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Technical Cooperation of the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA) in Human Resources Development and Training - Canada
Source: Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
CIDA is the Canadian governmental agency whose mandate is to help people in developing countries lift themselves out of poverty by offering them the support they need to improve their quality of life.
CIDA supports sustainable development activities in order to reduce poverty and to contribute to a more secure, equitable and prosperous world.
CIDA's definition of basic education
CIDA acknowledges that education is a lifelong process that begins in early childhood and carries on throughout the life of each individual citizen. CIDA's Action Plan on Basic Education encompasses both the formal public education systems that governments provide, as well as non-formal schooling that non-governmental organizations and institutions offer. The Plan focuses on universal primary education, as well as on adult basic education and literacy. Programs in early childhood education are included when they are designed to be part of an integrated strategy to improve access, equality, quality, and the eventual success of learners in basic education. Basic education involves literacy, numeracy, and life skills. Life skills - such as decision-making, problem solving, critical thinking, and effective communication—enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Life skills enable people to continue learning and adapting throughout their lives, to act as responsible citizens, to understand their rights, to maximize livelihood opportunities, to work collaboratively, and to maintain their health and the health of their families. At the same time, life skills also give people the confidence and self-esteem to act on their knowledge.
The following key focus areas reflect the lessons learned by the international community over the past decade. These focus areas, which will be driven primarily by the explicit needs of our partner countries, will seek to make the greatest impact within the available resources. They also reflect areas of Canadian expertise and experience, and will complement the activities of other donors.
Education systems
Strengthening education systems is central to achieving education for all. CIDA will share Canada's expertise in learner-centred education approaches, teacher training, curriculum development, and improved assessment of learning outcomes, and will encourage the use of tools like distance education and information technology. These tools can be valuable for the training and professional development of teachers, principals, and administrators, and for improving access to education information and resources, most notably for rural and inaccessible areas. As part of strengthening education systems, CIDA will promote the development of alternative and innovative programs.
Girls' education
CIDA will build on its commitment to gender equality and on its strength in programming in girls' education. An accelerated effort on the part of national, international, and civil society partners will be needed if the international goals of equal access and achievement for girls are to be met by 2005. CIDA will focus on strategies that work to change the attitudes and practices that currently create barriers to full and equal participation of girls and women in education systems. These strategies will include programs to increase demand for and acceptance of education for girls and women, support for improved and inclusive literacy programs, increasing female participation in the education system at all levels, and initiatives that create safe educational environments.
Political will and public support
Developing countries are the leaders in ensuring access to quality basic education. CIDA recognizes that any country can only achieve universal, quality basic education if its people and government are fully committed politically, financially, and operationally. With other donors, CIDA will work to ensure that committed governments do not fail because of a lack of resources. Mechanisms such as debt relief, coordinated investment in sector-wide approaches, and other forms of aid will be used. CIDA will join with other countries and multilateral agencies at international conferences, summits, and discussions in their efforts to push for a global consensus on the centrality of education to economic and social development.
Knowledge-sharing and building on demonstrated results
CIDA will improve its knowledge-sharing activities in the area of education, learning from and informing our partners to ensure that we use best practices and lessons learned in programming to maximize the social return on investment in education. We will work with our wide spectrum of partners, including NGOs, universities and colleges, and provincial and territorial ministries of education, to research, further elaborate, and disseminate the body of agreed principles, best practices, lessons learned, and policy guidance for effective international cooperation in meeting the international goals for education. With developing countries, we will explore alternative and innovative approaches to education.
Coordination, coherence, and collaboration
Increasingly, donor communities are moving away from managing many individual projects and moving toward influencing policy and making strategic investments. CIDA will work to address the broad policy and institutional environment within which educational reform occurs. We will work to enhance donor collaboration with the support of partner NGOs and with direction and leadership from our developing-country partners. All policies and programming in the education sector should work together and reinforce one another.
