DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION POLICY

Policy statement

As an agency committed to improving the safety, dignity, and rights of all people, and most specifically those affected by forced displacement related to conflict, disaster. Global Talent Pathway values diversity and equity and promotes inclusion of all people in our work. Global Talent Pathway understands that inclusion relates to power constructs which include privilege, oppression, and discrimination, which must be proactively addressed. Our commitment to inclusion applies to all aspects of our identity, our culture, and practice.

Global Talent Pathway confirms a strong commitment to the inclusion and representation of those who are vulnerable, at risk or affected by the intersecting drivers of marginalisation and exclusion, including, and not restricted to race, religion, ethnicity, indigeneity, disability, age, displacement, caste, gender, gender identity, sexuality, sexual orientation, poverty, class, or socio-economic status. This commitment includes recognition that interpersonal and systemic discrimination must be proactively addressed.

Our commitment is founded on:

  1. Our belief as a Christian organisation that all persons are created in the image of God and are thus equals with the same rights and human dignity.

  2. Our recognition and respect for international law (human rights, humanitarian, and refugee law) is reflected in our foundational human rights and protection policies.

  3. Our recognition that affected communities have the right, the capacity, and the desire to be active analysts and agents of change.

  4. Our recognition that diversity and the active participation and leadership by affected communities brings valued and diverse perspectives, richer context, and risk analysis, understanding of how to strengthen existing community protection mechanisms, poignant insights into untapped capacity, and scope for new approaches and innovation.

  5. Our commitment to uphold humanitarian principles, particularly impartiality, our rights-based commitment to non-discrimination, and our protection principles.

Global Talent Pathway aims to apply this Policy by:

  1. Active promotion of inclusion and respect for diversity within our agency, within our partnerships and the programs we support, and in the way we communicate our work.

  2. Ensuring that exclusion of any individual or group within a target group or community on discriminatory grounds is recognised as discrimination and is proscribed.

  3. Integrating ‘do-no-harm’ criteria through our programs as they relate to vulnerable groups.

  4. Ensuring the meaningful participation and leadership of affected communities.

  5. Taking an inclusive approach to our work that seeks to identify and address barriers that prevent vulnerable and marginalised people from participating in and benefiting from program and advocacy outcomes, thereby ensuring safe, dignified, and meaningful access to initiatives hosted by Global Talent Pathway and our Partners.

  6. Assessing how structural and institutionalised forms of discrimination create and perpetuate disadvantage and taking action to address these root causes through our partnerships, programs, and advocacy.

Our specific commitments include:

Discrimination and diversity

  1. Recognising the role that intersecting factors - such as race, religion, ethnicity, indigeneity, displacement, caste, gender, gender identity, sexuality, sexual orientation, poverty, class or socio-economic status, political opinion, and membership of a social group - play in creating and perpetuating identity-based discrimination is critical in addressing exclusion and fostering inclusion. Global Talent Pathway will take active measures to prevent and respond to discrimination – particularly where it leads to serious harm, becomes institutionalised, and leads to systemic human rights abuses and displacement.

Gender equality and equity relates to:

  1. The prevention of. and response to. sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment and all forms of gender-based violence.

  2. Promoting greater participation of women and girls in decision-making that affects their lives, including offering leadership opportunities.

  3. Active involvement of men and boys in promoting gender equality.

  4. Targeted protection and assistance to reduce threats and vulnerabilities, increase capacity and address structural gender inequalities.

  5. Striving for all initiatives - ranging from emergency assistance, recovery, and reconstruction through to long-term development - to utilise and benefit from a thorough social analysis, including gender-sensitive and disability-sensitive analytical tools and approaches.

Inclusion of people living with disabilities

  1. Promoting participation for people living with disabilities in making decisions that affect their lives.

  2. The prevention of and response to sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment of people living with disabilities.

  3. Recognising the multi-level discrimination often experienced by people living with disabilities and offering targeted protection and assistance to reduce threats and vulnerabilities, increase capacity, and address barriers to participation.

Age-sensitive and inclusive actions

  1. Understanding age is an important consideration in our work, as elderly people and young people face different risks, social pressures, and obstacles, and have differing abilities and strengths.

