Focus 2030
Subscribe to our newsletter
Replier le menu
Discover Focus 2030
Our organisation Our key programmes Our team Our partners Documentation Reports and publications News
Year after year, despite the rhetoric, inequalities between women and men persist.
According to the United Nations, at the current pace of progress, it would take another 300 years to achieve gender equality worldwide.
These structural inequalities are being further deepened by the multiplication of global crises — armed conflicts, economic shocks, and climate disasters — as well as by the rollback of hard-won rights.
In this context, “feminist foreign policies” are emerging as a strategic lever, placing women’s rights and gender equality at the heart of diplomatic action and international cooperation, including in key instruments for peace, stability, and sustainable development.
At a time when a widespread backlash against women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights is being observed across the world, feminist foreign policy — adopted by a growing number of governments — has the potential to be a game-changer, standing up to conservative and anti-rights movements seeking to undermine decades of progress.
Yet this ambition can only be achieved if it is matched by adequate resources. Funding remains far below what is needed. According to UN Women, closing gender gaps in developing countries would require $420 billion per year — just a fraction of the $2.7 trillion spent annually on defense.
It is against this backdrop that France will host the 4th Ministerial Conference on Feminist Foreign Policies in Paris on October 22–23, 2025. Governments, international organizations, philanthropic actors, civil society, and feminist movements will gather to “resist, unite, and act” - reaffirming the importance of women’s rights, strengthening international coalitions, and translating commitments into concrete, funded action.
This conference comes at a pivotal moment : 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, and the 80th anniversary of the United Nations — milestones that invite us to reflect on the progress made and the road still ahead.
Explore our analysis of the key issues and challenges of feminist foreign policy : the global state of gender equality, financing for women’s rights, the actors and initiatives driving change, and the highlights of this 4th Ministerial Conference.
On October 22–23, 2025, France will host the 4th Ministerial Conference on Feminist Foreign Policies in Paris — a major international event to reaffirm the urgent need to defend and advance women’s rights and gender equality in the face of persistent inequalities and the rise of anti-rights movements.
The 2025 Paris edition will bring together committed governments, international organizations, development banks, feminist movements, research institutions, and philanthropic foundations. The program will feature ministerial plenaries and multi-stakeholder roundtables designed to :
The conference will conclude with the adoption of a political declaration.
|
About the Ministerial Conferences on Feminist Foreign Policies : The Ministerial Conferences on Feminist Foreign Policies are international gatherings that bring together governments, international organizations, civil society, philanthropic and academic actors to advance gender equality and women’s rights. These conferences provide a platform to :
The first conference was initiated by Germany in 2022, followed by the Netherlands in 2023 and Mexico in 2024. Each edition aims to create a unique multilateral space outside the UN framework — one that allows like-minded countries to collaborate freely, avoid deadlock, and generate concrete, measurable commitments. |
For more information : Conference website
A feminist foreign policy is a renewed approach to international relations that places women’s rights and gender equality not as an accessory, but as a core pillar of a country’s external action. It spans all areas of foreign policy — diplomacy, trade, security, development, digital affairs, climate, and governance — and seeks to transform the way foreign policy itself is conceived. Its goal is to correct systemic inequalities and embed a feminist perspective into political and financial decision-making.
First launched by Sweden in 2014 under the leadership of former Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, the approach has since been adopted by 15 countries and is built around a set of shared principles, known as the 3 « R » : ensuring women’s and girls’ rights, mobilizing resources for equality, and guaranteeing their representation in all spheres of society.
What distinguishes a feminist foreign policy from a traditional one is its coherence and cross-cutting approach : gender equality is no longer treated as a separate policy area, but as a lens through which all external decisions and instruments are designed and implemented.
While these core principles form a common foundation, each country defines its own version based on its history, institutions, and geopolitical context. For example, Canada emphasizes international development assistance, Mexico focuses on civic participation and combating gender-based violence, while Spain prioritizes intersectionality and European action. France, through its International Strategy for a Feminist Foreign Policy 2025–2030, builds on longstanding priorities such as equality in and through education and the fight against all forms of violence, while introducing new ones tied to contemporary challenges — including digital transformation, climate change, and international crises.
To foster collective learning and the exchange of best practices, several countries have joined forces within the Feminist Foreign Policy Plus (FFP+) network, which aims to share best practices, strengthen diplomatic coordination, and build a united front against the global rollback of women’s and girls’ rights. This network embodies the idea that feminist foreign policy should be a space for international cooperation, not merely a patchwork of national initiatives.
Feminist foreign policies are therefore less a single model than a shared, evolving framework — one that allows each country to adapt its tools and contribute to a collective reflection through dialogue and collaboration.
However, feminist foreign policy must not remain symbolic. It must be backed by concrete commitments — from budget allocations to global mobilization — to protect and advance the rights of women and girls. In a world marked by climate, geopolitical, and social crises, adopting a feminist foreign policy means recognizing gender equality not as an optional value, but as a strategic lever for stability, cooperation, and shared progress.
Yet this movement also faces growing resistance. The international landscape is increasingly marked by the rise of what are known as “anti-rights” and “anti-gender” movements that seek to roll back hard-won rights for women and LGBTQI+ people — particularly in the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
These actors — often alliances between fundamentalist religious groups, conservative organizations, and far-right political parties — are coordinating their positions and infiltrate decision-making and negotiation spaces at all levels : national, regional, transnational, and multilateral. Their objectives include weakening the language of human rights resolutions, reducing funding for gender equality, and promoting restrictive notions of family and women’s roles.
