This is a serious issue. We recommended that the department take immediate action so that it can fully report on the outcomes of the projects it funded. This is crucial to demonstrating the value of these investments and to ensuring that women and girls are benefitting from the programs that Canada is funding.
Global Affairs Canada also needs to address how it measures longer-term outcomes. We found that the department focused on short-term outputs, with only 2 of 26 policy indicators measuring outcomes. An example of this was a project to build washrooms and handwashing stations in schools to make them more welcoming for girls who might otherwise miss class when they are menstruating. The department did not track this project’s outcomes, such as whether school attendance and completion rates improved for girls over the long term.
We found that although Global Affairs Canada implemented a thorough process to assess the extent to which gender is integrated in its projects, the department could do more to incorporate different identify factors. For example, while it regularly included age, it did not routinely consider other factors, such as ethnicity, family size and structure, or rural or urban location. The department should improve the integration of intersecting identity factors in its project development so that it can deliver more inclusive programming.
This concludes my opening remarks. We would be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have.