Question Period Note: Canada’s Role in the Generation Equality Forum

What is Canada’s Role in the Generation Equality Forum?

• Advancing gender equality both in Canada and around the world is a key Government of Canada priority.
• In this context, Canada fully supports the Generation Equality Forum. This multistakeholder forum was convened by UN Women, France and Mexico in 2021 to achieve tangible progress towards gender equality over the next five years.
• This will be done through a series of transformative actions in six areas, which integrate the views of girls and adolescent girls:
1. Gender-Based Violence;
2. Economic Justice and Rights;
3. Bodily Autonomy and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights;
4. Feminist Action for Climate Justice;
5. Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality; and
6. Feminist Movements and Leadership.
• Canada is co-leading the Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership, and working with partners to make real progress in this area.
• At the Paris Forum in June 2021, the Prime Minister announced a number of concrete actions that Canada is taking to ensure that women and girls can succeed both at home and abroad.
• The key domestic actions announced relate back to Canada’s feminist COVID-19 recovery plan, which aims to create opportunities for women and girls. These include promoting feminist movements, organizations, and voices; preventing and eliminating gender-based violence; supporting the care economy; and advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights.
• Canada will collaborate with its partners and stakeholders to implement its gender equality commitments over the next five years.

• To keep the momentum on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 25 years following its adoption (Beijing +25), UN Women, France and Mexico, convened the Generation Equality Forum (GEF) in 2021 to reaffirm the importance of women’s rights, strengthen the women’s movement, and support youth and multi-stakeholder engagement for gender equality. The GEF met twice: once in Mexico City from March 29-31, 2021, and in Paris from June 30-July 2, 2021.
• The Forum’s ambitious action agenda will be driven by multi-stakeholder Action Coalitions in six (6) areas: gender-based violence; economic justice and rights; bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights; feminist action for climate justice; technology and innovation for gender equality; and feminist movements and leadership. The Generation Equality Youth Task Force helped guide this action agenda to place young people at the centre of the Beijing+25 process. A Youth Journey or roadmap was co-created with girls, young people, UN agencies, and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), spotlighting activation moments and opportunities for young people and adolescents to influence and lead the process.
• Canada is a leader of the Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership with the Netherlands, Malawi and a number of non-government partners, including a youth organization, and a private sector representative (Gucci).
• Canada is represented on this Action Coalition by the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth on domestic commitments and the Minister for International Development on international commitments.
• At the Paris Forum, Canada made a number of domestic and international programmatic commitments. Internationally, Canada announced nearly 180 million CAD to advance gender equality around the world. This funding will support activities that address social and institutional barriers to girls’ education, including developing digital tools to deliver programs to girls during the pandemic. On the domestic front, Canada’s commitments stem from Budget 2021 and include:
o Sustaining historic Government funding commitments to Canadian women’s organizations and equality-seeking groups, with a particular focus on vulnerable women, including Indigenous women, women with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ2 communities and newcomer, racialized and migrant women;
o Strengthening the application of Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) in decision-making in order to address systemic inequities. The quality and availability of disaggregated data will be improved by the Disaggregated Data Action Plan to ensure that policy decisions benefit all communities;
o Driving systemic change that promotes a fairer and more productive society for everyone, including for women and girls, by improving quality of life and addressing gender-based violence;
o Leading a coordinated whole-of-government approach to implement a feminist economic recovery plan, including the significant, long-term, and sustained investment to create the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care System;
o Establishing a National Institute for Women’s Health Research; and
o Implementing a national survey on sexual and reproductive health.
• Domestic consultations held in spring 2021 with provinces and territories, national Indigenous leaders and representatives, as well as CSOs and youth helped inform Canada’s overall approach in the GEF, including in its role as an Action Coalition leader.
 

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