This strategy is embodied in particular in the Geneva Consensus Declaration, signed in 2020 by 36 states and since reaffirmed by the U.S. administration under Donald Trump’s second term. Presented as a text promoting women’s health and strenghtening the family, it in fact opposes the right to abortion and rejects the rights of sexual minorities. Several signatory states continue to invoke it in international forums.
In Europe, according to The Next Wave report by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, the number of identified anti-rights actors has grown from around 50 in 2018 to 275 in 2025. Their combined funding between 2019 and 2023 reached $1.18 billion, over half of which came from 28 European countries, followed by contributions from the Russian Federation and U.S.-based organizations. This transnational network explicitly aims to obstruct gender equality policies and capture institutional power under the guise of “tradition” and “human dignity.”
These movements are gaining political traction, as populist and conservative parties adopt anti-equality rhetoric to polarize electorates and weaken democratic cohesion. The retreat of some historically committed governments has only exacerbated this trend. Even Sweden, the pioneer of feminist foreign policy, abandoned it in 2022 following a change in government.
At the same time, cuts to SRHR funding — largely due to the reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule and the dismantling of USAID under the second Trump administration — are having devastating consequences. According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2025, an estimated 11.7 million women could lose access to contraception, leading to 4.2 million unintended pregnancies and 8 340 maternal deaths from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth worldwide.
These coordinated offensives reveal a deeper political reality : attacks on women’s and minority rights are not isolated social debates — they are attacks on democracy itself.
Anti-rights movements use issues of gender, sexuality, and family as tools to polarize societies, sow division, and undermine the legitimacy of democratic institutions. By eroding individual rights and public freedoms, they contribute to the consolidation of authoritarian regimes and the weakening of multilateral governance based on universal human rights.
In this context, adopting a feminist foreign policy is more vital than ever — not only as a means to defend fundamental rights, but also as a strategic instrument of democratic resilience and international cooperation in the face of authoritarian and reactionary movements.
Feminist foreign policies build on more than three decades of normative frameworks and international commitmentsto women’s rights and gender equality, which establish standards and guidelines for states. In 2025, as the world marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, these frameworks continue to provide a reference point for guiding foreign policies and measuring progress.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — particularly "SDG 5 : gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls" — further strengthen this global agenda by embedding gender equality as a cross-cutting priority across all areas of international action.
Adopted unanimously in 2000 by the United Nations Security Council, Resolution 1325 was the first to recognize the central role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, as well as in peacebuilding processes. The resolution rests on four key pillars : participation and protection of women, prevention of gender-based violence, and humanitarian response. Resolution 1325 laid the foundation for the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, which seeks to systematically integrate women into peace processes and strengthen their role in global security and governance.
Thirty years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, progress toward gender equality remains fragile and uneven. While significant advances have been made in access to education, health, and political participation, persistent inequalities continue to weigh heavily on societies and sustainable development. Nearly one in five young women is still married before the age of 18, cutting short her education and limiting her autonomy. One in eight women aged 15–49 has experienced violence from an intimate partner within the past year.
Women also stand on the frontlines of global crises. Armed conflicts, climate disasters, and economic shocks all heighten their vulnerability. Climate change alone could push an additional 158 million women into poverty by 2050 — nearly half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
In a global context marked by multiple crises and the rise of anti-rights movements, funding for gender equality remains largely insufficient : UN Women estimates that $420 billion per year is needed to close the gaps, a fraction of the $2.7 trillion spent annually on military defense.
Starting in 2016, the OECD introduced a marker to track gender-related official development assistance. Since then, the 33 donor countries in the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) report on how much they integrate gender into all their projects and programs.
Despite growing recognition of gender equality as a cornerstone of sustainable development and global stability, financial commitments remain far from sufficient. Between 2022 and 2023, DAC countries and the European Union collectively committed an annual average of US$71.9 billion — representing 45.9% of their total bilateral official development assistance (ODA) — to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
Of this total :
After five years of increases in their international cooperation budgets, the 33 members of the OECD DAC recorded a historic decline in their ODA in 2024, totalling US$212.1 billion, a 7.1% decrease compared to 2023. The largest donor countries and the European Union together are expected to cut ODA by US$11.8 billion in 2025 compared to 2024, including US$5.2 billion in Germany and US$2.6 billion in France. The OECD estimates that DAC members’ ODA could decline by 9% to 17% between 2024 and 2025, threatening funding for gender equality in particular.
Despite their crucial role in advancing rights and driving social change, feminist organizations receive a mere US$0.7 billion per year — less than 1% of total ODA earmarked for gender equality. In 2023, DAC members collectively allocated US$797 million to feminist organizations and movements.
Massive cuts in international aid now threaten the global feminist movement’s ecosystem. According to UN Women’s survey At a Breaking Point, 90% of 411 feminist organizations active in 44 crisis-affected countries report being impacted by aid reductions.
These financial constraints compound longstanding structural fragility : in 2023, feminist and women’s rights organizations had a median annual budget of just US$22,000. Behind this figure lies stark inequality — while a few organizations access substantial resources, most operate on shoestring budgets, limiting their reach and deepening disparities across the feminist movement.
