Turbulence and transition: a call for feminist foreign policy in 2025
2025 started off as a very turbulent year. With the Trump administration taking office in January, the world was hit by disparate, false and severely problematic positions in just a couple of weeks: the dystopian statements on Gaza, the drastic freeze of USAID, and the negotiations on Ukraine – just to mention a few. This reshuffling of old global alliances is pressuring the EU to reposition itself in the global geopolitical game, stepping up its defense and military role. But this rushed race towards more security, rearmament and competitiveness is critically shrinking the space for a feminist- and human rights-based foreign policy and for further commitments on poverty reduction and sustainable development.
These trends will have an immense impact on the most marginalized communities globally, especially on women and girls, who are at the same time largely excluded from decision-making spaces. With International Women’s Day around the corner, we spoke to Lina Galvez, Chair of the FEMM Committee in the European Parliament, about the crucial role that women should play in international security: “Women remain largely underrepresented and undervalued in decision-making processes especially the field of foreign policy and international security. It is crucial that women are involved in promoting dialogue, building peace, and bringing different perspectives on the meaning of peace and security”.
Conflicts and wars are never gender-neutral. In Ukraine, an estimated 12.7 million people, including women, children and people with disabilities are in urgent need of humanitarian aid and protection.1 Women and girls are especially exposed to Gender Based Violence, including sexual violence, used as instrument of war: as documented by ActionAid’s operation in Ukraine, complaints of sexual violence are widespread, although the majority remain unreported. In these contexts, it is essential to provide the necessary assistance and accompaniment to survivors of GBV and sexual violence, but often adequate public services are either lacking or malfunctioning and are unable to provide the essential services needed for a gender-sensitive response.
At the same time, feminist and women rights organizations are at the forefront of the humanitarian response, playing critical roles in delivering essential services for the most impacted communities, from health to psycho-social support and legal aid. Iryna Koval, Women’s Rights Advisor with ActionAid Ukraine Response, spoke about the importance of such work:
"Seeing how people come together and come up with brilliant ideas... For example, a partner organization working in Kherson, providing medical services in extremely unsafe conditions, traveling from village to village. […] Or incredible women's rights organizations creating shelters for women and children. People are responding to the situation, to the challenges, with the resources they have, mobilizing volunteers..."
Like her, many other women are active in civil society and women’s rights organisations delivering humanitarian response to the crisis. “It is important to recognize” says MEP Galvez “that women and girls are drivers of change and support the safe and meaningful participation in peace building, also because by being present they make it clear that the effects of war are different for women and girls”. Local civil society and feminist organizations play a crucial role in reaching the most vulnerable groups and ensuring participatory approaches to recovery. In a global context where Official Development Assistance (ODA) is being drastically cut, and with the EU approaching negotiations on its next long-term budget, it is crucial to step up financial commitments on gender equality. In particular, the next MFF should ensure that sufficient and dedicated resources are allocated to support local women rights organizations, and that the EU adopts a holistic, intersectional, and gender-transformative approach that addresses both immediate humanitarian needs and long-term gender equality and women’s empowerment objectives. “Budgets are never gender neutral” concludes MEP Galvez “and there is a need to establish a clear objective of achieving gender equality, of transforming society towards a more equal society, combatting discrimination, and addressing the specific needs of all individuals, including women and girls, in all their diversity”.
On International Women’s Day, amid an international race towards boosting security, defense and rearmament, we call for space to be made for women to participate as active leaders in decision-making processes and for specific resources to be allocated to local feminist and women rights organizations who are at the frontline in the response to humanitarian crises. In a world that is shaking under patriarchal and militaristic visions, we urgently need a feminist, intersectional, approach to foreign policy and international security.