Mid-term evaluation

Canada's Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence

Introduction

This report presents the findings of the mid-term horizontal evaluation of It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence (the GBV Strategy). Through the GBV Strategy, federal partners deliver a range of programs and initiatives intended to prevent and address gender-based violence (GBV).^{Footnote 1}  Core federal partners include Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), Public Safety Canada (PS), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), the Department of National Defence (DND), and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The evaluation covers the period from fiscal year 2017-18, when the GBV Strategy was first funded, until fiscal year 2020-21. This introductory section of the report provides an overview of the GBV Strategy and the evaluation.

While the evaluation is primarily concerned with a retroactive look at the GBV Strategy, it is also intended to inform the implementation of the 10-year National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (the NAP). As the NAP will build on the GBV Strategy, the findings of this evaluation will assist WAGE and its federal partners in implementing the NAP by documenting best practices, challenges, and lessons learned, and by outlining clear recommendations.

GBV strategy profile

The GBV Strategy is a collection of 18 initiatives organized into three pillars. Though the GBV Strategy includes all federal initiatives to prevent and address GBV, six federal departments and agencies received funding for specific initiatives. Budgets 2017 and 2018^{Footnote 2}  provided nearly $220 million starting in 2017-2018 until 2022-2023 and $42.7 million of ongoing annual funding to establish, launch, and expand the GBV Strategy. The pillars are as follows:

• Pillar 1: Preventing GBV. Research has shown that the most efficient and effective way to end GBV and its impacts is through prevention. This includes understanding the roots of GBV in gender inequality, the influence of forms of oppression on GBV (e.g., racism, classism, ableism, colonialism, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression), as well as the effects of social and economic power imbalances and outdated societal gender roles and norms. Consequently, preventing GBV is a central part of the GBV Strategy. Initiatives under this pillar seek to change the values and attitudes that underpin GBV (i.e., through raising awareness, and engaging men and boys), as well as to develop knowledge of effective interventions in different settings and populations. 
• Pillar 2: Supporting survivors and their families. Events of recent years, including the start of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, as well as the Truth Gathering Process of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People, have seen countless survivors, victims, and their families come forward to speak about their realities and experiences with GBV. Through the GBV Strategy, federal partners are working with key stakeholders to better respond to and support the unique needs of survivors, victims and their families using victim- and survivor-centred, trauma- and violence-informed approaches. The GBV Strategy seeks to fill the gaps in the current approach by enhancing supports for at-risk populations, as well as by providing information and training on best practices for stakeholders working with people who have experienced GBV. 
• Pillar 3: Promoting responsive legal and justice systems. Legal and justice systems are critical components in preventing and addressing GBV. These systems can help to increase the proportion of GBV incidents that get reported to the police, prevent re-victimization, hold offenders accountable and, ultimately, contribute to reducing rates of GBV. The GBV Strategy identified improvements that could be made in how these systems respond to GBV and interact with people who have experienced GBV, including the need for legal and justice systems to be trauma-informed and violence-informed, gender sensitive, and culturally relevant. To address this need, initiatives under this pillar will provide access to information, training, and supports to victims and those working within the justice system. It further sought amendments to laws to better respond to various forms of GBV. 
• Overarching initiatives. WAGE delivers two initiatives that cut across all three pillars. These are the GBV Knowledge Centre, as well as the Enhanced Data Collection and Research on GBV. Housed within WAGE, the GBV Knowledge Centre is the GBV Strategy’s focal point responsible for developing multifaceted approaches to knowledge mobilization, coordination, research, and reporting on progress, as well as for creating and managing the GBV Knowledge Centre’s online platform. The GBV Knowledge Centre’s online platform was launched in December 2018 and compiles resources, research, and program evidence into a single searchable platform to provide information on federal funding opportunities related to GBV, includes information on initiatives in provinces and territories, and also catalogues resources available for those affected by GBV. 

Concerning the Enhanced Data Collection and Research on GBV, WAGE worked with Statistics Canada on three national surveys to address knowledge gaps related to GBV in Canada and to determine baselines of the occurrence of different forms of GBV within various populations. WAGE also issued a Call for Proposals in 2019 to procure research and studies that address gender equality and GBV. Twenty-four research projects received a combined $7.8 million in funding. Finally, WAGE provided over $2 million in funding for Indigenous-focused and Indigenous-led research projects.

Annex A provides a list of GBV Strategy pillars and initiatives.

The 18 initiatives are intended to support concerted action to achieve the ultimate shared outcomes of reducing GBV in Canada, and improving the health and social outcomes of those impacted by GBV. Figure 1 presents the shared outcomes and expected results of the GBV Strategy. As a mid-term evaluation, the present report is primarily concerned with documenting progress toward the short-term results.

Figure 1: Expected results and shared outcomes of the GBV Strategy

Justice Canada

While JUS participates in the GBV Strategy, this department was not a funded federal partner until 2021-22. Prior to this, JUS undertook initiatives in support of the GBV Strategy, such as: earmarking existing resources through the Victims Fund for projects that enhance the criminal justice system’s response to victims of GBV; supporting the implementation of Divorce Act amendments in former Bill C-78 that require courts to consider family violence while deciding parenting arrangements (2019);^{Footnote 3}  and creating resources for family legal advisors such as the new online training course on family violence and the HELP toolkit: Identifying and Responding to Family Violence for family law legal advisors.

In 2021-22, JUS received $98.6 million in funding over five years^{Footnote 4}  to ensure access to free legal advice and legal representation for victims and survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence (IPV), as well as to provide additional supports for victims and survivors of IPV to navigate the family justice system. In addition, JUS received funding to support supervision services for parenting time, in cases of separation and divorce, to protect the safety and well-being of children and families.

