About the event
There is growing evidence of the positive impact that feminist and gender-transformative approaches have on overcoming pressing global challenges, from climate change to democratic strengthening. Despite this, a significant gap between rhetoric and action remains, particularly in aligning financial commitments with gender equality goals. According to the latest 2024 SDG Gender Index from Equal Measures 2030, not a single country is on track to achieve gender equality by 2030. UN Women estimates that an additional USD 360 billion per year is needed to meet the commitments linked to SDG 5 by 2030. Moreover, past Financing for Development outcome documents have failed to address these gaps, lacking concrete metrics and targets on gender equality. This underscores the urgent need for accountability measures that ensure financial institutions and governments can both increase their investments and be held accountable to their commitments.
It is time to reverse this trend. Gender equality is more than a target, it is foundational to achieving sustainable development.
This side event, organized by the Governments of Spain and Mexico, Humanist Institute for Co-operation with Development Countries (Hivos) on behalf of the Walking the Talk Consortium and the Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative, seeks to bridge the gap between gender equality and finance, focusing on the intersection of these two realms and exploring how financial decision-making, funding mechanisms, and resource distribution can advance gender justice.
Spain and Mexico will share their perspectives as respective host and co-facilitator of the FfD4 negotiation process. These two countries are also co-chairs of the Feminist Foreign Policy+ group, which brings together 19 member states implementing or interested in advancing more feminist approaches to their foreign policies and in the multilateral system. As part of their FfD commitments and beyond, Spain has committed to a gender transformative financing for development agenda. Spain’s submission of inputs to the Elements Paper states: “The world cannot afford a gender-blind financing for development agenda. Ensuring a feminist approach is a necessity.” In turn, Mexico emphasized that ““Policies should address the structural and systemic barriers that perpetuate gender inequalities, ensuring that financial institutions become a driving force for gender equity and women’s empowerment”.
The Walking the Talk consortium and Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative will bring in perspectives on advancing a more gender-transformative approach to the Financing for Development agenda, with a focus on implementing existing commitments and enhancing financing for gender equality through and beyond ODA, in particular for feminist civil society organizations.
In this interactive multi-stakeholder panel, we will further explore how government officials and civil society representatives can collaborate in the coming months to ensure that these priorities are cemented in the outcomes document of FfD4.
Beth Woroniuk, Senior Fellow, Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative and Walking the Talk Consortium consultant
Jim Monkel, Advocacy officer Hivos, former Youth Ambassador SRHR, Gender Equality and Bodily Autonomy for the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
H.E Monica Colomer, Ambassador at Large on 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Spain
Karen de Brouwer Vasquez, Director of Development Financing, Government of Mexico
Micaela Jazmín Fernández Erlauer, feminist economist from Argentina, researcher at the think tank Fundar and member of Ecofeminita's Fiscal Justice team.
Spogmay Ahmed, Senior Policy Advisor, Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative
