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Overview

On April 20 and 21st, 2017, the Government of Canada and civil society co-chaired a two-day consultation conference under the auspices of the Women, Peace and Security Network – Canada (WPSN-C). The conference brought together 50 members of Canadian civil society and over 35 government representatives, including C-NAP (Canadian National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security) government partners and potential partners, parliamentarians and political staff.

Government representatives included staff from GAC’s Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (PSOPs), International Humanitarian Assistance (IHA), and Geographic and Multilateral branches, DND/Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), the RCMP, Public Safety Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Status of Women. Representatives from GAC, DND/CAF and the RCMP also presented on their respective departments’ achievements to date and proposed plans for moving forward on the WPS agenda and with a new C-NAP.

Also participating were Hannah Bond from Gender Action for Peace and Security – United Kingdom (GAPS-UK), Mavic Cabrera-Balleza from the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) and Jacqueline O’Neill from Inclusive Security.

The objective of the consultation was to provide a space for government and civil society to further exchange information on lessons learned, discuss new ideas, and work collaboratively to build an ambitious and robust new C-NAP. This report provides a summary of the discussions held during the two-day conference. In addition to the two-day conference, the consultation also included three one hour webinars (on April 10, 12 and 18), a Twitter conversation and an online survey. The webinars addressed women, peace and security in Canada’s defence policy,
Canadian policies on refugees, and feminist foreign policy and international assistance. Where relevant, their findings are also incorporated in this report.

The conference portion of the consultation took part under Chatham House Rule and therefore is not for attribution. Exceptions include information presented during the webinars and during the formal presentations by international civil society experts (Q&A section excluded).

How to read this report
The report is divided into three sections. Section 1 looks back at lessons learned from the first CNAP. Section 2 looks at the new context and opportunities for Canada, including considerations for building an effective NAP and Canada’s comparative advantage. Section 3 looks forward by identifying a number of priorities for a new C-NAP. The annex presents specific advice and considerations per government department present at the conference. It also provides additional resources on the C-NAP and NAPs in general.

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