in Canada. The training and awareness that is available through this initiative is meant to improvegovernment department efforts to integrate a gender equality (+) perspective into policies, programs andprojects. These are all important initiatives carried out at the federal level and demonstrate somecapacity at the institutional and individual level to develop gender-sensitive policies.PROGRAM INITIATIVES ON WOMEN/GIRLS/GENDER BETWEEN 2006 AND <strong>2014</strong>" Yet, in spite of these superb guiding frameworks, Canada’s policies and program commitmentsunder the Harper Conservatives have done little to promote an agenda of gender equality. Women wereemployed as instruments in justifying Canada’s ongoing mission to Afghanistan, noting that thecontinuation of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan has been justified partly as Canada’s “crucialresponsibility” to ensure “that the advances made by Afghan women over the last nine years are notlost” (Oda, 2010). The Muskoka Initiative - or the Maternal and Newborn Health Initiative (MNCH) – wasalso touted as important program for the advancement of equality between women and men. However,MNCH programs focus primarily on service delivery for women and children in need of healthcareservices but do little to address gender inequality in societies that prevent women from accessing theseservices, nor do they enable women to make choices about their sexual and reproductive health rights(see Carrier and Tiessen, 2013). The maternal health program was introduced by the Canadiangovernment at the same time that we witnessed the gradual disappearance of gender equality languageas official reports and policy statements began to replace the terminology of gender equality withequality between men and women (Tiessen and Carrier, forthcoming)." In 2013, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird, make a public commitment to Canada’s rolein ending early and forced child marriage. There are many reasons to support such an initiative.However, the approach to ending early and forced child marriage is couched in the rhetoric of keepinggirls in school at a time when Canada is providing few project funds for primary education. Whileeducational opportunities are indeed important for girls, the framing of this policy suggests that girls wholeave school become pregnant and does not account for the large number of girls who become pregnantwhile in school. In other words, schools are not always the safe haven for girls to protect them frompregnancy and early marriage. Rather, schools can be the site of sexual assault (from boys as well asteachers, principals, and even community members). Without attention to the role that men andmasculinities play in perpetuating practices of sexual violence as well as early and forced marriage,programs targeting girls for educational programs will change little. There is an additional link to be madebetween early and forced marriage and maternal health and that is that complications from pregnancyand giving birth at a young age can result in severe maternal disability or even death. But Baird refusedto say whether Canada would fund groups that provide medically necessary abortions to girls who areforced to marry and become pregnant. What is missing from these early commitments to stopping earlyand forced marriage is a focus on prevention rather than prosecution, efforts to work with governmentsin developing countries to find local solutions, and efforts to maximize the coordination of efforts ofseveral donors and international aid agencies (the UK government, Plan UK and Plan Canada, to name afew) that have been champions of the ending of early and forced marriage.CONCLUSION" The limited success of the promotion of gender equality between 2006 and <strong>2014</strong> can bewitnessed in several key initiatives promoted under the leadership of the Harper Conservatives, namelythe maternal health initiative (MNCH) and the early efforts to address early and forced marriage of girls.Furthermore, the explicit and required shift in language from gender equality to equality between womenand men between 2009 and 2013 provides an interesting case of a diminishing commitment tointernationally recognized development priorities such as gender equality for many reasons. As theHarper Conservatives set themselves apart from previous governments by changing the policy rhetoricand announcing new initiatives such as the MNCH, a fundamental shift from a development model to acharity approach can be observed: one that is concerned with “saving women” through modern,technological advances without understanding the underlying causes of gender inequality and how they55
contribute to women’s reproductive health; or ‘saving girls’ through righteous indignation of internationalpractices involving early and forced marriage of girl children. Furthermore, the changing landscape ofConservative programs that increasingly promote charity towards women and children (such as theMNCH) rather than human rights, equality and development is narrowing the programmatic scope withinwhich gender equality can be discussed. Evidence of the retreat from gender equality can be seen in avariety of ways, including the shift in language, and in concrete initiatives such as the Muskoka –maternal health – Initiative or the initiative to end early and forced (child) marriage. I argue that theserecent events demonstrate a step back to Women in Development (WID) thinking and language at best,but increasingly a charity approach: a distinction based on a view that women are the targets ofdevelopment assistance rather than active participants in their own development.56
- Page 7 and 8: How The World Learned to Name Viole
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- Page 15 and 16: REFERENCESBillet, S. (2006). Relati
- Page 17 and 18: Follow The MoneyBy: Karen Takacs" L
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- Page 33 and 34: " Survey results indicate a high le
- Page 35 and 36: 361). It is also important to note
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- Page 39 and 40: REFERENCESAfrican National Congress
- Page 41 and 42: APPENDIX A:Figure A1: The indicator
- Page 43 and 44: Reproductive Justice, Gender and In
- Page 45 and 46: REFERENCESClare, E. (1999). Exile a
- Page 47 and 48: women find themselves, and help the
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- Page 51 and 52: poverty than men, they may be less
- Page 53 and 54: are helpful, they are not effective
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- Page 59 and 60: Feminism is For Everybody, Except W
- Page 61 and 62: addition to the uncertainty of mark
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- Page 65 and 66: REFERENCESBeaman, L., Chattopadhyay
- Page 67 and 68: to embrace a more holistic self, on
- Page 69 and 70: One moment which exemplifies this i
- Page 71 and 72: REFERENCESCoston, B. M. and Kimmel,
- Page 73 and 74: earning an income showed me some of
- Page 75 and 76: Biographical SketchesRemy N. Bargou
- Page 77 and 78: international development organizat
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