Women’s empowerment in EU external relations cannot happen without towns and regions
The European Commission (DG DEVCO) is currently preparing the EU action plan for gender equality and women’s empowerment in external relations for the upcoming period 2021-2025 (GAP III) to follow the 2016-2020 EU Gender Action Plan II in external relations.
PLATFORMA seeks to ensure that the priorities of local and regional governments, the challenges they face, and their added value as key partners in implementation are taken into account in the joint communication that is foreseen in Q4 of 2020.
PLATFORMA is coordinating a written response to the roadmap consultation that is currently open (6 March-3 April 2020) and has reached out to all the partners to: inform about the EU’s work on gender equality in external relations; collect background documents from partners on gender equality and gender mainstreaming in international cooperation and gender requirements for projects; and identify priority issues and messages to raise in our response.
The PLATFORMA network has been increasingly focused on addressing gender equality in its policy and thematic work during the last few years and continues to reinforce advocacy and project activities in this area. A first PLATFORMA publication on “Promoting gender equality: towards a gender-based approach in decentralised cooperation projects” was produced in 2017 by the AFCCRE to encourage local and regional governments to mainstream gender in their international development projects and provide information to orient them in their efforts.
For an overview of recent and upcoming activities in this area, check our Gender equality category.
