Building Collaboration and Knowledge
Fostering collaboration on global LGBTIQ+ issues by advancing shared research and critical knowledge, and coordinating collective action on urgent issues.
Research
Canada’s Foreign Policy on Global LGBTIQ+ Rights
Progress Assessment
Solidarity for Dignity
Advancing Dignity
Roundtables
The Dignity Network Canada (DNC) Biennial International Roundtable is a flagship convening that brings together DNC members, civil society organizations, international partners, and allies from across Canada and around the world. Held over the course of a week, the Roundtable creates space for deep exchange, relationship-building, and strategic dialogue.
The gathering features a rich program of workshops, meetings, panel discussions, presentations, roundtables, and receptions, designed to foster learning, collaboration, and collective action. Participants from across civil society and government come together to reflect on Canada’s role in advancing human rights for LGBTIQ+ people globally.
A key focus of the Roundtable is dialogue with and about government — particularly parliamentary outreach and engagement — creating opportunities to discuss how the Canadian government can continue to develop and strengthen its work in support of global SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics) issues. Through open discussion and shared strategy, the Roundtable helps shape collective advocacy efforts and strengthens Canada’s contribution to advancing global LGBTIQ+ rights.
Roundtable Event Reports
Dignity Collaboratories
Dignity Collaboratories are collaborative gatherings created in response to an unprecedented global assault on LGBTIQ+ rights and gender justice. At this critical moment, there is a heightened need for shared strategy, collective learning, and innovative approaches across movements and borders.
The Collaboratories convene a diverse group of stakeholders to deepen collective thinking on key issues facing the global LGBTIQ+ movement, and to explore solutions together. Designed to support brainstorming and creative exchange, these gatherings create space for open dialogue and relationship-building.
Each Collaboratory is centred on a focused theme to encourage meaningful, in-depth discussion. The gatherings are co-convened and collaboratively developed, bringing together Canadian international NGOs and foundations, particularly LGBTIQ-led organizations, alongside international practitioners connected to global LGBTIQ+ movements.
By intentionally fostering cross-sector, cross-organizational, and cross-country collaboration, the Dignity Collaboratories purposefully engage those advancing feminist, decolonial, and queer- and trans-led approaches, strengthening collective capacity to respond to today’s urgent challenges.
Montréal Collaboratory
On November 17–18, 2025, Dignity Network Canada, together with key grantmaking partners including Égides, the Equality Fund, and Equitas, convened a Dignity Collaboratory in Montréal, Quebec. The gathering brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to deepen collective thinking on funding for international LGBTIQ+ movements.
The Montreal Collaboratory created space for open, collective reflection on how resources can be raised, shared, and mobilized more effectively within global LGBTIQ+ and gender justice movements. Participants engaged in focused discussions exploring promising areas for new collaborative fundraising efforts, alongside honest conversations about structural, political, and practical barriers that must be addressed.
The Collaboratory also examined the evolving role of Canada as a donor in a rapidly changing global context. Grounded in collaboration and imagination, the gathering was guided by a central question: How can we imagine and build the next generation of Canadian funding for global LGBTIQ+ rights and gender justice?