In looking at feminist funding, it is so important to ‘follow the money’. Tracking how and where international assistance flows can be difficult and complicated. A new article from Donor Tracker, A Life Free from Fear: Financing to End Gender-Based Violence (GBV), is a welcome contribution.
This article explores:
- How much bilateral ODA do donors currently provide for anti-GBV efforts and related civil society and human rights areas?
- Which OECD DAC donor countries prioritize GBV in their development policy and financing?
- Where are the gaps, and what more needs to be done by donors?
Drawing on the OECD-DAC’s gender equality marker data, the authors outline how funding going to SGBV from bilateral development organizations has increased (more than tripling between 2016 and 2018), primarily due to the Spotlight Initiative. This initiative is a multiyear partnership between the European Union and the United Nations with an initial commitment of €500 million.
However, the report also points out that aid in sectors vitally important to addressing GBV does not adequately address gender equality issues. For example only 30% of funding in the ‘legal and judicial development’ sector included gender equality objectives, thus it is likely that major investments in this area do not address SGBV.
The article ends with recommendations to increase funding, make better use of the DAC codes and strengthen attention to gender equality issues generally and GBV more specifically in relevant programming areas and sectors.
This year, the Governments of Canada and Uruguay are hosting the Women, Peace and Security Focal Points Network. This is global network of governments, regional and international institutions working to include women in peace and security processes.
In order to support and inform their discussions, Global Affairs Canada supported a consultation run by the Women, Peace and Security Network-Canada, a Canadian coalition that monitors Canada’s implementation of the WPS agenda.
The report on the consultations groups the inputs from activists into six general recommendations:
- Bring the WPS agenda into COVID-19 responses
- Ensure that WPS work continues even during the pandemic
- Work towards an inclusive and intersectional WPS response
- Improve data and information on WPS issues
- Address the ongoing resourcing deficit for WPS work (with a priority for funding for women’s organisations)
- Include robust responses to displacement and migration in the WPS agenda.
Our partner, Community Foundations of Canada recently launched a comprehensive overview of gender equality issues in Canada, #VitalSigns2020. Organized under the themes of peace, power, planet, these publications provide up-to-date, comprehensive analysis and numbers outlining gender disparities and realities across Canada. These documents aim to provide key data to guide investments in women, girls, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people throughout the country – both generally and as part of COVID-19 response and recovery plans.