These initiatives fall under Pillar 3 of the GBV Strategy, and are expected to contribute to shared outcomes at the short-term, medium-term, long-term, and ultimate levels.

As this mid-term evaluation focused on the period from fiscal years 2017-18 to 2020-21, JUS is not named among core GBV funded federal partners in this report, nor are JUS initiatives scoped into this evaluation.

About the evaluation

This mid-term evaluation focused on the period from fiscal years 2017-18 to 2020-21. As the GBV Strategy is reaching its five-year mark in March 2023, various GBV Strategy developments are expected to be completed after the submission of this report.

The evaluation focused on the initiatives of the core GBV Strategy federal partners during this period: WAGE, PS, RCMP, PHAC, IRCC, and DND. The scope of the evaluation included all initiatives planned or implemented under the GBV Strategy. The objectives of the evaluation were to examine issues of program design (specifically governance), delivery, and progress toward short-term outcomes, and to identify recommendations for possible improvements.

The evaluation was guided by six primary questions:

1. Is there effective horizontal governance among GBV partners? What are the opportunities for improvement?
2. Is there effective collaboration among GBV partners and other government departments and agencies? What are the opportunities for improvement?
3. How does the Strategy’s governance compare to established best practices for horizontal initiatives? What are the opportunities for improvements?
4. How and to what degree has the Strategy been implemented? What factors — barriers or facilitators — influenced the implementation?
5. To what extent has the Strategy progressed towards short-term outcomes?
6. How and to what extent has the pandemic (COVID-19) influenced the progress of the GBV Strategy?

Multiple lines of evidence were used, including:

• A review and analysis of publicly available and internal literature, data, and documents. The documents reviewed included key policy-setting documents, program planning and operational documents, performance measurement data, financial information, internal communications, meeting agendas and minutes, and other materials.
• A literature review and comparative analysis, which examined other countries’ approaches to addressing GBV, as well as other horizontal initiatives in Canada. The primary objective was to gather information on best practices for horizontal initiatives (especially as concerns governance) that WAGE may wish to consider.
• In-depth interviews with 91 key informants, consisting of:
  • GBV Strategy representatives (48 individuals), including senior managers and staff from the federal partners;
  • Community and national organizations that received funding through the GBV Strategy (32 individuals);
  • Members of the Minister’s Advisory Council on GBV (7 individuals); and
  • Experts in GBV (4 individuals).
• Focus groups with eight key informants, consisting of representatives from each of the GBV Strategy’s federal partners.

Limitations

There were a number of limitations which impacted the evaluation, as presented below.

• The COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 federal election period, and staff turnover within all federal partners affected the availability of key stakeholders to participate in interviews and focus groups. The data collection period was extended in order to accommodate as many stakeholders as possible.
• There was incomplete data for several indicators related to the progression toward short-term outcomes, owing primarily to delays in initiative implementation as a result of funding being allocated late as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. A lack of quantitative data was supplemented with findings from the key informant interviews where possible.
• The turnover of staff within WAGE’s Research, Results and Delivery Branch, including a change in the Minister responsible for WAGE following the 2021 federal election, created a number of delays for the evaluation. 

Context

GBV is a serious and ongoing issue in Canada. In addition to the significant physical, emotional, and mental health impacts on people who have experienced GBV, their families, and on society, GBV also has important economic repercussions. These impacts can carry over generations, and can lead to cycles of violence and abuse within families and sometimes whole communities.^{Footnote 5} 

Though GBV affects people of all genders, ages, religions, cultures, ethnicities, geographic locations, and socio-economic backgrounds, the data indicates that some populations are at increased risk of GBV or are underserved when experiencing GBV including: Indigenous women and girls; Black and racialized women; immigrant and refugee women; Two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and additional sexually and gender diverse people (2SLGBTQI+); women living in Northern, rural, and remote communities; and people living with disabilities. These disparities do not exist as a result of one’s identity but are rather the result of the interconnected nature of various forms of oppression, such as racism, colonialism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism, as well as various risk factors including precarious housing or homelessness.

In light of this issue, the then-Minister of Status of Women was tasked in 2015 with working “with experts and advocates to develop and implement a comprehensive federal gender violence strategy and action plan.”^{Footnote 6}  This led to an extensive consultation process in the summer and fall of 2016, wherein survivors and victims, front-line workers, researchers, and advocates were able to share their insights, experiences, and advice on the development of the GBV Strategy.^{Footnote 7}  The GBV Strategy was announced in June 2017 and was guided by the principle that everyone in Canada has the right to live free from violence.

Figure 2: Facts and Figures: Intimate Partner Violence

The GBV Strategy is fundamentally a federal strategy in that it is largely concerned with the initiatives of federal departments and agencies. In so doing, the GBV Strategy sought to get the federal government in a solid position and to lay a strong foundation for future and sustained work in this area. However, since GBV is a complex and pervasive issue, and because of jurisdictional considerations, successfully addressing it will require concerted, prolonged, and sustained efforts on the parts of a wide range of stakeholders, including provinces and territories, law enforcement agencies, not for profit organizations, industry, advocacy groups, and other relevant federal departments and agencies. The GBV Strategy is thus a critical steppingstone in an ongoing journey to address and prevent GBV in Canada.

Recognizing this need and as already noted in this report, in November 2022, the federal, provincial and territorial governments in Canada announced the launch of a 10-year National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. Budget 2022 will provide $539.3 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, to enable provinces and territories to supplement and enhance services and supports within their jurisdictions to prevent GBV and support those who have experienced GBV. This investment will support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the NAP. As the federal government is expanding its efforts, including through collaboration with provinces and territories in this area moving forward, the lessons learned from the evaluation of the GBV Strategy will be critical in informing the implementation of the NAP.

