It was a celebration of much good news on the StFX campus March 4 as it was announced StFX’s Coady Institute is leading a collaborative five-year project to strengthen gender equality and women’s leadership opportunities around the world.
Sean Fraser, Central Nova MP and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, was on campus for a special funding announcement of nearly $10 million from Global Affairs Canada for a project, titled ENGAGE! Women’s Empowerment and Active Citizenship, which will see Coady work with organizations on the ground in communities across five countries, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, and Tanzania, to strengthen individual and organizational capacity while providing tools and opportunities for women to increase their own empowerment.
The partner’s projects will focus on areas such as leadership development, social enterprise, climate adaptation, leadership and management education and future of work all with the goal of gender equitable change.
Co-designed by Coady Institute and five partner organizations, ENGAGE! will advance gender equality and poverty reduction by enhancing women’s capacity to participate in the social and economic life of their communities.
BETTER THE WORLD
“This year marks the 60th anniversary of Coady and its position as a global leader in employing education and collaboration to effect positive social changes,” StFX President Dr. Kevin Wamsley said. “This initiative perfectly aligns with the Coady legacy of working directly with communities to better societies, all over the world.”
This is a particularly important announcement for our university, for the Coady, and for people around the world, Dr. Wamsley said.
“What better organization than Coady, embedded in StFX, to take on this great work,” he said.
“Wouldn’t Moses Coady be smiling today.”
This great gift from the Government of Canada, this $10 million, is going to go so far in transforming the world and helping women empower themselves to make social change in their communities, he noted.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to share this news,” Mr. Fraser said as he congratulated Coady on the important work it continues to do, and noted how this project will serve both local and global interests.
NEXT CHAPTER
The relationship between the federal government and Coady has been ongoing almost since Coady’s inception 60 years ago, and Mr. Fraser said he is pleased to make this announcement, sharing in the next chapter of the institution.
What a great day this is for StFX, the Coady, partners and “for the future of the world, frankly, that’s what this is about,” Senator Mary Coyle, who formerly led the Coady as executive director, noted in her remarks.
This new partnership announced today by the Government of Canada will enable Coady to be a significant accelerator to achieving goals of gender equality, she said.
“Today we are celebrating the opening of many doors for and by women.”
“The ENGAGE! project provides a wonderful opportunity for Coady staff to collaborate with our partners in their home countries and communities, sharing and learning about the practice of asset-based development on the ground,” Gord Cunningham, Executive Director, Coady Institute, said. “We will then bring those lessons learned back to the Coady classroom here in Antigonish.”
Eileeen Alma, Director, Women and Indigenous Programming at Coady, and the ceremony’s emcee, noted there is a lot to be excited about. She thanked all those involved, particularly Coady staff, led by Anthony Scoggins, who worked on this project. Two staff members, Brianne Peters and Eric Smith, recently returned from a planning meeting in Ethiopia with partners, introduced the project on behalf of the team. “We are working with women who are going to change the rules of the game,” Ms. Peters noted.
The five organizations joining Coady Institute in this initiative are long-standing partners with strong experience in advancing gender equality and community change. They include:
• Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India;
• Organization for Women in Self Employment (WISE) in Ethiopia;
• Gender Training Institute (GTI) of the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP);
• Christian Commission for Development (CCDB) in Bangladesh; and
• Centre Haïtien du Leadership et de l’Excellence (CLE) in Haiti.
ENGAGE! will apply an asset-based, citizen-led development (ABCD) approach to promote gender-equitable change. This approach ensures that local communities, particularly women, exercise ownership and control over social and economic development initiatives that respond to their realities and priorities.
“Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh is very much excited being part of the ENGAGE project, and at the same time we are hopeful to bring some significant changes in the lives of women through working together with Coady in the next five years,” Imran Kibria, Head, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation with Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh, said.
Partners and their networks will engage a cohort of nearly 1,500 women and their allies in ENGAGE!, including many from marginalized groups such as ethnic minorities and persons living with disabilities. As well, ENGAGE! will reach an estimated 13,810 female and 5,600 male beneficiaries directly, and a further 253,180 beneficiaries indirectly.
The announcement was made as StFX and the community celebrate International Women’s Week, March 8-14.
