Serafina Paul works at a radio station in Juba, South Sudan. Like so many of her female colleagues, Paul lacks confidence in her news judgment. She is interested in how certain practices, such as the paying of dowry, or bride price, affect people’s ability to marry in South Sudan.

Forcing men to pay “bride price” has implications both for power relations between the genders and for social and economic stability. However, Paul didn’t think of the concept as a legitimate story idea.

Journalists for Human Rights sent a trainer, Sierra Leonean journalist Mustapha Dumbuya, to work with journalists such as Paul. The goal, among others, is to provide mentorship, build confidence, foster leadership and ensure that women’s voices and issues make it into headlines.

Dumbuya urged Paul to investigate dowries. Despite her reluctance — “People will not talk about these issues,” she said — Dumbuya worked with the news editor to convince Paul to give the story a try. She headed out — and came back with a full reel.

Paul had hit on a story that affected everyone, viscerally, but had not been told in the media. Much of the response focused on how to ease the requirement for dowries in order to make it easier for people to marry on more equitable terms — and, in so doing, access the emotional and economic stability that marriage can bring.

Putting these kinds of issues in headlines represents a transformative shift for women in environments such as South Sudan, where an adolescent girl is three times more likely to die in childbirth than to complete primary school.

Getting journalists to report on the reasons why women are systematically disempowered helps validate women’s concerns and sparks discussion — and implementation — of solutions.

Such stories show why Canada’s recent announcement of a feminist international assistance policy offers such extraordinary potential.

On Friday, Development Minister Marie Claude Bibeau announced that, from this point on, women and girls are to be at the heart of Canadian international assistance.

Immediate changes include the repurposing of allocated funding to a $150 million fund to support women’s leadership and women’s voice through working with female-led local organizations. By focusing on women and girls, traditionally among the most marginalized in already marginalized populations, Canada is working to go where the need is greatest.

Within five years, investments in programs that will specifically target gender equality and the empowerment of women will represent 15 per cent of Canada’s $2.6 billion bilateral development assistance, up from 2 per cent in 2015-16.

A truism of development is that investing in women and girls is an investment in the well-being of entire communities. And when women are more engaged in peace-building, their input can stabilize the entire society.

The long-term development side of foreign affairs is often described as the soft power of international work. It is those who provide the skills and training to help doctors, nurses, police, firefighters, teachers and journalists learn and grow in their jobs.

As with those in the military, development workers are frequently sent to war zones. They are mandated to build capacity and goodwill in profoundly complex, hostile environments, and face innumerable dangers in doing so — often with the most minimal of security supports.

Bibeau and her team are to be congratulated on a bold approach, one that puts Canada in a global leadership position, with implications for change throughout Canada’s overseas assistance.

Even so, any analysis of a feminist policy includes discussion of pay equity — equal pay for equal work. And in this respect, the government has fallen short.

Last week, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan announced a massive expansion in spending on the Canadian military — an additional $13.9 billion over the coming decade for this “indispensable tool” in our foreign policy tool box. “If we are serious about Canada’s role in the world, then we have to be serious about funding our military,” Sajjan said.

Yet there is no new spending for the bold new feminist international assistance policy. Mindful of Sajjan’s comments linking policy priorities to funding, a little pay equity is in order. After all, it is 2017.

Minister Bibeau’s chief of staff, Geoffroi Montpetit, clarifies that the priority, for his team, was to get the policy right first, and then work on a funding framework. “The policy represents a radical cultural shift for the department,” he said Monday.

The larger first challenge, in his view, is ensuring the policy is properly implemented. “The department has to be fit for purpose,” he said. “I would say it’s not quite there yet.”

Such criticisms aside, the policy has grabbed headlines — and rave reviews — all around the world. Consider what’s at stake. Focusing training on women not only improves their skills, it also ensures sector leaders start to change their approach to hiring and promoting women.

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And in JHR’s case, well trained women in media are able to choose between bending to antiquated ideas of a woman’s role in society — or using their skill of journalism to bend the arc of history.

Canada’s new policy is designed to help millions of other women do the same. Let’s ensure they are truly set up to succeed.