Findings

The evaluation assessed the appropriateness of the GBV Strategy’s design in terms of the federal partners involved, the scope of initiatives delivered, the suitability of allocated funding, and the extent to which Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) was integrated into the design and implementation of the GBV Strategy.

Design

A number of factors hampered the effectiveness of governance structures. Some of these were more systemic and structural, whereas others were external. These factors include:

• The transition from Status of Women Canada to WAGE in December 2018, which created significant work and led to some instability.
• The fact that this is a large strategy for a young and small department.
• The fact that WAGE has limited A-base funding, which results in less departmental stability for long-term initiatives.
• Relatively high levels of turnover within WAGE which leads to a loss of institutionalized knowledge, and challenges to maintaining working relationships with contacts among federal partners.
• The effect of the pandemic on WAGE personnel as well as on WAGE undertaking urgent priorities (discussed above under “the impact of the pandemic”).

Over time, WAGE has become more stable and the effect of some of the more systemic issues (e.g., the transition from Status of Women to WAGE) is expected to decrease.

In light of these findings, the following opportunities for improving GBV Strategy governance were identified:

• Increase opportunities for formal coordination and communication between funded and unfunded federal departments and agencies. GBV Strategy representatives were not all aware that unfunded federal departments and agencies were part of the GBV Strategy’s governance structure. Greater coordination, especially with respect to similar initiatives (e.g., through the creation of subcommittees or working groups for all those initiatives related to grants and contribution programs), would increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the GBV Strategy, and reduce possible duplications (e.g., in organizations receiving funding). Greater coordination would also allow the GBV Strategy to become larger than the sum of its parts, particularly through the development of new knowledge or expertise, and the creation of a fully integrated action plan.
• Share meeting materials well enough in advance of meetings to allow participants sufficient time to prepare. Representatives from federal partners reported that, at times, meeting materials were often shared with participants quite late, which did not leave working-level staff sufficient time to adequately brief senior management.
• Reduce duplication between committees and seek to increase the efficiency of those meetings. The governance structure would benefit from committees that respected their roles and responsibilities, as outlined in their respective terms of reference. This would avoid duplication between committees. Similarly, it was suggested that the specific attendance list for committees be clarified and streamlined (especially at the working level) to avoid having too many individuals in a meeting.
• Increase opportunities and support for working-level staff within each federal partner. Although there is an interdepartmental working-level committee, some representatives of federal partners perceive the governance structure to be top-heavy, with limited opportunities for working-level staff to be effectively engaged. It was suggested that greater support for working-level staff, including opportunities to gather in smaller groups around thematic or programmatic areas (e.g., awareness campaigns, grants and contribution programs) would be beneficial.

Best practices in horizontal initiatives

The evaluation considered the extent to which the GBV Strategy’s governance compares to established best practices for horizontal initiatives. Five horizontal initiatives or federal coalitions in Canada were considered and included:

• Building a Foundation for Change: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2019–2022 (led by Canadian Heritage [PCH])
• the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (led by Employment and Social Development Canada [ESDC])
• the Government of Canada’s Investment in the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (led by PCH)
• the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (led by Environment and Climate Change Canada [ECCC])
• the Family Violence Initiative (led by the Public Health Agency of Canada [PHAC])^{Footnote 14} 

A number of best practices were identified, which can largely be grouped as follows: having a balance of formal and informal structures and agreements; the clarity of roles and responsibilities; the coordination between stakeholders (including federal partners); performance measurement and reporting regimes; and funding and investment in the initiative. It is important to remember that not all best practices may be relevant or appropriate for certain types of initiatives.

The following section identifies practices that most horizontal initiatives appear to have successfully implemented as well as those that have presented more consistent challenges.

• Balance of formal and informal structures and agreements. Most Canadian horizontal initiatives, including the GBV Strategy, implemented several of these best practices. For example, all Canadian horizontal initiatives designated a lead department or agency to coordinate the initiative, and most ensured that coordination and collaboration are present at multiple levels. In the case of the GBV Strategy, the Treasury Board submission was signed by the ministers of all federal partners. Further, the Treasury Board submission included deliverables and performance metrics for each federal partner, which served to formalize partnerships and commitments to a set of deliverables. Various governance bodies were established at a number of levels to provide oversight and accountability. The GBV Strategy made use of instruments such as Memoranda of Understanding to formalize partnerships and also developed terms of reference to outline the roles and responsibilities of participating federal partners. Evaluation findings indicate that there was a lack of shared understanding of everyone’s roles and responsibilities, as well as inconsistent adherence to the terms of reference.
• Clarity of roles and responsibilities. Canadian horizontal initiatives generally appear to have provided clarity on how the involvement of each partner will contribute to the goals and objectives of the initiative through such documents as terms of reference. While the GBV Strategy did have such documents, given the aforementioned challenges, the roles and responsibilities of the various governance committees was not consistently well understood by all federal partners.
• Collaboration between federal partners. Though a number of fora to support collaboration between federal partners were established, the evaluation found inconsistent awareness of how federal partners, as well as federal departments and agencies that did not receive funding under the GBV Strategy, were part of the GBV Strategy’s overall governance structure. There was also minimal evidence of collaboration between federal partners on initiatives, including on similar initiatives such as grants and contribution programs or awareness campaigns.
• Performance measurement and reporting regimes. Most Canadian horizontal initiatives developed a performance measurement and reporting strategy with their partners, and ensured that their partners were involved in planning, monitoring, and evaluation. In several cases, however, it was unclear how performance data would be used and shared. In the case of the GBV Strategy, a logic model and a performance measurement framework have been developed. However, as discussed in Section 3.4 of the report, a number of factors present challenges to supporting effective performance reporting.
• Funding and investment in the initiative. In nearly all cases, while information on the financial resources allocated to these various initiatives is available, there is no information available on the extent to which this funding was perceived as adequate by stakeholders. As noted, the evaluation found that the funding allocated to the GBV Strategy was appropriate given its current scope.

