FEWO Committee Report

If you have any questions or comments regarding the accessibility of this publication, please contact us at accessible@parl.gc.ca.

PDF

CHAPTER FOUR: THE CURRENT STATE OF GENDER-BASED ANALYSIS ACROSS GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS

As the preceding descriptions show, since the federal government adopted a policy requiring departments to do a gender analysis of policies and legislation, Status of Women Canada has implemented training modules, developed tools and organized an interdepartmental committee to promote gender-based analysis.⁹ The Committee repeatedly heard that Canada was known internationally for the quality of the tools and training modules it has prepared on gender-based analysis.

The Committee was disheartened to hear about the significant challenges still working against effective application of GBA at the federal level. Despite 10 years of effort, the implementation of GBA across federal government departments remains uneven. Despite the availability of information on gender-based analysis and the existence of the interdepartmental committee, the Committee has heard that GBA is still not being systematically incorporated into policy-making in all government departments.

The table below highlights some of the existing mechanisms and strategies in the departments and agencies which appeared before this committee.¹⁰

Departmental GBA Table

Department	Structure	Mechanisms for Accountability
Citizenship and Immigration Canada	GBA unit in Strategic Policy and Partnership Branch; 2 FTE and 1 term employee.	IRP Act report annually to Parliament with DM follow-up; Strategic framework 2005-2010 with approval of senior executive; Branch plans signed off by DGs.
Human Resources Skills Development Canada	2 staff assigned to GBA within Strategy and Intergovernmental Relations Directorate; Gender adviser network.	Tentative plans to review ongoing GBA application in branches; Review of existing policy committees (DG, ADM, senior executive chaired by DM) as avenue for GBA; Efforts to reinvigorate gender advisors network.
Social Development Canada	3 staff in GBA unit in Policy and Strategic Direction Directorate; Gender adviser network.	Ad hoc policy analysis Examining committee structures (policy, program, management) to determine best place for GBA; Efforts to reinvigorate gender adviser network.
Health Canada	Small GBA unit within Women’s Health and Gender Analysis Bureau in Health Policy Branch; budget of $350,000 annually.	Gender-based analysis implementation framework 2003-2008; Biannual reporting to departmental executive committee; Gender based focal points identified in regions and branches.
Canadian International Development Agency	Gender Equality Division in Policy Branch; each program branch has gender equality specialist or focal point.	Policy on gender equality; Agency guidelines for program planning and reporting; Annual performance reports identify equality results; Performance assessment framework ready for April, 2005.
Justice	No separate unit; staff with GBA focus inside Policy Integration Group.	Departmental policy on gender equality analysis developed in 1997; Decentralized model with diversity and equality as the responsibility of every employee
Finance	No separate staff designation or unit.	Individual branches responsible for GBA in respective areas; Operational departments are expected to have done GBA in their proposals for funding.

The Committee found that the status of implementation of gender-based analysis throughout the federal government at this time differed significantly between departments and agencies. Overall, even when gender units do exist, they have few staff and few resources, are located in the lower ranks of the bureaucracy, and have minimal or no mechanisms for ensuring that GBA is actually achieved. Some departments and agencies, such as Citizenship and Immigration Canada and CIDA have well-established GBA policies and processes but are still working to produce consistent results across their program areas. Some government departments, such as those responsible for human resources and social development are recovering from departmental changes and seeking to reinvigorate previously strong networks. Health Canada is among those still seeking appropriate data for decision-making.

The Department of Finance, as a key central agency, has an important role to play in promoting and implementing gender-based analysis. The major role for the Department was recognized by the current Minister of Finance, when he committed to ensuring that all policy proposals for the 2005-2006 budget would require a gender analysis. However, the Department was unable to demonstrate that it had a full understanding of the components of gender-based analysis and could not credibly demonstrate that GBA was applied regularly and consistently during departmental interventions. In addition to inadequacies within its direct departmental policy files, it made no efforts to either enforce a requirement to departments to conduct a gender-based analysis on funding proposals or to evaluate the adequacy of gender analyses submitted.

The Committee is concerned that Canada does not have an effective process to do a gender analysis of the budget. It would expect that the Department of Finance could assign to a senior official the responsibility for implementing a gender-analysis process which would allow the Department to take a leadership role internationally in gender-budgeting. In turn, the department could report to Parliament annually on the steps taken to implement gender-budgeting.

⁹	FEWO, Evidence, Hélène Dwyer-Renaud, 10 February 2005, 1520.

¹⁰

This table is limited to the departments and agencies which appeared before the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. The Committee is aware that several other departments have incorporated GBA mechanisms, however the limited time available for this study made it impossible to invite all departments to appear before the Committee.