Although the Trudeau government’s feminist foreign policy is far from perfect and definitely requires much improvement, it is a worthwhile project, drawing needed attention to the plight of women and girls living in conflict situations and/or living as refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs).

According to a new report produced by Oxfam Canada, conflicts and humanitarian crises are especially hard on women and girls. “They face increased risk of violence, exhausting workloads to ensure their families survive, and lack full control over decisions that affect the trajectories of their lives,” states the report, which is entitled Protected and Powerful: Putting Resources and Decision Making Power in the Hands of Women in Conflict.

The report, written by Oxfam Canada’s Brittany Lambert, explains that when civilians are displaced by conflict, women and girls are more vulnerable than men and boys due to “pre-existing social norms” that tend to put them at greater risk of insecurity and violence. And women and girls are “less likely than men and boys to have adequate access to food, health care, shelter, nationality and documentation.”

Failed humanitarian policies

According to the Oxfam report, humanitarian policies often fail women and girls, because “their needs aren’t prioritized and the complex drivers of conflict, which include gender inequality, go unaddressed.” In order to tackle the problem, the non-governmental organization (NGO) urges the Trudeau government to adequately fund “transformative humanitarian action” with the aim of rebalancing “gender power relations.”

Oxfam warns that progress on achieving gender equality will be limited if Canada does not implement feminist values in other areas of its foreign policy. “Canada needs policy coherence across all foreign policy actions — in aid, diplomacy, trade and defence,” Lambert writes.

The self-described feminist NGO criticizes the Trudeau government’s Feminist International Assistance Policy because it only offers unstable funding for gender-transformative initiatives. “Short-term funding and a lack of funding opportunities for gender equality in humanitarian assistance are some of the biggest challenges,” the report states.

The federal government is increasingly using multi-year funding for NGO humanitarian projects, which helps organizations try out gender-transformation programs. However, Canada tends to fund proposals from humanitarian groups that dovetail with the main sectors of humanitarian intervention, including health, protection, water and shelter.

However, Lambert writes that “stand-alone gender programming is not a category, which means that most gender interventions in humanitarian programming are mainstreamed.” As a result, the Canadian approach “makes securing funding for gender-transformative programming very difficult.”

Recommendations

Oxfam offers a series of very ambitious recommendations for the Trudeau government, many of which will likely be brushed aside gently with a sympathetic smile. For example, the NGO wants Ottawa to come up with a 10-year plan to implement the United Nations official development assistance (ODA) target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income. Although Canada tends to pay lip service to the 0.7 per cent aspirational ODA target, successive governments — Liberal and Conservative — have failed to reach it.

A more intriguing and realistic proposal concerns the creation of a special fund for programming dedicated to addressing gender imbalances. The fund, which would account for at least 15 per cent of Canada’s total humanitarian assistance budget, would support local women’s rights actors and pay for a monitoring mechanism that would evaluate humanitarian responses from a feminist perspective.

Oxfam also wants the post of ambassador for women, peace and security — announced in September by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland as she hosted the first-ever gathering of women foreign ministers — to be adequately funded.

In addition, the NGO wants Canada to close “loopholes in legislation to accede to the Arms Trade Treaty,” making sure that the Canadian Commercial Corporation does not broker weapons sales that lead to human rights abuses. And Oxfam recommends that weapons export licences be denied to nation states with poor records on gender-based violence in conflict situations.

It seems highly unlikely that the federal government will curtail the arms trade. Indeed, the Trudeau government has been slow to consider measures to cut off arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which persecutes and tortures bloggers and dissidents and brutally murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Canada and peacekeeping

To be fair to the Trudeau government, it has put women’s issues front and centre in peacekeeping.

For instance, almost a full year before the Oxfam report, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was making strong statements about protecting women and girls living in conflict situations.

“Women and girls are disproportionately affected by violent conflict,” noted a statement issued by Trudeau at the UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial conference at Vancouver on Nov. 15, 2017. And he added that women and girls are “often subjected to rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution and other forms of sexual violence.”

Moreover, Trudeau announced the establishment of the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations. The multilateral initiative, named in honour of aeronautical engineer Elizabeth “Elsie” Muriel Gregory MacGill, is intended to boost the participation of women in peacekeeping operations. And the United Nations has lauded both the Elsie Initiative and Trudeau’s announcement that Canada would contribute $15 million to jump-start the program.

Much of the Oxfam strategy to feminize Canadian policies echoes the women, peace and security agenda set out in a number of United Nations Security Council resolutions that demand that nation states protect the human rights of women and girls in conflict situations, prevent sexual and gender-based violence, and include gender equality in peace and security situations. And the UN has called upon all member states to come up with national action plans on women, peace and security.

Canada unveiled its first National Action Plan in 2010 under the previous government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The plan covered 2011 to 2016.

The Trudeau government launched Canada’s Second National Action Plan last year, and it covers the period 2017 to 2022. According to Trudeau, this second plan represents “a key component of Canada’s feminist foreign policy, which includes the Feminist International Assistance Policy and Canada’s Defence Policy.”

One of the concrete initiatives undertaken by the Liberal government was the November 2016 announcement that $1.5 million would be allocated to the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, which Trudeau described as “a financing mechanism aimed at enhancing women’s participation in peace and security.” Although the allocation falls far short of the Oxfam funding recommendation, it clearly demonstrates forward thinking and a commitment to women and girls’ security.

Crux of Canadian policy

The crux of the Trudeau government’s feminist international assistance policy is to put “gender equality at the centre of poverty eradication and peace-building efforts by challenging the discrimination faced by women and girls around the world.”

Under the government’s policy, Canada is committed to allocating 15 per cent of bilateral international development assistance to programs to “advancing gender equality and improving women and girls’ quality of life.” These initiatives include efforts to combat sexual and gender-based violence and support for women’s rights groups.

However, the Trudeau government should be rebuked for not being more assertive in defending the rights of women and girls in the Middle East.

For example, Canada has not supported ongoing countrywide demonstrations in Iran against the oppressive Islamic regime that forces women to wear headscarves and accept a subservient position in the religious, male-dominant social order.

Images of brave women defiantly removing their headscarves in public only to be harassed or physically attacked by regime thugs should be strongly condemned by Canada’s feminist government at every turn.

In addition, the Iranian regime’s use of sexual violence against dissidents — both male and female — should be vigorously condemned by the Trudeau government in the Canadian Parliament and at the United Nations.

Despite its many faults and timidity on certain files, the Trudeau government is on the right track when it comes to helping vulnerable women and girls.

Follow Geoffrey P. Johnston on Twitter @GeoffyPJohnston.