Marie-Claude Bibeau talks Canada’s new International Assistance Policy
On Monday, Jan. 22, 2018, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau presented the annual Winegard Lecture in Rozanski hall to an audience of faculty, students, and community members. Bibeau is the current minister of international development and the Francophonie. Her presentation, entitled The Future is Female: Canada’s First Feminist International Assistance Policy, explained the recent changes and reasoning behind Canada’s new emphasis on feminism in development.
Canada’s new international assistance vision advocates gender equality and female empowerment. As Bibeau explained, the government believes that this is the most effective way to eradicate poverty, and Canada is committed to the goal of ending poverty by 2030. However, Bibeau also called this an ambitious goal, due to the high number of people living in extreme poverty and the number of refugees and internally displaced people.
[media-credit name=”Courtesy of Bishop’s University” align=”alignnone” width=”1020″]
In order to break the vicious cycle of poverty, Bibeau believes that we must involve women every step of the way. All of the data tells us that women are powerful agents of change, development, and peace, and when women are involved, there are benefits to the world economy and peace processes.
Bibeau also said that women are on the front lines of another global challenge: food security. Bibeau said data suggests that if women were given the same control over land and productive resources as men then productivity would increase by 30 per cent, which could potentially feed a lot of people.
By creating the conditions for women and girls to reach their full potential, solutions to poverty and inequality can be met. To reach their potential, women and girls need full control over their bodies and the decisions that affect their lives.
Bibeau recognized the need to change unequal power dynamics, saying that “our actions will not be sustainable if discriminatory socio-cultural behaviours and policies” are not changed. Men and boys need to be modelized as allies. According to Bibeau, “empowering women now guides everything that we do.” There are no more gender-blind projects or initiatives, and to get funding, partners must involve local women directly.
This is a big change from the former assistance policy, when only three per cent of projects looked directly at gender inequality and 30 per cent of projects didn’t consider gender at all.
While women’s empowerment and reducing poverty both sound great, there are reasons to question this feminist policy. During the short question period, one former U of G student raised criticisms about putting the burden of economic growth entirely on women. They also pointed out that situations are often complicated and that culturally embedded ideas about women may not be so easy to change. In response, Bibeau insisted again that the data shows changing women’s lives changes all of the community. She failed to adequately address concerns that it’s not exactly fair to put the burden for development on women, particularly when — as one audience member pointed out — women are often oppressed and some of the most vulnerable members of society.
Despite this, Bibeau said that when it comes to raising the difficult and controversial questions, “you can count on Canada” to raise those issues every chance it gets. Luckily, Bibeau added that she’ll count on us to hold her accountable — and judging by the interest shown by the U of G community on Monday night, it’s safe to say that Canadians will.
Photo by Alora Griffiths/The Ontarion