Submission to Global Affairs Canada’s International Assistance Review

Recommendations by Action Canada for a feminist approach to international assistance.

Key words 

feminist approach to international assistance; human rights-based approach; health and rights; gender equality and women’s rights; governance, pluralism, diversity and human rights; humanitarian crises; delivering results.

Key recommendations

1. Meaningfully apply feminist principles and a human rights-based approach across international development policy and all initiatives stemming from that;
2. Demonstrate political leadership on SRHR, among donors and within global policy forums;
3. Establish a Canadian Global Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights strategy;
4. Invest a minimum of $500 Million/year in new and sustainable funding for programming that addresses gaps and neglected issues in SRHR, namely: comprehensive abortion care, adolescent sexuality and advocacy for SRHR;
5. Establish a standalone pillar on gender equality and women’s rights to operationalize feminist principles, and robustly implement a feminist approach across other pillars of Canada’s international assistance and support targeted gender equality programming.