#IDW2024: Proudly Supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ Individuals

Ottawa, February 5, 2024

Cuso International invites all Canadians to celebrate Canada’s International Development Week, a time to showcase the work we do in collaboration with local partners to support underserved communities around the world. This year, as we continue to make progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we want to highlight a group that is often persecuted, maligned, or simply ignored: 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals.

Whether in Uganda, where legislation is making them a target of the government and their fellow citizens, or in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where traditional norms present significant barriers to employment, around the world 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals are facing unique hurdles to self-realization and civic participation.

This year, seven of the world’s most populous countries, plus the United States, will be holding elections. At Cuso, we are concerned that rising polarization and instability may undermine existing protections for 2SLGBTQIA+ communities in many regions, increasing their vulnerability.

Global Affairs Canada is well aware of those threats. That is why they work in close collaboration with organizations like ours to protect and advance the human rights of 2SLGBTQIA+ people around the world.

With their support, in 2022, we launched Talents Pluriels, a project that aims to redress injustice and promote gender equity and social inclusion in DRC. Implemented with local partner organization Jeunialissime in three locations: Bukavu, Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, it provides training for young people, employers, and communities to create safe and inclusive professional environments that promote diversity, respect, and understanding of gender differences. Participating employers are also trained to design and adopt inclusive recruitment and hiring practices that address the needs of underserved groups, particularly the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Talents Pluriels is an excellent example of our gender equity and social inclusion (GESI) strategic priority in action. It is based on another very successful Cuso International project initiated nine years ago in Columbia. The Sustainable Colombian Opportunities for Peacebuilding and Employment (SCOPE) model has trained more than twenty-three thousand individuals, 68 per cent of whom have found permanent employment.

This approach has been so successful that we are working to expand it to several other countries. Look out for the announcement. Sign up for our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss it.

Happy International Development Week!

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