About the event
Foreign policy plays a fundamental role in the advancement of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Many of the 12 Beijing critical areas of concern, as well as emerging issues, relate to complex challenges that cannot be addressed by a single country, and require cooperation at bilateral and multilateral levels. From climate change to the rise of authoritarianism, the impacts of these shifts are deeply gendered and require new kinds of solutions that can grapple with, and ultimately transform, structures of power. Feminist foreign policy provides an exciting, hopeful and challenging framework in today’s deeply polarized global landscape to reinvigorate collective values and advance our ambitions.
Since feminist foreign policy was first adopted by the Government of Sweden in 2014, the range of actors exploring the topic has both expanded and diversified–challenging the initial, overwhelmingly European focus of this agenda. Notably, civil society and feminist movements working on feminist foreign policy have grown and formalized in multiple regions of the world. They are advancing their own unique and contextually-informed visions of feminist foreign policy, and are playing a fundamental role in issuing calls for co-creation, coherence and accountability.
On the sidelines of the 69th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), we co-hosted the event The Power of Regional Movements and Strategies: Advancing the Beijing Platform for Action through Feminist Foreign Policy. Co-sponsored by CREA, International Women’s Development Agency, Australian Feminist Foreign Policy Coalition and the Generation Equality Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership, this interactive event brought together leaders from various regions, with a particular focus on the Majority World, to reflect on their feminist foreign policy practices, share lessons learned, exchange ideas and recommendations, raise critical questions and build transnational solidarity.
GLOBAL TRENDS
“[T]he regionalization of feminist foreign policy…offer[s] a pathway for the future. Of course, collaboration between governments and civil society is never perfect, but it is showing up as the strongest pathway to keep feminist approaches alive.”
Jo Pradela
Director, International Women's Development Agency
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
“This idea [of care] has been on the table on conversations on feminist foreign policy and there was an adoption of the Buenos Aires Commitment where there is a proposal to change the way we understand development, the way we understand care, the collaboration that needs to happen to redistribute care, to have care and to being taken care of as a right and [to understand care] as a co-responsibility…This year, in Mexico, will also take place the Regional Conference on Women in August where the project of societies of care will be the main conversation.”
María Paulina Rivera Chávez
Red Mexicana de Política Exterior Feminista (in English, the Mexican Feminist Foreign Policy Network)
AFRICA
“We are all in an interconnected and fast-changing world where the promotion and fulfillment of gender equality and women’s rights is not only an issue of social justice at the domestic level but an essential component in international relations and development. This nexus has catalyzed the rethinking of…traditional foreign policy that arises from a growing understanding that gender issues are not peripheral in the field of international relations. I come from a background where when we speak about the concept of feminism in our countries, it has a different connotation and until we can contextualize our ideas of where we see gender equality and social development, we’ll still, as some African countries, have a long way to go.”
Counsellor Deweh E. Gray
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Government of Liberia
ASIA-PACIFIC
“In the Southeast Asian region, we have just adopted the ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on Women, Peace and Security 2022-2030 and in it, there are some of the principles of feminist foreign policy, [including] women’s participation in peace and security, the prevention and addressing of root causes of gender-based violence and conflict, protections and safeguarding women’s rights in conflict and crisis, gender inclusion during crises and disasters and implementation, monitoring and accountability. [Feminist advocates] are trying to push for all governments in Southeast Asia to adopt Women, Peace and Security Agendas in their own National Action Plans, so at least some part of the feminist foreign policy framework [and] intersectionality is there.”
Chandy Eng
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
“One of the objective challenges is the fact that the pioneers in terms of creating and adopting a feminist foreign policy were problematic when it came to really implementing it, and I talk here of the war in Gaza and I talk about all the conflict in the MENA region where we really felt, you know, is your feminist foreign policy only applicable in certain places and not in others….[This] led to something really unfortunate by many advocates from the region and the diaspora basically wanting to abandon feminist foreign policy which is another challenge in itself…because feminist foreign policies remain our most important gain so far.”
Lina Abou-Habib
Director, Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship, American University of Beirut
EUROPE
“I am particularly delighted because we have just launched our new Strategy on Feminist Foreign Policy in France…It’s been one and a half years working on the document, consulting more than 200 organizations in an inclusive process that we have never done before…We are happy to deliver on the five years to come and especially at a time where women’s rights are at risk—having a feminist foreign policy, saying loud and clear, is a first step.”
Marie Soulié
Head of Feminist Foreign Policy and Education Department, Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Government of France
GLOBAL
“As we enter the second decade of adoption and implementation of feminist foreign policies, […]our collective strength lies in our ability to build alliances, share knowledge and coordinate action across regions[...] because we can not underestimate what lies ahead of us[…] Let history remember 2025 as the year we refused to back down. The year we stood our ground. The year we finished the fight. We will not stop until we achieve rights, equality and empowerment for ALL women and girls.”
Sarah Hendriks
Director of Policy, Programme & Intergovernmental Division, UN Women
Following the panel, we invited participants to break into regionally-based groups to discuss strategies to advance feminist foreign policy. We were grateful to have a packed room with vibrant conversations; participants raised issues such as ensuring policy coherence and the contextualization of feminist foreign policy dialogues and agendas. We look forward to engaging partners for similar events and opportunities in the future and continuing to deepen discourse around feminist foreign policy globally.