Implementation

Despite the aforementioned challenges related both to governance and the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical to stress that 17 of the GBV Strategy’s 18 planned initiatives are on track to being successfully implemented. Though some initiatives were modified or delayed due to a variety of factors, others are being implemented as planned and some even exceeded their performance targets or were completed under budget. This section presents an overview of the work accomplished by pillar under the GBV Strategy, highlights some promising practices and success stories, and documents lessons learned.

Pillar 1 – preventing GBV

The seven initiatives under this pillar sought to change the values and attitudes that underpin GBV (e.g., through awareness campaigns), and to bolster the state of research on effective interventions in different settings and populations. While both PS and PHAC have made good progress in their respective initiatives, the launch of WAGE’s GBV Youth Awareness Campaign did not take place in the time period covered by this evaluation.

• PHAC – PHAC supported a number of organizations to develop training curricula and resources on GBV, trauma-informed care, and safety planning. Interviews with a selection of five funding recipients indicate that all projects are making progress in implementing their planned activities. While two projects are largely on track, three projects are moving ahead more slowly due to staffing issues, adapting projects to better respond to the needs of target populations, and in one case, a six-month delay in getting a funding agreement in place with PHAC.
• PS – The enhanced support provided by PS to the C3P to respond to child sexual exploitation exceeded GBV Strategy expectations. For example, due to increased need during the pandemic, there was a significant rise in the number of youth supported through C3P’s Victim Support Strategy (3,000 in 2021), and there has also been an increase in the use of C3P’s cybertip.ca (more than 18,000 incidents reported in 2021).^{Footnote 16}  Across its services, C3P dealt with more than 371,000 reports of online child sexual exploitation in 2021.^{Footnote 17}  It is worth noting that the pandemic brought about a notable increase in the need for C3P’s cybertip.ca, Project Arachnid, and Victim Support Strategy, and that C3P stepped up its activities to meet this need. However, due to these activities being similar to the activities funded through the GBV Strategy, we are not able to determine if these activities used PS funding or WAGE funding.
• DND – DND awarded contribution funding to nine sexual assault centres across Canada to provide direct counselling services to Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members, bystander intervention and training, as well as training to healthcare service providers on local CAF bases to help them work with affected CAF members and to ensure appropriate referrals are made. DND has also reviewed the existing CAF family violence crisis teams’ capacity, and then developed and implemented initiatives to enhance the capacity of these teams (e.g., creating communities of practice that gather CAF health services, military policy, chaplains, health promotion, Military Family Services, and Military Family Resource Centres). In addition, DND launched an annual healthy relationships campaign in October 2019 which was rolled out to 32 bases and wings across Canada, Europe, and the United States.
• IRCC – IRCC sought to build capacity for front-line settlement workers and enhanced place-based services for newcomers and refugees through funding opportunities delivered to three community organizations during the 2017 to 2020 period. The initiative was delivered as planned and proved successful. For example, one funding recipient provided workshops on IPV and related topics and sought to promote overall wellness to newcomers in rural areas of Manitoba. IRCC also supported several community organizations in 2019 to 2022 to develop and implement a National Settlement Sector GBV Strategy. The project includes a partnership of settlement and anti-violence sector organizations to provide GBV-related capacity building for front-line settlement workers through training (webinars and online courses). The objective of this settlement sector strategy and training^{Footnote 18}  is to build the capacity of front-line workers to identify GBV and make appropriate referrals for immigrant and refugee women and girls. The Strategy is proceeding as planned.

Pillar 3: promoting responsive legal and justice systems

The GBV Strategy identified improvements that could be made in how legal and justice systems respond to GBV and interact with victims and survivors, including the need for these systems to be violence and trauma-informed, gender sensitive, and culturally relevant. The RCMP undertook three initiatives under this pillar that are all underway or completed.

• A notable success story concerns the RCMP’s Vulnerable Persons Unit’s design and delivery of an online training course on Cultural Awareness and Humility. The course has been made mandatory since November 2020. As of September 2021, over 27,000 RCMP employees (over 93% of all employees), including police officers, civilian employees, and Public Service employees, have completed the course, which was ahead of the projected start date.
• Funding was allocated to hire new full-time equivalents to enhance the RCMP’s capacity to combat online sexual exploitation of children and transnational child sex offenders. The additional resources allocated through the GBV Strategy have helped to increase the RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre’s (NCECC) capacity to send investigative packages to law enforcement agencies. For example, in calendar year 2017, 3,420 investigative packages were disseminated to police of jurisdiction (domestically and internationally); in fiscal year 2020-2021, 16,026 investigative packages were disseminated. This results in an approximately 369% increase in the number of packages disseminated per year. Further, additional resources were dedicated to create critical program-specific health and wellness initiatives to safeguard employees working within the area of online child sexual exploitation, and to provide strategic and operational research support. Research and analysis also informed RCMP decision-making to post an RCMP liaison officer in the Philippines.^{Footnote 19} 
• Through the funding provided to the RCMP’s Sexual Assault Review Team to enhance and expand sexual assault training and oversight, Sexual Assault Review Committees (SAIRCS) have been implemented / set up in every division where the RCMP is police of jurisdiction. These committees have been reviewing unfounded sexual assaults since 2019. Further, the Sexual Assault Review Team reviewed files dating from 2015 in order to determine if there were any investigational deficiencies with these cases. One federal partner described the file reviews as an early win for the GBV Strategy that helped lend it credibility by underscoring the RCMP’s commitment to the issue of GBV. The Sexual Assault Review Team also led the design and development of a “Using a Trauma-Informed Approach” course which seeks to enhance awareness and understanding of trauma and trauma responses when interacting with clients, as well as to provide practical guidelines for implementing a trauma-informed and victim-centred approach to investigations. The training has been made mandatory for all RCMP employees who deal with the public, and feedback from participants has been very positive to date. The course has also been shared more broadly, including with Prince Edward Island Corrections and the Ontario Provincial Police.

However, many external key informants were not aware that JUS became a funded federal partner of the GBV Strategy in 2021-2022. As a result, many indicated that, by failing to include courts, judges, tribunals, and other police forces in the GBV Strategy, the legal and justice systems on the whole have not been made more responsive. It is expected more progress will be made given the recent inclusion of JUS.

Initiatives that cut across all pillars

WAGE delivered two initiatives that cut across all three pillars, including the GBV Knowledge Centre, as well as the Enhanced Data Collection and Research on GBV. WAGE worked with Statistics Canada on three national surveys^{Footnote 20}  to address knowledge gaps related to GBV in Canada and to determine baselines for the occurrence of different forms of GBV within various populations. The surveys also aimed at measuring concrete progress toward preventing and addressing GBV over time.

A number of factors helped the successful implementation of GBV Strategy initiatives, including:

• Strong relationships and partnerships. Strong partnerships at all levels of the GBV Strategy were found to be critical to its success. For example, during the design and early stages of the GBV Strategy, close working relationships within WAGE and with the Minister were found to be particularly helpful. Further, some federal partners had prior experiences or agreements with funding recipients which made it easier for them to make funding decisions and trust that the work would be done well. Similarly, the development of relationships between funding recipients and community organizations, including the existence of various communities of practice, have helped to support external stakeholders and to share best practices. Finally, experts and members of the Advisory Council also indicate that, in the past few years, there has been a significant improvement in the relationship between the government and community organizations working in the GBV sector, and this has come about as a result of the former’s increased consultations with the latter.
• Using a variety of funding instruments. Federal partners were afforded the flexibility to use a variety of funding instruments to deliver their initiatives in the method deemed most appropriate. These included contracts, grants and contributions, as well as using the funds internal to the department or agency. For example, contracts were favoured in cases where subject-matter experts were conducting research as this lent itself well to research ownership and copyrights. Grants, meanwhile, generally have fewer administrative and reporting requirements, are more flexible, and were thus used by some federal partners to facilitate projects targeting youth or for streamlined initiatives. Federal partners also displayed flexibility during the pandemic in allowing their funding recipients to reallocate their budgets (e.g., reallocating travel budgets to other activities or to delivering virtual technical services, carrying forward unspent funds when permitted by agreements, etc.).
• Increased public, media, and political attention given to GBV issues. In light of a number of factors, including the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People, as well as the pandemic, there was a greater awareness of GBV issues and risk factors. This had several benefits, including creating a greater willingness among federal partners to address the issue, an increased number of stakeholders willing to learn more about the issue, and it has lent a certain urgency to work conducted under the GBV Strategy.
• Building on previous programs or using additional funding to support existing programs. In some cases, the GBV Strategy provided additional funding to programs and initiatives already being delivered by a federal partner. For example, PS had a prior relationship with and support of C3P. Providing top-up funding to existing programs created efficiencies as the infrastructure needed to deliver, monitor and report on these initiatives was already in place. However, initiatives that received top-up funding do present unique attribution challenges when trying to determine the specific contribution of the GBV Strategy to project outputs and outcomes.
• Other factors, however, hindered the implementation of initiatives, including:
• Staffing and human resource constraints. This was a problem for both some GBV Strategy federal partners as well as funding recipients. Many of these initiatives require specific skills and experience, and human resource processes can be lengthy. This was compounded by the pandemic as burnout and added caregiver burdens fell on employees, and as federal partners all sought to respond to the pandemic in addition to their regular workload.
• Challenges getting participants to share their experiences or be receptive to new information. Given the sensitivity of the topic, stakeholders involved in training programs indicated that it can be challenging to get participants to open up, share their experiences, and be receptive to this new information. This was mitigated by taking a sensitive approach to the material, incorporating participant feedback (e.g., on length or format of training), and having individuals with lived experience present during sessions.
• Recruiting participants for training or awareness events. It can be difficult to recruit participants to training or awareness events, especially when dealing with rural areas, Indigenous communities, or areas where there is not an established relationship with the organization or federal partner. To mitigate against this, funded organizations worked with local organizations that had established relationships in their communities, and some also provided food, transportation, and childcare services alongside their events.
• The COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic hindered the full or timely implementation of several initiatives. Moreover, the risk factors for some forms of GBV also increased.^{Footnote 21}  The effects of the pandemic are discussed in greater detail in Section 2.0.

Progress toward short-term outcomes

Performance measurement

Though a logic model and a performance measurement framework have been developed for the GBV Strategy, a number of factors present challenges to support effective performance reporting. For example, the GBV Strategy’s program logic model and performance measurement framework are unclear to several federal partners as well as to Advisory Council members. Furthermore, it is challenging to collect quantitative data on some of the more quantitative performance metrics (e.g., percentage of those who viewed an awareness campaign who report an increased awareness of key GBV messages). The performance measurement framework also does not provide much opportunity to federal partners to report on qualitative findings or present things in a narrative form.

There are several other challenges to performance measurement:

• Complexity and scale of initiatives. Given the large number of initiatives funded by the GBV Strategy and the significant variations between them, it is difficult to present an overall narrative of progress, especially toward outcomes.
• In cases where the GBV Strategy provided top-up funding to existing programs, it can be challenging for federal partners to pinpoint the specific contribution of the GBV Strategy to their initiatives and to specific achievements.
• It is too early to report on progress. Many GBV Strategy federal partners and funding recipients indicated that, especially owing to project delays incurred by the pandemic, it is too early for them to provide evidence for short-term outcomes. Rather, they are limited to providing information on outputs.

Progress toward short-term outcomes

Of the GBV Strategy’s 18 initiatives, three were expected to contribute to short-term outcome 1, and eight were expected to contribute to short-term outcome 2. The remaining seven were expected to contribute to the GBV Strategy’s medium- or long-term outcomes and, since the present evaluation is a mid-term evaluation, progress toward these outcomes is not documented in this report. More detailed information on progress for each short-term outcome, by initiative, is included in Annex B.

The first of the GBV Strategy’s two short-term shared outcomes is that intended audiences, including those involved in the development and delivery of policies and programs, access GBV-related evidence. Through GBV-supported initiatives, an array of GBV-related evidence was produced. However, the extent to which this was shared with intended audiences varies by initiative. Examples of GBV-related evidence generated and shared include:

• PS’s publication of Cyberbullying Research in Canada: A Systematic Review as well as Cyberbullying Programs: An Environmental Scan. These reports inform PS’s policy and program work, and have also been shared with the provinces and territories. In 2020-21, these publications each had over 1,000 visitors and approximately 400 downloads.^{Footnote 22} 
• WAGE worked with Statistics Canada on three national surveys to address knowledge gaps related to GBV in Canada and to determine baselines of the occurrence of different forms of GBV within various populations. However, it is unclear whether survey findings have been shared with intended audiences, and the reach of findings is unknown.
• The GBV Knowledge Centre has developed and disseminated GBV-related knowledge and information, and has organized knowledge-sharing events for federal and provincial public servants, researchers, funded recipients, and other GBV experts. For example, between 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, over 2,000 individuals participated in 13 webinars, 10 knowledge sharing sessions, and seven lunch and learns. Of those who completed post-event surveys, 93% indicated that the content covered was useful or relevant to them or their work, and 92% noted that they were extremely likely or likely to attend similar events hosted by the GBV Knowledge Centre in the future. Moreover, between December 2018 and March 2021, there were nearly 93,000 unique page views of the GBV Knowledge Centre’s online platform. Of those who completed a survey after visiting the platform, 88% were "extremely, very or somewhat" satisfied with the relevance of the information, and a similar number were extremely, very, or somewhat likely to recommend the platform to others. Additionally, in 2020-21, there were over 55,000 social media shares and retweets of the GBV Knowledge Centre’s evidence products.^{Footnote 23}  However, as noted in the preceding section, more work could be done to ensure that GBV-related evidence and resources are being shared with intended audiences.

The second of the GBV Strategy’s two short-term shared outcomes is that intervention, programming, and training participants access information, training, and support. This took place in a number of ways, including:

• The RCMP designed and developed an online training course on Cultural Awareness and Humility. The course was made mandatory in November 2020 and, as of September 2021, over 27,000 RCMP employees (over 93% of all employees), including police officers, civilian employees, and Public Service employees, have completed the course. As new employees join the RCMP, they are required to take this mandatory training. A September 2021 review found that the course had increased participants’ levels of knowledge.
• IRCC provided funding to three community organizations to build capacity for front-line settlement workers and to enhance place-based services for newcomers and refugees. These organizations used the funds to create workshops, webinars, training sessions, and an online course, and there has been significant uptake of individuals accessing the resources developed by these organizations. There is positive feedback that the material is meeting participants’ needs, and participants are sharing these resources within their broader networks. Interviewees confirm that funded organizations and settlement sector staff are receiving nationally-consistent training and information to help them respond to GBV-issues, and have increased awareness of GBV-related information, training, and support.
• DND launched an annual healthy relationships campaign in October 2019 which was rolled out to 32 bases and wings across Canada, Europe, and the United States. The campaign shares tip sheets, resources, and stories of real military families who have overcome relationship challenges. By November 2021, the campaign’s total social media reach was over 85,000 people, with an engagement rate of 3.23% (exceeding the industry average of 0.25%). In 2020-21, 80% of families who had viewed the campaign indicated that it was helpful in deepening their understanding of what healthy relationships are and entail, and 70% noted that it made them reflect on and/or engage with family members on the topic. In addition, DND created communities of practice that gather CAF health services, military policy, chaplains, health promotion, Military Family Services, and Military Family Resource Centres. Between 2019-20 and 2020-21, the number of professionals engaged in the community of practice increased by 36%. Similarly, the number of learning opportunities (e.g., information emails or training sessions) increased from slightly under 20 in 2019-20 to nearly 50 in 2020-21. Two hundred fifty-nine individuals attended learning opportunities in 2020-21. Engaged professionals report increased confidence, knowledge, and capacity in delivering family violence and GBV services (over 80% of respondents), and over 90% of participants indicated that they were satisfied with the support and resources provided by the community of practice. Professional development opportunities provided to the Family Violence Advisory Teams and to members of the community of practice in 2020-21 included sessions on harm reduction and trauma-informed approaches, as well as a session on men’s experiences with IPV and family violence, a Diverse Voices conference, and a train-the-trainer session.
• PS awarded funding to three organizations to develop awareness and educational resources targeted at youth about child sexual exploitation. PLEA Community Services BC delivered more workshops to youth in BC than planned (394 workshops to over 19,000 youth and 942 adults).^{Footnote 24}  In 2020-21, PS reported that overall: 91% of children in grade 4/5, 94% of children in grade 6/7, 87% of youth in grades 8 through 12, and 94% of adult respondents reported improved awareness of key messages.^{Footnote 25}  Further, White Ribbon was able to far exceed their targets, reaching 116, 969 students, 98,843 parents, and 112, 752 educators through their live and recorded programming by the end of the funding period.^{Footnote 26}  Moreover, as noted in key informant interviews, in part through GBV Strategy funding, C3P reported having made over two million resources available across Canada in the last two years, as well as having trained 50,000 people through youth-related videos, including 25,000 educators.