  2. The prevention of and response to sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment of all age groups, including children, youth, and elderly people.

  3. Promoting participation for different age groups in decisions that affect their lives.

  4. Reduce at risk behaviour amongst young people by intentionally building resilience and support networks.

HIV/AIDS

  1. Promote HIV/AIDS awareness amongst staff, partners, and project participants, and mainstreaming and integrate HIV/AIDS awareness across our humanitarian and development programs, as appropriate.

  2. Maximise the positive impact of AfP’s work with partners to reduce the effects of HIV/AIDS and tackle stigma, discrimination, and denial.

  3. The Global Talent Pathway and partners’ capacity to apply best practices in organisational and program approaches to HIV/AIDS, as appropriate to the context, is strengthened.

  4. Global Talent Pathway acknowledges that the understanding of, and capacity to directly address HIV/AIDS as a health issue, differs between countries and partners, therefore our approach will be tailored to the cultural, legal, and environmental context.

Objectives

The core objective of this policy is:

  1. To promote and actively practice inclusion of diversity within our Agency, partnerships, programs, and communications.

  2. Empower communities to transform power relationships in order to build just, equitable and inclusive societies that enhance and sustain peace.

  3. Ensure inclusion and active participation of vulnerable and marginalised people within any Global Talent Pathway programming or initiatives.

  4. Ensure decisions about programming and other initiatives are based on evidence that considers impact for people who may be marginalised due to their identity.

Approaches

Global Talent Pathway’s rights-based approach recognises all people as ‘rights holders. As rights-holders, all people at risk or affected by conflict, disasters or displacement have the right to request and receive assistance and protection. Promoting the application of a rights-based approach ensures that our support is targeted at the most vulnerable and those most at risk of discrimination, exclusion, marginalisation, and other human rights abuses.

All program design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation processes will seek to expose direct and indirect discrimination and social exclusion that may occur as a consequence of the way people are treated in society, a combination of identities, and the intersection of age, gender, and other diversities. They aim to identify assumptions, stereotypes, and prejudices and address them.

Global Talent Pathway will seek to draw on the strengths and capacities of all people to enable inclusive and strengths-based approaches. It is recognised that programming and advocacy often require a combination of approaches, and Global Talent Pathway will choose these carefully according to contexts, alignment with our values and principles, and evidence-based social and behavioural change research.

Global Talent Pathway is committed to promoting equality and equity as common values, gender, disability, diversity, and age mainstreaming, and targeted action to address associated inequalities.

Principles and standards

Global Talent Pathway is committed to the following standards and principles:

  1. International human rights, humanitarian, and refugee law

  2. The Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Non-Governmental Organisations in Disaster Relief

  3. The Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability

  4. ACFID Code of Conduct

  5. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action

  6. The Sphere Project – Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response and the Sphere Handbook.

  7. DFAT’s ANCP Guidance Manual, and relevant policies

  8. UN Security Council Resolutions on protection of civilians.

Global Talent Pathway is committed to upholding the values and meeting the following standards within that Code, including:

  1. Respect: we recognise the value and diversity of every person and are committed to treating others with due regard for their rights, dignity and integrity.

  2. Equity: we are committed to overcoming prejudices and disadvantages and promoting fair and just access to resources and opportunities.

  3. Rights, Protection and Inclusion: development and humanitarian responses respect and protect human rights and advance inclusion.

  4. Participation, Empowerment and Local Ownership: development and humanitarian responses enable sustainable change through the empowerment of local actors and systems.

Scope

The commitments made in this Policy apply to all of Global Talent Pathway’s work, including our advocacy, capacity building, communication of our work, and the partnerships, programs, and initiatives we support.

The commitments confirmed in this Policy are in line with Global Talent Pathway’s Code of Conduct, Human Rights Policy, Prevention of Sexual Exploitation Policy, and Abuse and Harassment Policy.

The Policy is to be read in conjunction with Global Talent Pathway’s Human Rights Policy and our Code of Conduct and Code of Good Practice. Global Talent Pathway will endeavour to apply this policy to its own human resource management, provided that it does not conflict with Australian employment and anti-discrimination laws.