Strengthening the capacity of local stakeholders
CIDA has long had effective partnerships with non-governmental organizations that work in education, largely at the local level. But it is important to integrate the efforts of local communities and NGOs within the reforms led by governments in the formal education system. CIDA's programming in education will support initiatives in capacity-building for national, district, and local partners in educational planning and administration.
Actions to achieve greater impact
The following actions will be at the core of CIDA's efforts in education reform. These 10 actions support the goals of access, equality, and quality of education. Collectively, these actions will guide CIDA's support for developing countries as they implement the Dakar Framework for Action, Education for All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments.Improve access to quality education
CIDA will support improved access for children, adolescents, youth, and those with special needs and disabilities, while giving special attention to gender. This access may be provided through alternative, innovative, non-formal, community-based education. CIDA will support the facilitation of comple-mentary activities in the area of early child-hood education when these activities have been designed as part of an integrated strategic plan that has a direct impact on basic education.
Integrate strategies for gender equality
CIDA will work with developing countries to make the environment, content, and processes of education as safe, welcoming, and free of gender bias as possible, and to ensure that the educational needs of both boys and girls, men and women are met.
Improve the quality of classroom instruction
CIDA will support developing countries in their efforts to improve learning environments by strengthening instructional strategies, improving learning materials and curricula, and developing innovative non-formal approaches.
Enhance the training levels, professionalism, status, and morale of teachers, principals, and school administrators
CIDA will support programs to improve the training of education pro-fessionals at all levels of the education system, both in academic content and in pedagogy. Initial training should be followed by opportunities for in-service, professional development, and career progress, with policies to encourage retention of trained and experienced teachers, principals, and school administrators. CIDA will also support initiatives to improve the working conditions and status of teachers.
Strengthen HIV/AIDS programming
CIDA will work to implement and strengthen cross-sectoral education programs that address the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other key health and nutrition challenges. It will support efforts to monitor the impact of the pandemic on education, including the loss of qualified teachers, teacher educators, and officials. The overwhelming number of students who are ill, dying, impoverished, or orphaned will require responsive programming.
Support good educational governance and management
CIDA will support national governments in their efforts to facilitate the active participation of the broadest possible coalition of stakeholders in the reform and strengthening of quality basic education. These efforts may include measures to improve the accountability and trans-parency of educational management and administration, to decentralize education systems, and to empower local communities. CIDA will work with developing countries to ensure that decentralization does not lead to inequities in the provision of educational resources. Decentralization can and should strengthen a national government's capacity to guarantee, protect, and promote the right to education.
Promote respect for human rights
CIDA will encourage and support educational programs that promote peace, tolerance, and mutual understanding, respect for human rights, inclusiveness, conflict resolution, and cross-cultural understanding. These programs must help to mitigate the effects of civil strife, ethnic hostilities, and violence on education.
Strengthen civil society
CIDA will work with national governments to strengthen the engagement of students, parents, communities, non-governmental organizations, unions, employers' groups, post-secondary institutions, and other civil-society representatives in education reform. This work will include support for the decentralization of educational management and the creation of new mechanisms for active participation, dialogue, consultation, and decision-making.
Promote the use of information and communications technologies
CIDA will enhance educational access, equality, quality, and innovation through needs-driven approaches based on the financial and human resource capacities of the recipient country. It will support efforts to use new technologies for instructional and management use by education professionals. These technologies should be practical, sustainable, equitable, and affordable, and should increase opportunities for quality education. Special emphasis will be placed on learners located in rural and isolated areas.
Heighten cooperation and coordination
CIDA will promote and engage in mechanisms that aid cooperation and coordination through initiatives such as sector-wide approaches. CIDA will work within sustainable and well-integrated education-sector frameworks that are, whenever possible, clearly linked to poverty reduction and broader development strategies. CIDA will encourage links between education and other sectors, particularly health, nutrition, population, governance, human rights, and the environment, through support for programming within comprehensive development frameworks.