Conclusions

Design

The design of the GBV Strategy is appropriate. Those federal partners that received funding were all found to play a significant role in addressing GBV, the three-pillar approach was found to be effective for structuring and communicating GBV Strategy initiatives, and funded initiatives were largely found to complement one another. The overall funding allocated to the GBV Strategy was appropriate given its nature and scope, as was the amount of funding allocated to specific federal partners and initiatives. Further, a GBA Plus lens was applied throughout the design and implementation of the GBV Strategy in a number of ways. Nonetheless, a need to expand beyond the current set of funded federal partners, and beyond the federal scope was identified. In particular, the need for additional partners to bolster Pillar 3 was stressed.

Governance

It is appropriate for the federal government to coordinate its response to GBV through a horizontal initiative, and WAGE is a logical choice to be the lead department. A formal governance structure was established at multiple levels throughout the federal government, and the structure also included a Minister’s Advisory Council on GBV. While the roles, responsibilities, and composition of each of these committees were outlined in their respective terms of reference, these were not consistently operationalized, which led to duplication between committees and a loss of efficiency. There was minimal evidence of collaboration between funded federal partners on GBV Strategy initiatives.

The effectiveness of management and decision-making processes decreased over time in light of various external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift from Status of Women to WAGE. Similarly, reporting and monitoring structures were generally found to be too restrictive and not reflective of federal partners’ realities. Other factors that hampered the effectiveness of governance included insufficient coordination between WAGE and federal partners, a lack of clarity about the appropriate points of contact within all federal partners, and high levels of turnover within WAGE, among others.

There are several opportunities for improving the GBV Strategy’s governance, including increasing opportunities for formal coordination and communication between funded and unfunded federal partners, sharing meeting materials well enough in advance of meetings to allow participants sufficient time to prepare, reducing duplication between committees and seek to increase the efficiency of those meetings, and increasing opportunities and support for working-level staff within each federal partner.

A review of the literature reveals a number of best practices in the design and implementation of horizontal initiatives. These include having a balance of formal and informal structures and agreements, ensuring clarity of roles and responsibilities, supporting coordination between stakeholders, putting in place performance measurement and reporting regimes, and allocating funding and investment in the initiative. It is important to remember that not all best practices may be relevant or appropriate for certain types of initiatives, and that one cannot objectively place these practices in any sort of a hierarchy. Overall, the GBV Strategy has partially implemented many of the best practices identified in the literature, though a number of challenges have prevented the full or successful implementation of all best practices, especially those related to the clarity of roles and responsibilities, and the coordination between stakeholders. The federal investment in the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games emerges as a success story in the design and implementation of a horizontal initiative and, as such, should be carefully considered by WAGE and its federal partners despite its differences with the GBV Strategy.

Implementation and achievement of outcomes

The pandemic considerably shifted the context in which the GBV Strategy has been implemented. For instance, it created conditions for increased rates of GBV. Moreover, WAGE was tasked with providing $290 million of emergency response and recovery funding to front-line organizations (e.g., women’s shelters, sexual assault centres, as well as other organizations providing supports to those experiencing GBV) which had the consequence that the long-term implementation of the GBV Strategy was not the foremost issue for WAGE during that period. The pandemic also had a number of impacts on the implementation of GBV initiatives as several projects were modified or delayed.

However, despite the challenges related both to governance and the COVID-19 pandemic, 17 of the GBV Strategy’s 18 planned initiatives are on track to being successfully implemented. Under Pillar I (Preventing GBV), both PS and PHAC have made good progress in their respective initiatives. However, WAGE’s GBV Youth Awareness Campaign was not launched until August 2022. Similarly, good progress has been made on all of the initiatives delivered by WAGE, PHAC, PS, DND, and IRCC under Pillar II (Supporting survivors and their families). All of the RCMP’s initiatives under Pillar 3 (Promoting responsive legal and justice systems) are underway or are completed. The addition of JUS as a funded federal partner in 2021-2022 is expected to further contribute to making legal and justice systems more responsive.

WAGE has delivered two initiatives that cut across all three pillars, including the GBV Knowledge Centre, as well as the Enhanced Data Collection and Research on GBV. While there is a high degree of satisfaction among users of the GBV Knowledge Centre’s online tool or participants in their webinars and other knowledge mobilization events, awareness and use of the GBV Knowledge Centre’s online platform is inconsistent among federal partners, and this online platform could be better promoted to those outside of government. The GBV Knowledge Centre holds the potential to play a critical role in ensuring the future success of the GBV Strategy and, as such, efforts should be made to address some of the factors that impede its effectiveness, including a lack of clarity among federal partners about its role and responsibilities, turnover in WAGE personnel, and a lack of promotion about upcoming knowledge mobilization events and activities, or recently shared resources on the online platform.

Some of the promising practices to emerge from these initiatives include the establishment of communities of practice, the implementation of a two-step funding application process, the taking of a sector-wide approach to tackling an issue and supporting additional events and initiatives that align with the GBV Strategy, even though these were not identified by the GBV Strategy.

Factors that helped the successful implementation of GBV Strategy initiatives include strong relationships and partnerships, using a variety of funding instruments, the increased attention given to GBV issues, and building on previous programs or using additional funding to support existing programs. Factors that hindered the implementation of initiatives included staffing and human resource constraints, challenges getting participants to share their experiences or be receptive to new information, recruiting participants for training or awareness events, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Progress toward short-term outcomes

Though a logic model and a performance measurement framework have been developed for the GBV Strategy, a number of factors present challenges to support effective performance reporting, including the complexity and scale of initiatives, the limitations presented by quantitative performance metrics, attribution challenges in the case of top-up funding, and the fact that, in some cases, it is too early to report on progress.

