User:Anureetkaur19/Feminist Foreign Policy

Canada
The Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) was introduced in 2017 by Canada to eradicate poverty around the world through female empowerment. The Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, Marie-Claude Bibeau, created the policy during Justin Trudeau’ s first term as Prime Minister. Trudeau, who strived to create a gender-balanced cabinet, is a strong supporter of feminism.

Bibeau, after consulting with 65 countries, created a policy that relied heavily on gender-equality to create prosperity. Her findings indicated that empowerment of women and girls and gender-equality would promote economic growth in the Global South.

The official statement made by the Minister of International Development reads, “Canada is adopting a Feminist International Assistance Policy that seeks to eradicate poverty and build a more peaceful, more inclusive and more prosperous world. Canada firmly believes that promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls is the most effective approach to achieving this goal”

Keeping Canadian values in mind, the policy is said to support the Paris Agreement as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), a set of goals created by the United Nations in an effort to eradicate poverty by 2030. However, due to COVID-19 and the fundamental damage it has caused in the Global South, the SDG report indicates a sharp increase in poverty. Schools closing due to the pandemic negatively impacts the education of girls and women, which consequently, hinders the progress Canada’s FIAP has made when it comes to gender-equality.

Action Areas
In efforts to reach the goals of eradicating poverty, increasing global prosperity, and empowering women and girls, Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) identifies six key action areas :


 * Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls (core)
 * Human dignity
 * Growth that works for everyone
 * Environment and climate action
 * Inclusive governance
 * Peace and security

Gender equality and the empowerment of women is FIAP's core action area. In this area, Canada addresses, among other things, women's rights, violence against women, and women in the public sector. With this action area at the core of FIAP, 15% of Canada's bilateral development aid will be invested into initiatives that empower women and girls.

The action area of Human dignity concerns itself with ensuring that low-income populations have access to basic needs. Such needs include education, food, water, and health care. Human dignity falls under the umbrella of female empowerment as women and girls often face more obstacles in fulfilling their basic needs. In this regard, FIAP emphasizes the importance of female access to reproductive health. In the following three years Canada has pledged that $650 million will be invested into programs that promote reproductive health such as abortion clinics, contraception distribution, and HIV/AIDS treatments.

Growth that works for everyone is an action area that focuses on creating opportunities that further allow women to participate and benefit from local economic growth. Such opportunities include financial literacy training and lobbying for policy reform.

The Environment and climate action action area addresses the effects of climate change on human livelihood, and particularly those of women as they are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change. Initiatives in this area include including women in climate action discussions and providing women with funding to create innovative climate adaption techniques.

Action area 5 is dedicated to Inclusive governance. In this context, accomplishing inclusive governance involves the foundation of democracy, human rights, peace, and strong institutions, among other things. FIAP promotes inclusive governance through supporting women's rights and increasing women's access to politics, justice, and civil society.

The action area of Peace and security focuses on fostering stability in states that are in/on the verge of violence, as well as improving peace policies such as the Global women, peace, and security agenda. In line with FIAP's feminist lens, Canada seeks to improve peace and security through supporting female participation in peace-focused forums and organizations.