
- This initiative establishes a renewed approach, and new programming, to better meet the needs of urban Indigenous peoples, replacing the Urban Aboriginal Strategy. The program aims to better enable urban Indigenous people to pursue social and economic opportunities, as well as ensure equity in socio-economic outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The new program supports the Gender Results Framework (GRF) goals of: education and skills development; economic participation and prosperity; gender-based violence and access to justice; and, poverty reduction, health, and well-being.
- Indigenous people living in urban centres face distinct challenges and marginalization. While the GBA+ did not identify any negative differential impacts of the program between groups of women, men, or gender-diverse indigenous people, the Department recognizes challenges faced by some of the most at-risk community members such as Indigenous populations transitioning to urban centres, women and children, seniors, former inmates, and persons with disabilities. Funding under UPIP's programs and services stream is available for projects that target 6 key areas: women, vulnerable populations (including persons with disabilities, seniors, former offenders), youth, transition services, community wellness projects and outreach programs.
- Based on the issues identified through stakeholder engagement, the program will address locally-identified priorities such as addiction prevention, treatment and support, safe affordable housing, child care, youth and cultural programming, as well as transition support for pre and post moves from Indigenous and northern communities.
- New urban Indigenous programs and services are expected to have a positive effect on Indigenous women and girls by providing transition supports when they are most vulnerable: upon arriving in an urban centre, and while becoming established in a new community. The program will support Indigenous organizations and provide access to funds to deliver programs and services aimed at educational upgrading, pre-employment services, affordable housing, youth and cultural programming, support for young mothers and lone parent families such as child care, and transportation, community safety as well as violence awareness and prevention programs focusing on women and girls.
Income Assistance – Moving Towards Program Reform
- The Income Assistance program helps low-income residents on reserve meet their basic needs (shelter, food, transportation) and provides employment and pre-employment measures to help individuals transition to the workforce. The program supports the GRF goals of equal and full participation in the economy. While the GBA+ did not identify any negative differential impacts of the program between groups of First Nation women, men, or gender-diverse people, the Department recognizes that social, economic, and cultural conditions are likely to create differential impacts on First Nations women and men, which can result in different uptake of activities by men and women on reserve.
- In 2018–19, ISC began an engagement strategy to meet with key stakeholders, including beneficiaries, with the goal of identifying obstacles and barriers experienced by those accessing supports on reserve. In this initiative ISC began engagements with First Nations to discuss how to improve the Income Assistance program, extend case management and pre-employment supports to help transition clients off income assistance, and explore options for improving the design and delivery of income supports. The case management approach enables clients to access individualized case plans to reduce barriers and culturally appropriate training and life skills.
- To ensure an intersectional approach throughout the engagement process, consideration was given to the timing, location, provision of hospitality, transportation and childcare, and other measures to garner participation. The Income Assistance program will continue to collect gender-based data for ongoing policy and program administration. Work is currently underway to improve the program's Data Collection Instrument in order to provide more knowledge on the impact of its activities on women and men. This includes linking individuals with activity outcomes, such as case management, as well as learning more about those not expected to return to work.
Family Violence Prevention Program – Shelter Construction
- This initiative funds the construction of new shelters on-reserve to provide a safe haven for victims of violence. The program supports the GRF goals of eliminating gender-based violence and harassment, and promoting security of the person and access to justice. In 2018–19, the priority themes used in the funding criteria in the Calls for Proposals for prevention programming were modified to address the issues identified in the GBA+:
- Indigenous women and girls are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than non-Indigenous women in Canada, and are vastly overrepresented as victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. While Indigenous women and girls make up only 4% of the Canadian population, they represent approximately 50% of trafficking victims – a quarter of whom are under 18 years old.
- Indigenous women can be vulnerable to trafficking due to socio-economic status, high levels of unemployment and poverty, precarious housing, lack of access to social and economic resources, and intergenerational trauma and family violence. Although limited data is available, anecdotal evidence continues to mount regarding the added vulnerability of Indigenous women to being trafficked when inadequate housing and economic supports are absent. With few culturally-based supports available to Indigenous women, particularly in rural and remote communities, they may have few options for obtaining support when in abusive situations.
- Shelters are not often able to accommodate women with disabilities because the buildings themselves are not accessible, and/or staff are not equipped to manage their complex needs. There is a need to support shelter improvements to close the gap to provincial counterparts, as well as trauma informed care and mental health services. Existing policy authority only permits construction of shelters on-reserve, despite a demonstrable need for shelters in the North and options for longer term transition housing after the initial emergency care shelters provide. Male-identified or non-binary victims of violence may be less likely to seek out shelter services. Métis and urban Indigenous populations do not benefit from shelters on-reserve, identifying a gap in available supports.
- Gathering data and reviewing performance indicators in order to prepare an evidence-based case for potential expansion or adaptation of the policy authority and address any possible funding gaps will be a focus of future work. The impact of GBA+ will be monitored through ongoing engagement with service providers at shelters.
In addition to the major initiatives above, ISC also advanced work in the following:
- First Nations and Inuit Health Branch: Management Operational Plan
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- Alignment with GRF: Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-Being, Leadership and Democratic Participation of Indigenous women.
- For the first time, the Department incorporated GBA+ in the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch's Management Operational Planning process. Branch managers across the country were requested to incorporate GBA+ in their planning process. As of March 31, 2019, 32.4% of activities in the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch's Management Operational Plan now include GBA+. The initiative is a positive contribution to ensuring that departmental planning processes integrate GBA+, and that program and service development and design are informed by gender and diversity considerations.
- Indigenous-First GBA+ Framework and Toolkit
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- Alignment with GRF: Education and Skills Development, Poverty Reduction, Health and Well-Being, Leadership and Democratic Participation of Indigenous women.
- In conjunction with CIRNAC, preliminary work was undertaken to determine how to best co-develop with Indigenous partners, a distinctions-based, Indigenous-First GBA+ Framework and Toolkit. This initiative will help to reframe the current GBA+ analytical process by prioritizing the unique experiences, needs, realities, and priorities of diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, including urban Indigenous peoples, in the development, design, implementation and monitoring of GBA+-informed policies, programs and services across ISC and CIRNAC business lines.
- This Indigenous-First GBA+ Framework and Toolkit is critical to supporting Canada's commitment to reconciliation, the inherent right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action, and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls National Inquiry's Calls for Justice.
Reporting capacity and data
Currently, there are few ISC programs that collect and keep sufficient individual recipient micro-data information to undertake GBA+ or to monitor GBA+ implementation at the individual recipient level. To reduce the reporting burden on Indigenous partners, the community-based Reporting template and other Data Collection instruments have been simplified. However, gender-disaggregated and other data contained in these reporting instruments are not easily extracted for the purposes of GBA+.
GBA+ is nonetheless undertaken across all major initiatives requiring Cabinet approval, using gender-disaggregated data and other socio-economic data and indicators where available. Collaboration and information-sharing with Indigenous partners is also used to embed gender and diversity considerations into program and service design.