evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) — Canada's Mandatory Federal Gender-Mainstreaming Tool

Canada · Ottawa · See the Canada profile · See the Ottawa profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 47% 67/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Canada's federal government has required an intersectional gender-impact lens (GBA+) on budgets, legislation and trade deals since 1995, but the Auditor General's own 2009, 2015 and 2022 audits repeatedly found major, persistent gaps in how consistently it is applied.

77 %
Respondents citing lack of time/capacity as a barrier (2021)
94 %
GBA+ completion rate, ESDC initiatives (2024-25)
Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) — Canada's Mandatory Federal Gender-Mainstreaming Tool

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), the Privy Council Office and all Government of Canada federal departments and agencies
Period
1995 (as Gender-Based Analysis) – 2011 (rebranded GBA+) – present
Keywords
public administration, policy analysis, gender budgeting, gender mainstreaming

Context

Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) is Canada's mandatory framework, introduced in 1995 and rebranded in 2011, requiring federal departments to assess policy impacts across gender, age, ethnicity, disability and income before decisions are made; embedded in Cabinet decision-making, federal budgeting since 2015, and trade-agreement impact assessments.

Results

The Auditor General found GBA+ inconsistently applied in 2009, 2015 and a 2022 follow-up. WAGE's 2021 survey found 77% of respondents cited lack of time/capacity and 67% cited insufficient training as barriers, though Employment and Social Development Canada reported a 94% GBA+ completion rate for 2024-25 initiatives.

Conclusions

Three decades of institutionalisation have not produced consistent departmental application, though individual departments show recent, uneven improvement.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), federal department GBA+ focal points, Office of the Auditor General (oversight)

Conditions for success

  • Sustained training and capacity investment across departments
  • Consistent departmental application, not just central policy

Common failure modes

  • Successive audits (2009, 2015, 2022) found inconsistent application across departments

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful