Introduction
PROJECT
From 2021-2024, Campaign 2000, Citizens for Public Justice and Canada Without Poverty co-led a national community-based research project that engaged communities experiencing poverty to recommend indicators measuring progress towards eradicating poverty and achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
This project, Localizing Canada’s Commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals,builds on Campaign 2000’s ongoing monitoring of government progress towards ending child and family poverty, aiming to address the limitations of the Canadian Indicator Framework for tracking progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 1: No Poverty.
Through the project, the research team held 17 community conversations with 227 people affected by poverty and intersecting forms of marginalization in every province and territory. The project website hosts summaries of each community conversation.
This local framework is based on the knowledge and experiences shared by participants in the Ottawa community conversation, co-hosted by Inuuqatigiit Centre for Inuit Children, Youth, and Families on November 2, 2022.
FINDINGS
Measurement of progress towards poverty eradication in Canada should reflect the lived realities of people experiencing poverty. The indicators used in the Canadian Indicator Framework for measuring progress towards SDG 1: No Poverty are the Market Basket Measure (MBM) and the prevalence of asset resilience.[i] Campaign 2000 report cards and early research from this project highlighted the limitations of these two indicators to track progress towards SDG 1.[ii] [iii]
The project set out to address these gaps with an emphasis on localizing measures of poverty reduction and centring the knowledge and experience of lived experts. Local visions of communities free from poverty emerged. The frameworks drawn from this research reflect participants’ subjective, multidimensional experience of poverty, which is wide-ranging, affects every aspect of life, and differs place to place and community to community. The frameworks also reflect poverty as a violation of human rights resulting in short- and long- term physical, mental, spiritual, and social harm.
These findings highlight the importance of community-based, culturally relevant, localized measures and indicators for ending poverty and the need to urgently recognize and address the systemic intersecting power structures that create and deepen inequities and experiences of poverty.
In addition to the 17 local frameworks, the findings are illustrated in a National Community-Based Indicator Framework, intended to supplement the Canadian Indicator Framework. It outlines dimensions, measures, indicators, and data sources for poverty eradication (including recommendations and gaps, where no indicators exist) that reflect the knowledge and experiences of lived experts and community organizations across the country.
While the findings depict a broad range of expertise from across the country, they remain a snapshot of 227 people, in 17 places, at one moment in time, and further engagement and community-based research is required to continue to centre lived experts in the work of poverty eradication and achieving the 2030 Agenda.
UNDERSTANDING THE FRAMEWORK
The entire framework falls under Sustainable Development Goal 1: End Poverty in All its Forms Everywhere.
The framework is organized by 12 interdependent dimensions of communities with no poverty. These dimensions are interconnected and non-hierarchical – all connect and contribute to the multifaceted way that people experience poverty in Canada. Many of the indicators could fall under multiple dimensions, but for the sake of length, they are each only shown under one.
Dimensions:
- Social inclusion and community connection
- Equality, justice, and freedom
- Joy, happiness, and hope for the future
- Income and material security
- Decent work
- Education for all
- Right to housing is realized
- Food security and sovereignty
- Health and mental health
- Equitable access to services, programs, and supports
- Connected and supported families and children
- Accountable and engaged governments and institutions
In each dimension, measures refer to qualities of communities with no poverty.
Indicators are statistical definitions of the measures.
As living documents, the local frameworks offer Example Indicators and Data Sources. The local frameworks are intended to complement the National Framework, highlight local priorities, and demonstrate opportunities for continued work in localizing measurement towards ending poverty in Canada. They are accompanied by living action recommendation documents.
Social inclusion and community connection
Community members feel valued and connected, have opportunities to participate in society and culture, care for and support each other, and live in harmony.
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
Having a sense of community togetherness | ||
Having love for your community | ||
Having a connection to your neighbourhood | ||
Community members share with each other | ||
Community members care about each other | ||
Community members share country food | ||
Living in harmony with others | ||
Having a sense of identity | ||
Being connected to Inuit culture | Example proxy indicator: Involvement in community and activity in (First Nations/Métis/Inuit/Aboriginal) organizations, social events or cultural activities | Statistics Canada Indigenous Peoples Survey |
Having Inuit traditional knowledge and values | ||
Ability to pass down knowledge and values to the next generation | ||
Youth are connected to elders | ||
Being able to speak your language | Example: Percentage of Inuit adults in Ottawa who speak Inuktitut | Our Health Counts: Urban Indigenous Health Database Project |
Communities have gatherings, dances, and feasts | ||
Having a connection to spirituality | ||
Having a sense of humour | ||
Sharing stories with your community | ||
Communities use traditional Inuit approaches to community challenges | ||
Having the time to grieve |
Equality, justice, and freedom
Everyone’s human rights are upheld. Communities are free from systemic inequality and injustice, discrimination, oppression, violence, and trauma, and the harms of colonization.
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
Inuit human rights are supported and upheld | ||
Experiencing meaningful reparation for the harms and violence of colonization | ||
Inuit resistance to colonization is celebrated | ||
Inuit strength and resilience is valued | ||
Culturally appropriate healing practices are valued and supported | ||
Freedom from intergenerational trauma | ||
Freedom from the harms of residential schools | ||
Freedom from racist stereotypes of Indigenous people | ||
Freedom from systemic racism | ||
Being able to shop in a store without being followed | ||
Freedom from violence | ||
Freedom from gender-based violence, domestic violence, and abusive relationships | ||
Freedom from sexual assault and rape | ||
Freedom from lateral violence | ||
People who abuse or harm others are held accountable | ||
Men and women share household labour | ||
Freedom from judgment about where you live | ||
Freedom from wealth and income inequality |
Joy, happiness and hope for the future
Everyone is able to be happy, feel ease, and have the time and freedom to enjoy life. People have hope, can imagine the future, and don’t feel trapped in cycles of poverty and isolation.
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
Being able to laugh | ||
People play games | ||
Having love for yourself | ||
Having confidence in yourself | ||
Feeling like you can continue | ||
Looking forward to getting up in the morning | ||
Feeling emotionally and spiritually well | ||
Freedom from struggling | ||
Ability to be positive | ||
Having ease in your days | ||
Being able to plan for the future |
Income and material security
Incomes reflect the cost of living. People have the ability to pay all their bills, meet all their basic needs, have some flexibility to not live paycheque to paycheque, and are able to thrive.
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
Everyone’s basic needs are met | ||
Everyone has enough money to thrive | ||
Being able to envision and plan long-term | ||
Ability to pay all your bills at once | ||
Freedom from just trying to survive | ||
Income is not affected by racism | ||
Freedom from discrimination in the social assistance system | ||
Parents, including single mothers, have enough money to support children without sacrifice | ||
Freedom from debt | ||
Having the resources to provide for future generations | ||
Having disposable income | ||
Children can have birthday gifts |
Decent work
People can work in jobs with a living wage, safe work conditions, opportunities for growth, and job training. Work is fulfilling and allows people to use their skills.
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
Equitable access to job opportunities | ||
Access to low-barrier job opportunities without arbitrary eligibility requirements | ||
Jobs offer accommodations and flexibility as needed | ||
Not having to choose between work and parenting |
Education for all
Everyone has equitable access to affordable, quality education, training, and learning supports.
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
Everyone has access to good quality education | ||
Access to adult high school and post-secondary education with childcare | ||
Schools have before and after school programs for children | ||
Being able and supported to finish high school | ||
Families have support with school drop-off and pick-up | ||
Having the opportunity to go to post-secondary school |
Right to housing is realized
Everyone has a home. There is adequate, affordable secure housing for all, free from discrimination, and reflecting the needs of communities and neighbourhoods.
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
Everyone has a home | ||
Children have stable and secure housing with family members | ||
New housing meets the needs of existing community members | ||
Single mothers with children have immediate access to housing | ||
Ability to stay in the neighbourhood you grew up in | ||
Inuit are free from housing discrimination | ||
Rent is affordable relative to income | ||
Everyone has access to affordable housing | ||
Freedom from gentrification | ||
Access to an Inuit family shelter with supports and resources | ||
Northern communities have family shelters | ||
Single mothers with children have access to emergency shelters |
Food sovereignty and security
Everyone has access to nutritious, affordable, culturally appropriate food; the ability to hunt, harvest, grow, and share food according to cultural values; and the freedom to choose what they want to eat.