Definitions

Disability: Global Talent Pathway applies the definition of disability from the Minimum Standards for Age and Disability Inclusion in Humanitarian Aid:

People with disabilities include women, men, girls, and boys with long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others (see Article 1 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities). An illness can develop into an impairment or disability because of its duration or chronic nature. In the context of a humanitarian crisis, an injury or other impairment might be considered a disability if it hinders a person’s access to, and participation in, humanitarian assistance. It is important to recognise not only individuals’ impairments, but also the environmental and attitudinal barriers that limit their participation.

Disability Inclusion: a term used by people with disabilities and other disability rights advocates for the idea that all people should freely, openly and without pity accommodate any person with a disability without restrictions or limitations of any kind.

Discrimination: Discrimination includes the exclusion of, mistreatment of, or action against an individual based on social status, race, ethnicity, caste, indigeneity, colour, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, national origin, displacement, political affiliation, disability, or other personal characteristics

Diversity: Diversity refers to the variety of visible and invisible differences between people within a community, target group or workplace environment.

Ethnicity: the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition.

Exclusion: the process of excluding or the state of being excluded.

Gender equality: Gender equality refers to the equal enjoyment by women, girls, boys, and men of rights, opportunities, resources, and rewards. Based on internationally acknowledged and agreed human rights commitments, women and men are entitled to equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, civil, economic, social, and cultural fields of life.

Gender equity: “Gender equity” is the means through which gender equality is reached. It refers to the fair treatment of women, girls, boys, and men according to their respective needs and perspectives. To ensure fairness, measures must often be available to compensate for historical as well as current social disadvantages that prevent equal access to rights, freedoms, opportunities, resources, and rewards.

Gender analysis: Examines the power and relationship between women and men and their access to and control over resources and benefits, their roles, and the constraints they face relative to each other. A gender analysis should be integrated into the humanitarian needs assessment and in all sector assessments or situation analysis.

Gender sensitivity: The proper awareness of the different needs, roles, and responsibilities of women and men in design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policy and programs in all spheres.

Gender policy principles: a framework that explains the basic principles on which an organisation’s gender policy is based, and thus gives direction to achieve gender equality.

Gender disaggregated data: the qualitative and quantitative analysis of sex-disaggregated statistical information.

Gender-based violence (GBV) An umbrella term for any harmful act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and that is based on socially ascribed (gender) differences, like power inequalities, between females and males. Acts of GBV violate a number of universal human rights. The nature and extent of specific types of GBV vary across cultures, countries, and regions. Examples include sexual violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, rape, forced prostitution, domestic violence, trafficking, forced/early marriage, harmful traditional practices, honor killing and widow inheritance.

HIV/AIDS Integration: Integrating of HIV/AIDS-specific interventions refers to direct HIV targeted work that could be included into other wider programs, i.e. broadening of health and nutrition programming to include HIV specific health and nutritional concerns. (Ref. Code of Good Practice for NGOs Responding to HIV).

HIV/AIDS Mainstreaming: Mainstreaming HIV is a cross cutting policy, an indirect approach to responding to HIV, meaning taking HIV into consideration when planning emergency (and development) programs and adapting these programs to ensure they address the underlying causes of vulnerability to HIV infection and the consequences. The focus of such programs remains the original goal (for example, providing food and shelter to the disaster affected populations).

Non-discrimination: ensuring that all the affected population including older women and men, and women, men, girls, and boys with disabilities can access assistance and benefit from humanitarian response on an equal basis with others. Meaningful access: ensuring that any barriers affecting the access and participation of people with disabilities and older people in humanitarian assistance and protection are addressed.

Protection: All activities aimed at securing full respect for the rights of individuals in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the relevant bodies of human rights, humanitarian, and refugee law. Protection activities aim to create an environment in which human dignity is respected, specific patterns of abuse are prevented, or their immediate effects alleviated, and dignified conditions of life are restored through reparation, restitution, and rehabilitation. Protection aims to reduce the risk of violence, coercion, and deliberate deprivation of rights through reducing threats and vulnerabilities and increasing capacity to address risks.

Sex: Refers specifically to the biological and physiological reality of being male or female, or natural variations thereof.

Sex-disaggregated data: The quantitative statistical or numerical information on the difference between men, women, boys, and girls.