2023 marks the mid-term point of the implementation of the EU’s Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in External Action 2021–2025 (GAP III).

GAP III is an ambitious policy, and it is important to monitor the actual impact it is having on the lives of women and girls in all their diversity in the EU’s partner countries, and to readjust the course of its implementation to better respond to their intersectional needs and rights.

Our report reviews GAP III implementation in three carefully chosen local contexts: Morocco, the Philippines, and Kenya, and focuses on how the new and potentially transformative elements of GAP III – a gender-transformative and intersectional approach – have been applied in practice.

Women’s equal participation and leadership in all aspects of society are essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, but what about the funding to make this happen?

With the Gender Action Plan (GAP III) (2021-2025) and less than 10 years to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 5 for gender equality, CONCORD considers it crucial to address the lack of funding that reaches women’s rights organisations, feminist movements and national, local and grassroots organisations working to advance gender equality.

This paper builds on the work already carried out by women’s rights organisations – such as the Association for Women’s Rights in Development – by adding specific recommendations to the EU and Member States.

The EU frames GAP III as “an ambitious agenda for gender equality and women’s empowerment in EU external action” and it sets out a clear plan to tackle the root causes of gender inequalities. If it is to succeed, the EU and Member States need to ensure that the appropriate funding is made available for its implementation. This fact sheet aims to provide an overview of the different approaches taken by the EU when it comes to funding gender equality in external action.

Several gender equality targets exist in the EU frameworks. However, they do not represent the level of actual funding going to gender equality bacuse they relate to the share of new programmes, and not to the overall amount of funding or share of EU ODA. 

The European Parliament calls for establishing a specific target of 85 % of the EU’s ODA funding dedicated to programmes with gender equality as a principal or significant objective. It also stresses that the objectives set should be quantified in terms of dedicated funding and not just as a percentage of the overall programmes. This is the direct result of active advocacy by CONCORD.

See the fact sheet for more details on CONCORD’s position and recommendations.

2020 should have been a celebratory year for accelerating gender equality globally. Instead, COVID-19 has dramatically reversed the progress made over recent decades. Inequalities, poverty and gender-based violence are on the rise and women and girls are the first to be impacted. Gender equality is one of the EU’s key values and principles and, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has never been more important that the EU remains true to its
commitments.

We welcome the new Gender Action Plan (GAP) III and acknowledge that it takes important steps forward in tackling the root causes of gender inequalities. However, complementary steps are needed for GAP III to be a success. And Member States have a very important role to play.

In this analysis, three key factors that can make GAP III more impactful are identified: implementation, funding and the inclusion of civil society.