The human rights of everyone, everywhere, are at the heart of our work. Our focus on advancing children’s rights and equality for girls is founded on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
All of our programs are premised on realizing the rights of children, with gender equality and inclusion as a core objective, and the critical importance of measuring the impact of our work.
Plan International Canada is a member of the global Plan International federation that works in more than 80 countries around the world. We work in partnership and collaboration with country-specific members of the federation and their local partners and governments to implement our projects, ensuring that there are always local subject matter experts in the lead.
Plan International’s work and relationships are guided by these four values:
We strive to achieve significant and lasting impact on the lives of children and young people, and to secure equality for girls. We challenge ourselves to be bold, courageous, responsive, focused and innovative.
We create a climate of trust inside and outside the organization by being open, honest and transparent. We hold ourselves and others to account for the decisions we make and for our impact on others, while doing what we say we will do.
We succeed by working effectively with others, inside and outside the organization, including our sponsors and donors. We actively support our colleagues, helping them to achieve their goals. We come together to create and implement solutions in our teams across Plan International, with children, girls, young people, communities and our partners.
We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge inequality in our programs and our workplace. Our entire focus is on shifting power to the point of impact through locally-led initiatives. We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives. We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential.
Plan International Canada recognizes that violence against children and young people is prevalent throughout the world and in all societies. We are deeply committed to eradicating violence against children and young people through our programming and advocacy work. and take very seriously our duty to safeguard all children and young people and promote their welfare.
This also means holding ourselves accountable in ensuring that no young person or program participant is harmed or placed at risk of harm as a result of their association with us.
We have a robust gender-responsive and inclusive schild and young people safeguarding implementation framework, which addresses the protection risks of differing genders and identities and helps us ensure that we do all we can to make sure children and program participantsyoung people stay safe and protected when they engage with us and with those who represent us.
Our framework includeincludess our clear and unequivocal safeguarding policy, Safeguarding Children, Young People and Programme Participants Policy and Procedures, and our Prevention of Sexual Harassment, Exploitation and Abuse (PSHEA) Policy, which aims to make sure no child or young person or program participant who is associated with Plan International Canada through our engagement or programming comes to any harm. The policiesy governs the behaviours of Plan International staff, associates and visitors, ensuring that we minimize risks to children and program participantsyoung people and that we report any safeguarding or PSHEA concerns about a child or program participantyoung person ’s welfare appropriately.
Children and youth have the inherent power to take action and lead change on issues that matter to them and to shape the decisions that affect their lives. Plan International is led by the voices of youth in all their diversity across our programs and influencing work.
We act with, and for, the children and young people – especially girls and young women – whose futures we seek to improve by:
At Plan International Canada, we work with young people in Canada to activate their global citizenship and unlock their leadership potential by:
Plan International Canada strives for a just world that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. Monitoring, evaluation, research and learning are all vital to our ambition to support girls in being able to learn, lead, decide and thrive. In particular, this work underpins Plan International Canada’s delivery of effective and accountable gender-transformative and inclusive programs.
High-quality and participatory monitoring and evaluation is an integral part of the development and humanitarian process, supporting children, families and communities – particularly women and girls – and other key stakeholders in articulating their views and analyzing their experiences in order to measure progress and performance and to learn.
The people we work with have the direct experience of the results of our work and on the issues affecting their communities, and we systematically engage with them to explore how we can improve the work and achieve more collectively. Plan International Canada uses the evidence and learning generated from quality monitoring, evaluation and research to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our programming and to generate learning and insight with government partners, donors and other stakeholders.
Plan International Canada’s Program Effectiveness and Quality Unit (PEQU) team has extensive experience using quantitative and qualitative methods with our in-country partners to support learning and outcome and impact measurement and research. Outcome measurement helps us understand the impact our programs have, facilitating course correction and improvement of future program designs. We use a variety of methodological tools to carry out cutting-edge monitoring, evaluation and research activities. Quantitative tools such as survey development and deployment, market and value chain assessment, randomized control trials and quasi-experimental design, along with qualitative data collection and analysis including participatory appraisal, are used to carry out monitoring, evaluation and research activities.
We strive to ensure that women and girls play an active role at every stage of our monitoring, evaluation and research work. Women and girls participate in a variety of activities, including program design, field work and data collection and analysis. Gender and inclusion assessments are undertaken, in part, to understand specific gender-equality dynamics within targeted communities, how they intersect with other socio-economic factors of exclusion, and as they relate to the project outcomes and activities. Participatory approaches are incorporated to empower women and girls as key decision makers and partners in the choices in their life – for example, providing views on the health, education or protection services available to them and speaking on the gender-equality practices with leaders in their community.
Our safeguarding approaches during all phases of monitoring, evaluation and research ensure the safety and protection of all children and young people throughout.
The PEQU unit encourages innovative approaches and partnerships to support our work on evidence-based decisions, learning and research. Plan International Canada leads in measurement of gender-transformative outcomes, outputs and activities, developing gender-sensitive key performance indicators (KPIs) in our Women and Girls Empowerment Index to track progress in girls’ agency.
Plan International Canada works with leading Canadian and international universities and research institutes to respond to recognized gaps in data or global evidence, as well as solutions-oriented processes that focus on better measurement, monitoring or dissemination of findings.
Plan International Canada’s policy and advocacy work focuses on influencing and partnering with power holders and decision makers, including the Government of Canada, parliamentarians, UN agencies and multilateral institutions, in order to achieve impact on children’s rights and equality for girls globally.
As one of the world’s largest child-rights organizations and drawing on more than 85 years of experience and program evidence, we work alongside partners and within coalitions to amplify youth voices and influence policy changes that directly impact gender equality, girls’ rights and the rights and well-being of children.
Plan International Canada is an active member of several coalitions, working groups and networks to create sustainable impact on global development and humanitarian action, including Canadian Coalition on Climate Change and Development, the Canadian International Education Policy Working Group, Canadian Coalition on the Rights of Children, Canadian Partnership on Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH), Cooperation Canada, the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance (ZFRA), Humanitarian Coalition, Humanitarian Response Network of Canada, IMAGINE Canada, Partnerships for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), Stop TB Partnership, and Women’s Rights Policy Group.
Gender equality and girls’ rights
Child participation
Child protection
Sexual and reproductive health and rights
Education
Climate change resilience
Economic empowerment
Canadian youth engagement
As a strong partner to the Government of Canada, Plan International Canada is proud to have participated in, and often led, advocacy efforts that resulted in:
Plan International Canada is independent of governments, faiths and political parties or any other ideological affiliation. Our work is rooted in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and other international and regional human rights, treaties and global soft laws.
This provides the normative basis for policy analysis and advocacy to achieve meaningful change for women, girls, boys, adolescents and youth.
Plan International Canada’s advocacy efforts seek to influence policy decisions that have a direct impact on achieving gender equality, women’s and girls’ rights and the rights and well-being of all children and young people. One of the most powerful ways to achieve this is in partnership with like-minded organizations seeking the same end results. Plan International Canada is proud to be a member of the following Canadian coalitions and working groups.
CanWaCH is a partnership of more than 100 Canadian organizations and global citizens working to realize a world where every woman and child survives and thrives.
Together with 80+ member organizations, CCIC seeks to end global poverty and promote social justice and human dignity for all.
CIEPWG is a coalition of development, humanitarian and advocacy organizations committed to supporting policies and programs to ensure that all children and youth have access to safe, quality education.
The Humanitarian Response Network of Canada is a vibrant community of practice made up of 35+ Canadian humanitarian organizations.
WRPG is a working group of Canadian organizations and individuals who work internationally and domestically on women’s rights issues.
C4D is a coalition of international development and environmental organizations working together to share knowledge and take concerted action to address climate change.
In order to respond to humanitarian disasters quickly and effectively, the Humanitarian Coalition brings 12 leading Canadian aid organizations together in a united effort to raise funds, partner with the government and engage the participation of media, businesses and individual Canadians.
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