After a year of opaque progress, more accountability and oversight is needed to ensure government promises made as part of a national plan to end violence against Indigenous women and girls are kept and progress can be measured.
That’s according to a 2022 progress report on the work that has been done over the last year since a national action plan to address the 231 calls for justice in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was released.
The report was compiled by a large group of partners that oversee the national action plan, which includes the families of victims and survivors, distinct Indigenous groups and provincial, territorial and federal governments.
It turns out progress on last year’s 113-page action plan has been almost impossible to measure, the progress report states.
An implementation plan — which was promised last year by Ottawa — was never created. As such, there was no way to measure the work that would be done on the many goals – both short- and long-term – that were included in the plan, including no specific actions, expected outcomes or consistent data to measure progress on the impact they are having on ending violence against Indigenous women, the report states.
“Without these in place, there were no specific outcomes or timelines to measure progress,” the report says.
That’s why it is calling for an implementation plan to be developed immediately that would include an accountability structure to measure results and a clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of all governments and Indigenous organizations in meeting their commitments.
It is also calling for a working group to be created headed by an independent chairperson to oversee the implementation plan and ensure the work gets done.
The lack of measurable goals and specific funding commitments in the national action plan was flagged as a concern last year by a number of Indigenous women’s groups and advocates when the document was first released.
Today, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) released its own assessment the federal government’s work on the action plan, saying Ottawa has made little progress in the past year.
There have been funding commitments, but little has been done to directly support survivors and families, said an analysis released today by the group.
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The national action plan was at the top of the 231 calls to justice put forth by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in their final report three years ago.
The association was one of the groups working with Ottawa on the plan, but walked away saying the exercise was fundamentally flawed and politically motivated.
Over the last year, NWAC tracked the commitments made by the government in its plan and assessed the implementation of them.
While some progress has been made over the past 12 months on some of actions, little or none has been made on others, the organization says.
“Today, we are seeing the sad results of the government’s weak response to the crimes being committed against Indigenous women, girls, and gender-diverse people,” said CEO Lynne Groulx.
“The national action plan, as it was drafted, was actually a recipe for inaction, and the people represented by our organization are paying the price.”
The federal government committed to provide funding or enhance existing funding in four areas: culture, health and wellness, human safety and security and justice.
Ottawa is expected to release its own progress report later today that will document the work completed over the last year on its “federal pathway” to address the MMIWG inquiry’s calls for justice.
— With files from The Canadian Press.
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