OTTAWA — Canada's auditor general has found the federal government has made limited progress to identify and address barriers to putting a process known as gender-based analysis plus into action.

Gender-based analysis plus is used to take stock of inequalities and specifically how gender and other aspects of one's identity can affect how well a person is able to access programs and services.

Auditor general Karen Hogan said the Privy Council Office, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and Women and Gender Equality Canada have taken some action to identify and address barriers to implementing gender-based analysis plus since the last audit in 2015, but they need to do more.

The Privy Council Office and Treasury Board identified challenges to putting gender-based analysis in place but did not take full advantage of the insights gained to help improve its use across government, the report said.

Some of the gaps in government departments and agencies' ability to do gender-based analysis resulted from a lack of disaggregated data that could help inform design and evaluation of policies and programs, said the auditor.

Hogan said if the government continues to face challenges in applying gender-based analysis plus, decision makers will not have the information to understand how different groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience programs, which in turn may possibly affect how well they work for these groups.

The Privy Council Office and Treasury Board should provide timely feedback to government departments on their use of gender-based analysis plus and should share feedback with Women and Gender Equality Canada, the report recommends. Departments should then use feedback to improve their use of gender-based analysis.

Women and Gender Equality Canada should regularly monitor and publicly report on how well gender-based analysis has been carried out across the federal government, including plans on how to improve its use, the report adds.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2022.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

The Canadian Press