|
Outcomes
The dialogue was quite successful in raising awareness about
gender-based analysis among the target audience. This general increase in
awareness of GBA extended beyond the 60 registered participants to all of the
organizations and individuals on the CCLOW and Status of Women contact lists,
and others who received the initial background paper and resources documents.
The dialogue was also successful in creating basic knowledge and
consensus regarding what GBA is and can do, among the registered participants.
To effectively reach more women from the specific sub-groups previously
outlined as missing from the dialogue, a different type of process may be
required. This is due to the fact that many women in these communities have
less access to the internet than do women from mainstream women's
organizations, and therefore may not feel empowered or at ease speaking out in
a mainstream forum that is internet-based. Their access may be quite limited
for financial, educational or availability reasons, as significant areas of
Canada's northern territories do not have access to internet servers at all.
The dialogue has stimulated interest among individuals and
women's organizations in using GBA in their future work. To support this
process, several participants indicated that they felt a need for further
training.
Recommendations and Next Steps
- Organize a series of face-to-face consultations and training
workshops on GBA within each specific community and identify key
representatives from each community to co-facilitate these sessions. This
approach is more likely to be effective in ensuring that aboriginal and Metis
women, visible minority women and women with special needs have access to
gender-based analysis information and tools, than through a general
internet-based dialogue.
- One alternative might be to hold an internet-based dialogue
for members of each specific community, but to incorporate additional access
measures in the process, such as identifying host organizations where people
can go to log on to the dialogue, and training on how to participate for anyone
who has not yet used the internet;
- It will also be critical to develop training materials that
include applications relevant to each specific community and context.
- Summarize and translate the results of the parallel French
dialogue on GBA and circulate them to English-speaking women's organizations.
- Provide French-speaking women's organizations with a summary
and translation of the results of the English dialogue.
- Summarize and circulate the results of dialogue and training
workshops for aboriginal and Metis women, visible minority women and women with
special needs, to mainstream English and French-speaking women's organizations.
Highlight the key issues that are distinct for each community in this summary.
- Draft a paper on gender-based analysis in academic format
and invite academics to comment on it on-line. Use this commentary to initiate
further discussion and critical analysis. Summarize the results of this
discussion/analysis, and circulate them to women's organizations and the public
sector.
- Hold a similar dialogue with public sector representatives
that focuses on both policy and program initiatives, and clearly indicates how
GBA affects their work. Include a resource list of GBA tools to assist them to
implement the federal GBA policy.
- Facilitate networking between individuals and departments in
the public sector who work with GBA tools. Public sector participants in the
women's organizations GBA dialogue indicated they felt a certain amount of
isolation in this area, and were quite eager to make contact with others
working in this field.
- Circulate a summary of the perspectives of each sector to
all participants in all sectors and initiate a dialogue in which each sector is
encouraged to share their experiences and the specific GBA tools that they are
using. This summary could include case studies from each sector that
demonstrate the ways in which each uses GBA to analyze a particular situation
or context.
|