All of the learning from working to try to achieve gender equality through development indicates that you need to have stand-alone projects that target women and girls, but you also need to make sure to mainstream gender equality throughout the programs.
You need to have a gender analysis of any program, which you're implementing to ensure that women and girls will be able to benefit equally from that program. I wouldn't say the focus on women and girls is going to be a discrete part of the DFI's mandate, but it needs to be able to learn from the experiences of Global Affairs and the development community globally. That is core to be able to achieve its goals.
I would say that the idea to focus on women entrepreneurs, for example, is a good idea, and there are definitely examples and ways that this can be done. Women experience the economy in a broad range of ways, and not all women are entrepreneurs. Women are in the labour market. Women are not in the labour market for various reasons as well. It's thinking about how we can use this opportunity and this type of financing to address some of those issues.
In terms of the experiences of other countries as well with their development finance initiatives, the evaluations show that when they are working very much towards the same strategies and the same goals in a focused way...so it does mean making choices. Canada has chosen to focus on a feminist approach and to focus on targeting women and girls, so it would make sense for the DFI to also focus on that approach.
When the DFI and the donor agency are working together towards the same goals, then that's much more strategic than to be working on separate strategies or issues, sometimes in the same country, with things that aren't linked together. That is much less effective.