Q&A: Canadian Development Minister Bibeau on women, development, and the G7 ministerial

WASHINGTON — The G-7 development and finance ministerial kicks off with events Wednesday in Whistler, British Columbia, where representatives from the world’s seven largest economies will gather to discuss increasing global economic stability and enhancing women’s empowerment. The meeting, “Investing in Growth that Works for Everyone,” will be hosted by Canada’s Minister of International Development and La Francophonie Marie-Claude Bibeau, and Canada’s Minister of Finance Bill Morneau, along with Stephen Poloz, the Bank of Canada’s governor. It will be the first time G-7 development and finance ministers sit down together for conversations on innovative financing and women’s economic empowerment. It’s also the first time since 2010 that the country holding the G-7 presidency has chosen to convene a development ministerial. As this year’s president of the G-7, Canada is taking the opportunity to showcase its international development priorities and shine the spotlight on its feminist foreign policy agenda. The policy, the result of a two-year consultation that involved 15,000 people in more than 65 countries, aims to put women and girls at the center of everything it does to help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and eradicate poverty. Devex sat down with Bibeau last week in Washington, D.C., for an extended interview ahead of the development ministerial, to hear more about Canada’s feminist foreign policy and how it is impacting funding decisions. Bibeau worked for the Canadian International Development Agency in Morocco and Benin before becoming development minister, experiences she says have informed the way she is able to lead on Canada’s development agenda. She spoke about why it’s so important to bring women into the conversation and have them involved in the implementation of projects in every sector, including in Canadian priority areas of human dignity, good governance, economic growth, peace and security, and climate change. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What is the focus of Canadian development funding priorities given that so many areas of the world need attention right now? My mandate is to refocus on the most vulnerable and fragile states. We have to empower women. No country can afford to leave half of its population behind, so our focus is putting girls and women at the center of everything we do. We are moving from what used to be less than 3 percent of our bilateral development aid to projects dedicated to being gender transformative, to 15 percent. We’re really putting the money where our mouth is. “It’s not only a matter of looking at women and girls as beneficiaries because they are the most vulnerable, but it’s really looking at women and adolescent girls as agents of change, development, and peace.” --— Marie-Claude Bibeau, Canadian minister of international development and La Francophonie We used to have more or less 30 percent of our financing with absolutely no consideration on women or gender issues — gender-blind projects. Now, we want 95 percent of our projects having an impact on women’s empowerment. The objective is 0 percent with no such impact. Any project that would be gender blind, that would have no consideration for gender, would have to be approved by the minister. I got just one for the last year. What we are asking our partners to do — and they have to if they want to get Canadian financing — is to make sure that they consult women locally, that women are part of decision-making, that they find the best way to empower women throughout the implementation of the project, so it’s not only a matter of looking at women and girls as beneficiaries because they are the most vulnerable, but it’s really looking at women and adolescent girls as agents of change, development, and peace. This is really the new policy, the way we work. How is Canada prioritizing the projects it chooses to support? We have so much to do in the humanitarian context. Women and girls, including adolescent girls, are huge victims of gender-based violence in these crises. We have to make sure their needs are taken into account. We are really asking our partners to focus on this. We are contributing significantly to sexual and reproductive health in crisis environments as well, because so many of them have been raped. They need access to services and supplies to manage family planning and everything related to maternal health. We are providing an increased contribution to UNFPA [the U.N. Population Fund], for example, which is one of the main partners in providing those types of services. “We strongly think that [local women’s organizations] know what the problems are, they know what the solutions are, they know how to do it, and we want to give them a voice and the power to make these changes.” --— We want to work more with local women’s organizations. We put forward an initiative that we call Women’s Voice and Leadership. It’s $150 million over five years in about 30 countries, to support local women organizations. One part of this is to build capacities: How to work with local government, how to work with local media, how to manage funds, how to get funds from different partners, and provide reports. But it is also to give them funds to go forward with some local, gender transformative projects. We strongly think that they know what the problems are, they know what the solutions are, they know how to do it, and we want to give them a voice and the power to make these changes. It also includes the LGBTQ community, they are also eligible to this fund. Why is empowering adolescent girls specifically so important? The policy is based on the fact that we have to empower women if we want to reach the SDGs, to end poverty. So, if we want to have empowered women, we have to make sure that we allow girls to develop their full potential and to become empowered women. We know that as adolescents, many of girls stop going to school for different reasons. That’s why we want to work much more with adolescent girls. We have invited seven adolescent girls to the G-7 because we want development ministers to hear from them directly, about their experience, to see their vision for their future. What are other areas in which Canada is pursuing its women-centered development policy? We want to lead in terms of having more women involved in peace processes, having more women involved with peacekeepers. When we have women around decision tables, when we have women participating in peace processes, the chances to reach an agreement and the chances that the peace will last longer have been demonstrated. We launched the Elsie Initiative last November, as a way to encourage countries with big numbers of peacekeepers to have more women as part of their troops. Because Canadians are often doing trainings in the field, we want to be sure that we include everything related to gender specifics in our own training. We want to look at the full range of sexual and reproductive health services and rights. That means including sexual education, and we call it the appropriate way in whatever countries we are. Language is important, and if the Canadian minister cannot say it, who will? This includes sexual education for boys and girls, access to contraception, family planning services, and where it’s legal, abortions. Abortion and LGBTQ rights in many countries are very politicized issues. What does that mean for the way you as minister can be outspoken in support of those policies? It depends where we speak. But if we speak with academics or other politicians in any country, I do not shy away. I speak loud and clear about sexual reproductive rights, about women’s rights, about LGBTQ rights unapologetically. At my level, when I’m speaking with any type of partners, ministers, or even with local leaders, I speak with the same language. We’re having the conversation. It’s true that it’s more difficult to have this discussion for the LGBTQ community, but just having the conversation helps to move the issue forward. Someone has to do it, and if the Canadian minister and prime minister don’t do it, others could, but we are among those who should and who can.