Canada’s feminist foreign policy aligned with Qatar’s National Vision 2030: Ambassador Martin
Trade visit of Canadian women-owned businesses to Doha likely this year
SHE was a young political officer covering Qatar, Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi about 20 years ago. Today, she has found herself back in Qatar, but this time to fulfill a role as her country’s head of diplomatic mission to Doha.
“I used to be a younger officer 20 years ago when I was covering Qatar. Of all the places that I know, I’ve never seen a place like this where the progress came so quickly and with great support. It’s a different level of development not only in infrastructure which is amazing, but also in the representation of women. About 20 years ago, you would not see Qatari women as ambassadors or diplomats. And now, they are very successful in various fields. It’s a matter of believing and leading. Equality, opportunity, and diversity bring everyone in a better position,” Canada’s Ambassador to Qatar HE Isabelle Martin said in an interview with Qatar Tribune recently.
The Ambassador, who recognised the entrepreneurial qualities of both Qatari and Canadian women, also announced that plans were afoot to host a trade mission for Canadian womenowned businesses to Doha this year.
“We have a trade diversification strategy, which includes inclusive approach to trade and we started to do a few initiatives of trade missions focused on businesses owned by women. We’ve done the initiative to other parts of the world, including recently in the Indo-Pacific, the Americas and South America, and in
the US. We’re also looking to doing that in Qatar soon. We have a lot of amazing Qatari businesswomen who are very successful and we can learn from and work with. There’s a lot of resources here and opportunities to develop, and we would love to bring Canadian women-owned businesses to explore the Qatari market. And I think it will be good for Canadian women-owned businesses to benefit from these synergies that we have established,” added Martin.
The Ambassador went on to note that Canada is also working with Qatari women colleagues from the Qatari Armed Forces as part of its feminist international assistance policy and second national action plan for women on peace and security.
“From the defence policy, we are pushing very strongly to make sure that every peace initiative includes a significant contribution by women, including women who were affected by conflict, women who are involved in conflict, and women who are part of the solution for any peace building effort to be lasting. Also, we’re trying to focus specifically on areas where women have always been involved but were not really recognized, which is the area of cyber security policy sector to bring more diversity in the industry,” Martin said.
Earlier during her speech at the International Women’s Day 2024 Networking Breakfast jointly organised by the Canadian and Australian Embassies in Doha, Martin highlighted Canada’s feminist foreign policy, which has been implemented since 2016.
“The journey to a feminist foreign policy builds on decades of Canadian work to advance human rights and gender equality as a key component of foreign policy. We believe that promoting rights-based open and inclusive society is an effective way to build a safer, more sustainable and prosperous world. And that goes completely aligned with the Vision 2030 for Qatar: inclusiveness, and bringing people together to contribute to making the society better,” said Martin.
She quickly stressed the importance of operating from a place of humility, adding that there’s much work that still needs to be done in terms of addressing systematic inequality, racism, and discrimination around the world.
“In Canada, we can now say that after pushing so hard to achieve it, we now have 50:50 women and men in all the Ambassadors in the world. In the cabinet of the ministry, we also have parity 50:50 women and men. This is something that doesn’t happen by chance. It happens because you made a point of making it happen. You brought people in, and brought people up to be prepared to take up those positions,” Martin added.
She added, “We can only hope for a more prosperous and sustainable future, but women and children, and girls are also disproportionately affected by the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by incessant fighting and critical lack of resources to meet their basic needs. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand actually have issued statements, and we stand in full solidarity with the civilian people in Gaza and we are advocating for a stop to their suffering. We cannot really celebrate International Women’s Day without having a special thought for the suffering of women, and men and the whole population in Gaza”.
To date, there are about 10,000 Canadians living in Qatar, with many women making their marks in various sectors including education, health, and oil among others.