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
Inuit have food sovereignty | ||
Every child has enough to eat | ||
Communities share food, especially country food | ||
Having confidence that you will have your next meal | ||
Being able to eat three meals per day | ||
Single mothers have access to nutritious food |
Health and mental health
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
Feeling physically, emotionally, and spiritually well | Example: Forthcoming indicators and data from The Qanuippitaa? National Inuit Health Survey | |
Everyone is mentally healthy | ||
Everyone has access to health care | ||
Everyone has access to pharmacare | ||
Access to free, trauma-informed, culturally relevant counselling and mental health care by Inuit, for Inuit | ||
Access to treatment for addiction and substance use | ||
Freedom from suicide | ||
Freedom from the negative mental and physical health impacts of suicide in your community | ||
Freedom from addiction | ||
Freedom from systemic racism in the health care system | ||
Freedom from discrimination and misdiagnosis in the health care system | ||
Being able to go to the hospital without mental preparation for self-advocacy | ||
Northern communities have equitable access to health care | ||
Being able to sleep well | ||
Having enough nutritious food to stay healthy |
Equitable access to services, programs, and supports
Services and supports are accessible and coordinated, with no arbitrary bureaucratic barriers or discrimination. Community organizations are resourced and are by communities, for communities.
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
Inuit do not need to leave their home community to access services, programs, or supports | ||
Feeling like you know where to go for help | ||
Inuit-led organizations and service providers are well-funded and supported | ||
Services and supports are well-coordinated | ||
Services and programs are well-communicated | ||
No wait time for services and supports | ||
Having accessible opportunities to get or replace identification | ||
Inuit required to leave their community to access services are supported with all other aspects of life, such as housing | ||
Freedom from racism in service provision |
Connected and supported families and children
Families are supported to stay together and spend time together. The child welfare system is equitable, trauma-informed, and reflects needs of children and families. Everyone has access to affordable childcare.
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
Parents and children are connected and spend time together | ||
Being able to learn how to parent well | ||
Everyone has access to affordable childcare | ||
Having access to childcare by Inuit, for Inuit | ||
Schools offer before and after school childcare | ||
Freedom from domestic and family violence | ||
Families are supported to stay together | ||
Freedom from discrimination against Inuit families from the child welfare system | ||
Seeing meaningful action to address the lasting harms of child apprehension and family separation via residential schools | ||
Being able to stay in your home community with your children | ||
Parents not living with children pay child support | ||
Parents struggling with housing are supported with housing, rather than their children being apprehended | ||
Parents are not separated from their children due to financial difficulty | ||
Child welfare workers support a family’s healing rather than apprehending children |
Accountable and engaged governments and institutions
Governments are accountable to communities. Policy-making is community-engaged, trauma-informed, responsive, and based on local needs and values.
Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
Governments are anti-racist and address discrimination against Inuit | ||
Governments are accountable to communities | ||
Feeling like the government will listen to your perspective | ||
Inuit are in positions of leadership | ||
Meaningful reparation for the harms and violence of colonization |
[i] Statistics Canada. (2021). The Canadian Indicator Framework for the Sustainable Development Goals. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-26-0004/112600042021001-eng.htm
[ii] Campaign 2000. Pandemic Lessons: Ending Child and Family Poverty is Possible. February 14, 2023. https://campaign2000.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/English-Pandemic-Lessons_Ending-Child-and-Family-Poverty-is-Possible_2022-National-Report-Card-on-Child-and-Family-Poverty.pdf
[iii] Barrie, H., & Sarangi, L. (2022). Literature Review: Localizing Canada’s Commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals. Campaign 2000: End Child and Family Poverty. https://sdg.campaign2000.ca/wp-content/uploads/Campaign-2000-Localizing-SDGs-Project-Literature-Review-May-2022.pdf