Measurement of progressImprovements in education systems and in the achievement of education for all will take time, and measuring progress toward the stated goals of Education for All will be multi-level and multi-dimensional. Nevertheless, CIDA is committed to the establishment and systematic measurement of clear benchmarks and indicators to ensure that development through education reform is strengthened and sustainable. Through shared accountability with developing countries and global partners, CIDA will work to enhance the quality and effectiveness of its programming, and will continue its focus on the critical importance of building the capacity of developing countries.
CIDA will monitor progress using standards and indicators that are available at various levels: country, regional, and international.
Developing-country level
The Dakar Framework for Action set specific education targets that are central to the definition of policy priorities and to the measurement of outcomes. The framework asks all countries to develop National Plans of Action that specify reforms, that are time-bound and action-oriented, and that establish clear performance indicators. CIDA will work with developing countries and other partners to assist with the development of these national plans. National plans for educational reform should include indicators that measure educational access, equality, and quality, in both formal and non-formal settings.
As part of the EFA (Education for All) process, many developing countries are currently improving systems for measuring the achievement of learning outcomes in areas such as literacy and numeracy. Where sound systems exist, they can provide clear indicators of improvements in the quality of basic educa-tion programs, at the primary, secondary, and adult-education levels. CIDA will support efforts to improve the assessment and evaluation of learning.
Regional level
In several regions, organizations focusing on the measurement of educational statistics and indicators are working to improve data gathering on education and to provide valuable information for the use of developing countries and their partners. CIDA will make full use of all appropriate measures that are available.
International level
Internationally, there has been considerable progress in agreeing on indicators that measure success in progress toward the goal of education for all. CIDA will support the efforts of national governments to monitor progress through improved data gathering, analysis, and dissemination. To date, the following indicators have been used to measure progress in achieving the goals of Education for All:
Operationally, CIDA has a results-based management approach for its programs and projects, and this approach will be used by its branches, when appropriate, to identify outcomes, results, and impacts in basic education.
Progress will also be measured through the impact that improved delivery of basic education will have on CIDA's three other Social Development Priorities; basic education will have a key role in improved health and nutrition, in combatting HIV/AIDS, and in child protection.
Ultimately, progress toward the full realization of Education for All will be apparent in both quantitative and qualitative measures, and its impact on poverty reduction and effective, equitable, and sustainable development will be concrete and measurable.
Goal and ObjectivesGoal
The goal of CIDA's gender equality policy is to support the achievement of equality between women and men to ensure sustainable development.
Objectives
The objectives of the policy are:
The following table outlines the links between CIDA's overarching policy of poverty reduction, its programming priorities, and gender equality (Definitions taken from Canada in the World, Government Statement, February 1995, page 42, CIDA's Policy on Poverty Reduction, 1996; Results-Based Management - Policy Statement, 1996). It also provides examples of results that can contribute to the achievement of gender equality.
Progress can be made by identifying results that advance women's equal participation with men as decision-makers in shaping the sustainable development of their societies, support women and girls in the realization of their full human rights and reduce gender inequalities in access to and control over the resources and benefits of development. Gender equality results should be clearly articulated in the design of all of CIDA's international co-operation initiatives.
Measuring progress on gender equality results requires the tracking of appropriate indicators to capture information on changes which contribute to the achievement of gender equality (This topic is treated more thoroughly in the CIDA documents Guide to Gender-sensitive Indicators and The Why and How of Gender-Sensitive Indicators - Project Level Handbook, 1997).