Of the GBV Strategy’s 18 initiatives, three were expected to contribute to short-term outcome 1, and eight were expected to contribute to short-term outcome 2. Initiatives under short-term outcome 1 produced an array of GBV-related evidence. This included: three national surveys to determine baselines of the occurrence of different forms of GBV within various populations; research on cyberbullying conducted by PS which has informed the work of PS’ policy and program branches, and have also been shared with the provinces and territories; and the knowledge mobilization work undertaken by the GBV Knowledge Centre which has seen high levels of satisfaction by users of the online tool and by participants in the knowledge-sharing events. However, the extent to which this was shared with intended audiences varies by activity and, in some cases, is unknown.

The second of the GBV’s Strategy’s two short-term shared outcomes is that intervention, programming, and training participants access information, training, and support. This took place in a number of ways, including through: an RCMP training course on Cultural Awareness and Humility which was found to increase the knowledge of participants; support from IRCC to help community organizations build capacity for front-line settlement workers and enhance place-based services for newcomers and refugees which increased awareness among those in the settlement sector of GBV-related information, training, and support; a DND-supported healthy relationships campaign which improved the understanding of military families as to what healthy relationships are and entail; communities of practices within the military helping professional community, which saw over 90% of participants indicate their satisfaction with the resources and support provided; and a variety of awareness and educational resources targeted at youth to address child sexual exploitation which reached a far greater number of youth, students, adults, educators, and parents than originally envisioned.

Recommendations

The following recommendations are directed to WAGE, in collaboration with applicable federal partners. While some of the recommendations will require consultation and coordination with WAGE on the part of federal partners, WAGE is the lead department for all recommendations and is the only one that will need to develop a management response and action plan.

Recommendation 1 - Improve and strengthen the current federal vision for preventing and addressing GBV through the creation and strengthening of governance structures.

Given the GBV NAP, it is critical to achieve a coordinated federal vision for preventing and addressing GBV and, given the inclusion of the provinces and territories, to pursue current efforts to have a consistent federal approach. More specifically, this will require: strong leadership from senior management at each federal partner; clear parameters for each of the governance committees and adherence to them; clarifying the roles and composition of any external advisory bodies; and ensuring that there are formal collaboration mechanisms with and between federal partners receiving funding, federal departments and agencies not receiving any such direct funding, and the provinces and territories. This will require concerted and sustained engagement from federal partners and could include such things as co-developing the terms of reference for some of the governance committees.

Recommendation 2 - Review and improve the existing logic model and performance measurement framework, including streamlining and adapting tools for data collection to the context of each partner department and agency.

GBV is an ongoing issue in Canada that will need to be addressed over many years. It will require concerted efforts by many stakeholders over a long time period. Consequently, having a clear and shared vision for what success looks like will be critical for measuring progress, communicating success, and keeping momentum and buy-in. This will include: working with current and future federal and provincial partners to review and improve the existing performance measurement framework; setting realistic targets in the short, medium, and long term; developing a theory of change to identify the factors that will affect the prevalence of GBV in Canada and thus identifying what the GBV Strategy actually has control over; and clarifying how progress will be measured and communicated to all stakeholders involved, including the public. A clear theory of change, a streamlined logic model, and a refined approach to performance measurement could facilitate reporting to the public on key accomplishments and outcomes achieved.

Recommendation 3 - Better define the scope and role of the GBV Knowledge Centre with a view to maximizing its efficiency and the extent to which it can amplify the work undertaken through the GBV Strategy.

The clear communication of progress and results is an important part of success for any government initiative. However, while the GBV Strategy has produced valuable outputs in the form of research, training resources, and other outputs, these have not been routinely and widely distributed among GBV Strategy federal partners, GBV experts, community organizations, academics, provinces and territories, the public, and other relevant stakeholders. The sharing of these resources would significantly amplify the impact of the GBV Strategy by ensuring its outputs reach as broad an audience as possible. Further, GBV Strategy progress has not been clearly communicated to the broader community of stakeholders and to the public. As a result, there are a number of enhancements to be made to the GBV Knowledge Centre so as to position it to best support the GBV Strategy and its aims. Most immediately, this includes clarifying to federal partners the various roles, functions, teams, purposes, and responsibilities of the GBV Knowledge Centre. Other enhancements include: clarifying the intended audiences of the online platform; developing a standardized approach for the sharing and cataloguing of resources with the GBV Knowledge Centre’s Knowledge Mobilization Team (including developing communication protocols between federal partners and WAGE, as well as clarifying expectations and the division of roles with respect to the translation of documents and resources); undertaking efforts to increase awareness of the GBV Knowledge Centre, including its online platform, among internal and external partners and stakeholders; and better promoting and amplifying the work of federal partners through the creation of a performance measurement strategy. For example, the GBV Knowledge Centre could produce an annual “year in review” of the GBV Strategy on its online platform, which could clearly articulate relevant performance measurement information and key successes achieved that year while providing the link to the annual progress report for more detail

Annexes

Annex A: GBV strategy initiatives

Annex B: simplified logic model and progress towards outcomes

Outcome

Short-term outcome 1: Intended audiences, including those involved in the development and delivery of policies and programs, access GBV-related evidence

Short-term outcome 2: Intervention, programming and training participants^{Footnote 28}  access information, training, support

Medium-term outcome 1: Intended audiences, including those involved in the development and delivery of policies and programs, use/apply GBV-related evidence in their policy and programming work

Medium-term outcome 2: Intervention participants, including service providers, survivors and those at risk of experiencing or perpetrating GBV, use/apply knowledge or support to adapt their attitudes and behaviours related to GBV

Long-term outcome 1: Social norms, attitudes and behaviours that contribute to GBV are changed

Long-term outcome 2: Those impacted by or at risk of GBV,^{Footnote 29}  including survivors, are better supported across the justice and social sectors