Gender-based violence strategy to focus on better data, support

OTTAWA — The Liberal government today launches its longawaited strategy on gender-based violence, which will include a way to develop and share research on everything from street harassment to getting boys and men involved in solving the problem.

Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef will shed more light on which programs will get a share of the $101 million over five years — plus $21 million annually going forward — the 2017 budget committed to a federal strategy on gender-based violence when she unveils the plan in Toronto.

That will include money for creating a centre of excellence within Status of Women Canada, which could help the relatively small agency with an annual budget of less than $40 million get better at making sure its ideas are both evidence-based and taken seriously government-wide.

The need for more and better data was something the federal government had in mind when it began developing the federal gender-based strategy.

“We need to understand when we spend money, how it’s being spent, what the results are,” Patty Hajdu, who was then minister for status of women, told The Canadian Press in June 2016 as she got ready to launch cross-country consultations. “We have no data. We have no plan.”

Those consultations showed those on the front lines were looking to the federal government to play a leadership role in data collection and analysis, including by establishing national baseline data and finding ways to measure which solutions work and which do not.