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CIDA overarching policy and programming priorities
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Links with gender equality
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Examples of results that contribute to the
achievement of gender equality
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| "Poverty Reduction: to promote policies that create an enabling environment for poverty reduction; support poverty-focused programs that improve income-generation opportunities, skills training and basic services; launch targeted interventions that directly empower vulnerable groups like women, children, minorities, the landless, the unemployed, and the displaced." | Compared to men, women generally have less access to and control over productive assets, employment and training opportunities, basic services, information, and decision-making mechanisms in the state, judiciary, private sector organizations, the community, and within the household. These gender inequalities contribute to and perpetuate poverty from one generation to the next. | Increased access to and control over
productive assets (especially land, capital and credit), processing and
marketing for women.
Increased access to and control over basic services (especially primary and reproductive health, child care, shelter and basic education for girls). Increased skills training and capacity development opportunities, as well as on-the-job training and management opportunities for women. Increased participation of women in decision-making in the state and the judiciary, as well as in private sector and civil society organizations, the community, and the household. Strengthened capacity of partner institutions, governments and civil society organizations to promote, design and implement policies, programs and projects which reflect the needs, priorities and interests of both women and men, and support gender equality. |
| "Basic Human Needs: to support efforts to provide primary health care, basic education, family planning, nutrition, water and sanitation, and shelter." | Women and men have different needs arising
from their socially constructed roles and responsibilities. Women tend
to be responsible for meeting their own and their families' basic human
needs. However, they face specific constraints in gaining access to
services which meet their basic human needs, given their lack of access
to and control and ownership over resources, and their lack of
decision-making power. Girls, in particular, face constraints in terms
of their opportunities and life choices.
These specific constraints must be taken into account in order to ensure that the basic human needs of the entire community are met, and that basic human needs programming contributes to poverty reduction |
Increased decision-making power for women
regarding expenditures in the household.
Increased sharing of household responsibilities between women and men. Increased options for child-care. Increased access to and control over primary health care services for women and girls. Increased understanding of gender differences in determinants and consequences of diseases such as malaria, HIV, AIDS and respiratory diseases. Increased access to a broad range of reproductive health care services for women and men. Increased access to education programs for girls. Elimination of gender stereotypes in school curricula. Increased access to and control over decision-making by women in the design, management and maintenance of water and sanitation services. |
| "Infrastructure Services: to help developing countries deliver envi-ronmentally sound infrastructure services, with an emphasis on poorer groups, capacity-building, and the environment." | Experience has shown that women and men
have different priorities and preferences in relation to tech-nology,
and make different uses of (and have different access to and control
over) infrastructure services based on their socially ascribed roles,
responsibilities, privileges, and ownership over assets and financial
resources.
By recognizing these differences, programs and projects will be able to provide appropriate and accessible infrastructure services that meet the water, energy, transport, communications and information needs of both women and men. |
Improved access for women to safe and
affordable public transport services and infrastructure.
Increased capacity of women and their organizations to influence decisions regarding the design of public services and infrastructure. Increased employment of women (at all levels - from road construction worker to manager) in infrastructure services. Increased capacity of institutions to design and implement infrastructure investments which respond to the needs and priorities of poor women. Increased numbers of women employed in non-traditional occupations. |
| "Human Rights, Democratization and Good Governance: to increase respect for human rights, including children's rights; to promote democracy and better governance; and to strengthen both civil society and the security of the individual." | The human rights of women and girls are an
inalienable, integral, and indivisible part of all human rights and
fundamental freedoms.
By both promoting and supporting processes towards the eradication of all forms of discrimination on the grounds of sex, CIDA can help shape a new human rights practice that protects all human beings. |
Greater numbers of civil society
organizations advocating for women's and girls' rights.
Greater awareness by women and girls of their economic, social, civil, political, and cultural rights, and greater support for these rights by men and boys. Increased capacity of institutions such as the judiciary and the police to implement policies and programs that address domestic violence. Adoption and implementation of national policies and plans on gender equality. |
| "Private sector development: to promote sustained and equitable economic growth by supporting private sector development in developing countries." | Women and men face different social and
economic constraints in responding to economic opportunities in the
private sector. In general, these constraints relate to women having
less education or appropriate training, less access to and control over
collateral and capital and financial markets. Women also have greater
household and childcare responsibilities. Taxation laws and regulations
may include discriminatory provisions against women, while attitudes and
beliefs may put up barriers to women's opportunities in the private
sector.
By recognizing and addressing these 'inefficiencies' in the market and the social barriers to women's equal participation, CIDA will contribute to equitable and sustained economic growth. |
Increased economic options for poor women.
Greater access to and control over credit, training and services for women entrepreneurs. Increased capacity of partner organizations to address gender equality issues in trade policy and economic reform. Elimination of taxation provisions that discriminate against women. Elimination of discriminatory practices against female workers, especially in relation to established international and national labour codes (e.g. health and safety codes and regulations, right to organize, freedom from sexual harassment). |
| Environment: to help developing countries protect their environment and contribute to addressing global and regional environmental issues." | "Environmental conditions such as
deforestation, soil degradation and watershed reduction affect women and
men differently, given their different roles and relative
decision-making power. As consumers, producers and users of natural
resources for their livelihoods, caretakers of their families, and
educators, women also play an integral role in promoting sustainable and
ecologically sound consumption and production patterns and approaches to
natural resource management.
CIDA's goal of environmental sustainability will be elusive unless the differential impact of environmental factors on women and men is addressed and women's contribution to environmental management is recognized and supported. |
Increased recognition of women's knowledge
of the natural environment and increased decision-making role for them
in natural resource management - especially for indigenous women, whose
particular knowledge of ecological linkages and fragile ecosystems is
essential.
Increased participation of women and organizations advocating gender equality in the development of national strategies for sustainable development. Increased capacity of ministries for the environment to design and implement environmental programs and projects which respond to the different needs, priorities and interests of women, particularly poor women. Increased involvement of women and women's groups in the design and management of viable recycling activities. |
| "Women in Development: to support the full participation of women as equal partners in the sustainable development of their societies." | Support for the achievement of gender
equality is carried out through integration efforts in all areas of
programming (referred to in the past as WID-integrated) as well as
through investments in initiatives whose principal objective is to
support gender equality (referred to in the past as women or
WID-specific).
While gender equality is a goal to be integrated into all areas of programming, programs and projects whose principal objective is to support the achievement of gender equality can complement and support broader efforts to integrate and promote gender equality. Examples include Gender Funds, direct institutional support to government ministries responsible for promoting gender equality, and support to advocacy organizations working for gender equality, or working with men to end violence against women. |
Strengthened capacity of partner
organizations, institutions, governments, private sector organizations
and firms to promote, design and implement policies, programs and
projects which reflect the needs, priorities and interests of both women
and men, and support gender equality.
Increased recognition of violence against women as a social problem, and greater commitment from government, civil society and citizens to eliminate it. Greater participation of women in political office and increased attention to women's needs, priorities and interests in political discourse. Increased capacity of government agencies mandated to promote gender equality, women's organizations, and other organizations promoting gender equality, to monitor and influence government planning processes and public policy. Increased capacity of governments and civil society to implement international commitments such as the Beijing Platform for Action. Greater social, economic and political empowerment for women as measured through increased economic security, decision-making in the household, legal awareness, and collective action for self-determination. |
Gender analysis is an indispensable tool for both understanding the local context, and promoting gender equality.
CIDA defines knowledge of the local context as: "the recognition that development interventions operate within existing social, cultural, economic, environmental, institutional and political structures in any community, country or region. Further, few communities, countries or regions are homogeneous - formal and informal power structures within each reflect social, economic and political relationships among the people concerned as well as with the outside world. Simply put, knowledge of the local context is vital to understanding these relationships and their connection to the project in terms of needs, impact and results". (Effective Programming Technical Notes, Policy Branch, CIDA, 1997)
Gender analysis examines one of these relationships, that between women and men. It identifies the varied roles played by women and men, girls and boys in the household, community, workplace, political processes, and economy. These different roles usually result in women having less access than men to resources and decision-making processes, and less control over them.
