GAPS Team Response to the International Strategic Framework on Women and Girls: welcome commitments, but resourcing and delivery are key

On Wednesday 20 May, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) launched a new International Strategic Framework on Women and Girls, setting out plans to deliver on its recent prioritisation of women and girls. 

‍The renewed focus on women and girls is welcome, but words alone are not enough. The Framework identifies urgent challenges facing women and girls worldwide, but it does not to address the impact that recent aid cuts have had, or make clear financial commitments for future action. Without sustained funding and political will, the Framework risks being another example of more rhetoric that creates little change for some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

The Framework rightly recognises the fundamental role of civil society in addressing global challenges. While the document notes that funding for women’s rights organizations (WROs) is critical, emphasis is placed on diplomatic and partnership opportunities for support. While important, without adequate and sustainable resourcing, women’s rights and women-led organisations (WLOs) responding to conflict and crisis risk closure on a mass scale. The UK Government’s cuts to Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) have contributed to this trend and meant that the UK is now reducing aid by more than the United States Trump administration. In failing to recognise these impacts or provide a clear alternative source of funding, the Government will be unable to live up to its aims.

We face an intense global rollback on women’s rights and gender equality. The Framework acknowledges the ways in which women’s rights and gender are manipulated to spread disinformation and stoke division, and also recognises the online threats faced by women and girls. The Framework makes commitments to tackling online abuse and integrating women and girl’s rights in approaches to national security. However, the Government recently cut a pre-existing programme - the Integrated Security Fund Gender and National Security Portfolio - that was already doing this work. Making commitments to do work that was recently defunded does not increase confidence in the Framework as a resource for delivering meaningful change. 

The Framework says that the Government will promote women’s participation in conflict prevention and peacebuilding through its ‘continued commitment and leadership on the Women, Peace and Security agenda through our National Action Plan’. The inclusion of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) is important, but is yet another example of the Government referring to existing commitments upon which it is currently failing to deliver. In a recent inquiry into WPS, the International Development Committee found that the UK is not achieving on the objectives set out within the WPS National Action Plan (NAP), compounding previous warnings made by GAPS that not enough is being done to protect gains. If the Government is serious about utilising the WPS NAP as a way of supporting women and girls globally, it must provide further detail on how this will be achieved given the current stall on progress and reduced funding. The upcoming WPS NAP refresh is an opportunity to reflect on Government delivery and what changes are required so the Plan can be actioned to better support WLOs.

Following previous announcements, gender mainstreaming is referred to in the Framework. However, as previously, there is no clear detail on how this will be funded or delivered by a reduced FCDO workforce. 

If the UK is to be a leader on women and girls rights it must provide sustained and adequate funding, alongside delivery on existing commitments. The Government must also assess its broader approach, including funding systems and requirements, so that grassroots organisations globally can be better supported. As GAPS has consistently argued, the best way to truly put women and girls at the heart of foreign policy is to reverse the cuts and work ever more closely with civil society allies to fight the rollback on gender equality.