Trudeau’s new ‘feminist’ plan commits 95% of foreign aid to gender, women and girls by 2022

“Canada is adopting a feminist international assistance policy to promote gender equality and empower all women and girls. For Canada, this is the most effective approach to reducing poverty and building a more inclusive, peaceful and prosperous world,” said international development minister Marie-Claude Bibeau in announcing the new foreign aid policy.

“When women and girls are given equal opportunities to succeed, they can be powerful agents of change — driving stronger economic growth, encouraging greater peace and co-operation, and improving the quality of life for their families and their communities.”

In five years, 95 per cent of Canada’s overseas development assistance will be devoted to programs that target gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Fifty per cent of the development budget will go to sub-Saharan Africa and the amount of funding going to health and reproductive rights will double.

While there’s no international precedent for focusing all foreign aid on women, Sweden pioneered a feminist approach to its entire foreign policy agenda — including diplomacy, aid and the military — back in 2015.

Aid groups, which have been focusing both fundraising and programming around women and girls for years, welcomed the shift of tone in Ottawa.

“There needs to be a focus on girls, not because of a philosophical idea but because of what an evidence-based approach shows us,” said Caroline Riseboro, president and CEO of Plan International Canada.

“The research shows beyond a doubt that investment in a girl’s education is the most effective investment we can make in international assistance.”

Unlike the previous government’s focus on maternal and child health that refused to fund abortions, access to contraceptives and abortion is a key plank in the new foreign aid policy that seeks to delay early marriage and childbirth and prolong girl’s education in order to improve family incomes.

But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has kept one controversial feature of development aid policy started by his predecessor: private sector partnerships to leverage additional funding for international aid programs.

The policy release was the latest salvo in a week of announcements laying out a re-imagined role for Canada in the world. But while those in the aid community applauded the bold women-centred vision, they also asked why there was no new funding announced for aid, when military spending received a $14 billion annual hike.

“What’s the message we’re sending to the world? Are we saying that we’re going to invest in our military, but the development side, the soft side of peace and security isn’t important? That we don’t feel we need to do our fair share on that front as well?” said Julia Sanchez, President of Canadian Council for International Co-operation, an association of aid groups.

At just under $5 billion, Canada’s international assistance budget has been flat for the last few years, even as the economy grew. At an estimated 0.26 per cent of gross domestic product, Canada’s development spending is near an all-time low and ranks 18th in the world, according to the Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development.

The new aid policy is very high level, and aid groups say it lacked detailed discussion of how particular development projects would be funded. But the feminist vision is a good way to get Canadians involved in thinking about foreign aid.

“The challenge with international development is always helping Canadians see the connection with their lives,” said Sanchez.

“The focus on women’s empowerment overseas, at a time when that conversation is very much alive in Canada — closing the pay gap, the missing and murdered Indigenous women inquiry — can get people who are excited about the feminist agenda in Canada to also get excited about doing this overseas,” Sanchez said.

The logic for adopting a feminist stance for international development is well founded.

Because girls are disproportionately poor, less well educated and more vulnerable to illness and disease, helping them will help the world’s most vulnerable people. But studies have also shown that once women take up leadership roles — in peace building, business and politics — outcomes are better, meaning empowering women ends up benefitting men as well.

“When women are at the centre of economic initiatives, whether it’s in a boardroom or in the community, they make a difference. Businesses are more profitable, loans get paid back. Earnings and the family’s well being improve,” said Sanchez.

“Peace is also an exciting area. There’s a lot of evidence that women involved in peace making efforts, they’re more successful, they arrive faster. There’s a huge amount of opportunity for Canada and the world by focusing in on women.”

Recognizing that foreign aid does more than alleviate poverty, Ottawa is using the new policy to highlight the ways that development assistance can help accomplish the goals set out in multiple international initiatives, from the UN’s sustainable development goals to the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Pledging Canada’s commitment to these principles is significant, especially after the U.S. has started to question them.

“The global agenda around gender equality is really at risk of getting off track right now,” said Plan Canada’s Riseboro. “Canada has stepped forward and said ‘now is our time to play a leadership role globally.’”