On April 26, 2018, Child Care Now attended an event with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his appointed Gender Equality Advisory Council organized in advance of the 2018 G7 meetings.
Trudeau established the Council, co-chaired by Melinda Gates and Canadian Ambassador to France Isabelle Hudon, as part of his broader effort to integrate gender equality and gender-based analysis into the G7 discussions in Charlevoix, Quebec.
In its report and among its far-reaching and comprehensive recommendations, the Council called on the G7 to:
- Ensure that high-quality childcare is universally available and affordable for all preschoolers
- Ensure decent wages and working conditions for paid care providers, which must include ratifying ILO Convention 189 on the protection of paid domestic workers
- Invest in universal publicly financed early childhood education and care services, and care for elderly people; and ensure that businesses and not-for-profit organizations offering care services are well-regulated
- Institute or improve paid parental leave programs to support all eligible families, setting a goal of men doing fifty percent of unpaid domestic and care work within a generation and institute non-transferable parental leave and public education efforts to achieve this goal
Outcomes of the Charlevoix Summit
The Council met with G7 Leaders to discuss their recommendations and for the first time, gender equality and women’s empowerment occupied two hours of the agenda.
Among the Summit outcomes was a commitment of nearly $3.8 billion to quality education for girls, adolescent girls and women in developing countries, especially in crisis situations. French President Emmanuel Macron declared that France’s G7 Presidency in 2019 would continue to advocate for the rights of girls and women, and also establish a Gender Equality Advisory Council.
Read the full list of recommendations.