Gender analysis is an essential tool for understanding the local context. It is particularly useful in project design as it helps planners identify constraints and structure projects so that objectives can be met and measured. The use of gender analysis, throughout the project cycle, provides information on:
Gender analysis provides information to determine the most effective strategies in a particular context and to identify results that support gender equality. For example, programs or projects may be identified whose principal objective will be to support gender equality, or entry points for the support of gender equality may be identified within programs or projects where gender equality is one of a number of objectives.
Gender analysis is required for all CIDA policies, programs and projects. Application of gender analysis will vary according to the nature and scope of initiatives.
Strategies and Activities to Support the Achievement of Gender EqualityCIDA supports people in partner countries through a variety of international co-operation initiatives.
The following describes strategies and activities that can support the achievement of gender equality in these initiatives.
Policy Dialogue
CIDA's activities are not limited to programs and projects. Through policy dialogue, CIDA and its partners exchange views and information and raise issues related to the policy environment in which they operate. Policy dialogue is an important way in which CIDA works with its partners to achieve gender equality results. It may be carried out at formal discussions such as consultative groups, or informally through regular contacts.
Promoting gender equality in policy dialogue means:
CIDA uses programming frameworks (PFs) to link its corporate programming priorities with its projects/ programs, and to define the basis of all Canadian international co-operation efforts in specific countries/regions, and with partner institutions. A PF is a key mechanism for ensuring that programming with a country, region, or institution will support gender equality. The PF process starts by identifying the development needs and opportunities within the country, region, or institution (which could include the critical areas of concern from the Beijing Platform For Action).
PFs should:
Program assistance, which is often used to support economic and sectoral reform in partner countries, has a broad impact on economic and social conditions and thus on the lives of women and men. Yet too often it has been undertaken with no reference to the differential roles, needs, and interests of women and men. Recent program experience and the development of methodologies to carry out gender-aware country economic analyses have demonstrated that it is possible to promote gender equality in program assistance initiatives and in the analysis of policy options for economic restructuring.
Including gender equality in program assistance initiatives involves:
Institutional strengthening and capacity development initiatives can advance gender equality by:
Bilateral projects and programs offer significant opportunities for support-ing gender equality.
This involves:
Multilateral organizations such as international and regional financial institutions and United Nations agencies are important partners for CIDA, offering considerable opportunity to support gender equality.
CIDA can support gender equality in multilateral programs by:
CIDA supports a broad range of Canadian civil society partners who design and carry out international co-operation activities with groups abroad. Many of these partners - non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, unions, co-operatives, professional associations, municipalities and private sector firms - have developed their own policies and procedures for addressing gender equality and have amassed considerable experience in the field. Other partners are relatively new to international co-operation and have a limited capacity to support gender equality.
CIDA can support gender equality through projects and programs of its civil society partners by:
There is growing recognition that attention to gender equality is essential to meeting the basic needs of women and men in critical conditions.
This involves:
Corporate Level Results
The objectives of this Policy can be seen as corporate level results against which implementation of the gender equality policy can be measured. A performance measurement framework including indicators against which to assess the implementation of the gender equality policy will be developed by the Gender Equality Division, Policy Branch in collaboration with Performance Review Branch and other Branches. The framework will address issues such as:
Program Branches will be responsible for developing Branch level gender equality results statements for each of the gender equality policy objectives as well as for ensuring that results statements in all priority areas support these objectives. Gender equality results should be expressed, measured and reported upon for all CIDA supported initiatives. Program Branches will report on progress against gender equality results through normal performance assessment processes.
Accountability
Accountability for the implementation of this policy rests within each of CIDA's corporate and program branches, partners and executing agencies.
Performance review of the implementation of this policy is the responsibility of Performance Review Branch and will be carried out as part of the normal performance review cycle.
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