Welcome to the December 2024 newsletter of the Australian Feminist Foreign Policy Coalition! |
Thank you for being involved in this growing community advancing feminist foreign policy in Australia.
In this bi-monthly newsletter, we share updates from the Australian Feminist Foreign Policy Coalition (AFFPC) and the global Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) space. Please direct all enquiries, suggestions and feedback to Liz Gill-Atkinson at research@iwda.org.au. |
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The world is less peaceful now that it has been at any other point over the last 50 years. Women’s rights are being aggressively rolled back in many countries, with scholars and gender experts calling the situation in Iran and Afghanistan ‘gender apartheid’. Russia’s war on Ukraine is entering its third year, Israel’s war on Gaza has entered its second year and civil conflict is escalating in Sudan, Myanmar and elsewhere. Antisemitism and Islamophobia are on the rise, as are right-wing and authoritarian regimes (including in previously progressive countries).
All this has led to a sense amongst FFP stakeholders that the FFP movement is at a tipping point. Whilst 15 countries have declared (if not retained) a formal FFP – a decade after its introduction, FFP appears to be facing an existential crisis. In the last two years, Sweden, the Netherlands and Argentina have all wound back their FFP commitments. FFP governments have largely failed to take transformative action in response to the multiple crises facing them, which is undermining the perceived legitimacy of FFP. This has led many to ask the question: has FFP peaked?
IWDA’s latest research finds that, without intervention, the current trajectory of FFP as a field of government practice is likely to be a mix of erosion by election cycle, policy evaporation and hollowing out.
However, other FFP futures are still possible. From high hopes to low expectations, the first ten years of FFP demonstrates the opportunities and challenges of introducing and implementing new approaches to foreign policy in a system deeply inured of the status quo. It is neither inevitable nor impossible for transformative FFP approaches to take root and thrive. From our research findings based on the expertise, optimism and scepticism of the global FFP community, we posit that the building blocks of future trajectories of FFP will be shaped by government and civil society actors’ willingness to confront and challenge systemic inadequacies, a focus on quality of FFPs over quantity, and robust and contextual accountability mechanisms. These will either be the foundation or folly of the next ten years of FFP.
Read our new research: “A Decade of Feminist Foreign Policy: Changing Trajectories of adoption and Accountability over time”.
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November AFFPC Issue Paper: |
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In the final Issues Paper for 2024, Shannon Zimmerman (Deakin University) explores what a feminist foreign policy approach to counter-terrorism might look like. A key role of foreign policy is to ensure a state’s national security. The field of national security in most countries is deeply gendered. Despite the clear evidence that gender-sensitive approaches to counter-terrorism are more effective, deeply masculinised security and counter-terrorism apparatuses have been slow to adopt them. This brief highlights the value added by including feminist approaches to counter-terrorism and explores what such an approach might entail. Last, it describes how Australia might apply a feminist approach to its current counter-terrorism activities to ensure initiatives are more comprehensive, effective and sustainable.
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On Wednesday 27th November IWDA launched our latest research report on feminist foreign policy “A Decade of Feminist Foreign Policy: Changing Trajectories of adoption and Accountability over time.” In this event hosted by AIIA Victoria, Alice Ridge (IWDA), Liz Gill-Atkinson (IWDA), Daniela Philipson Garcia (AFFPC member, Monash University, Melbourne; and Internacional Feminista, Mexico) and Niha Pandney (Monash University; and Tribhuvan University, Nepal) discussed the research findings and their implications for the future of FFP – both globally and in our region. Jo Pradela (IWDA) also shared the research at the Australasian Aid Conference (AAC) on Wednesday 6th December. You can watch the recording of the launch event at AIIA here.
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In what we believe to be a first for the Asia and Pacific regions, IWDA was proud to co-host a Side Event on Feminist Foreign Policy as part of the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+30 Review. With co-organisers CREA, Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative, Gender and Development for Cambodia, and The Asia Foundation, this session explored the potential for FFP to advance implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Key speakers Lopa Banerjee (UN Women), Ambassador Tumur Amarsanaa (Ambassador Permanent Representative of Mongolia to the Kingdom of Thailand); Ambassador Maríta Cristina Perceval (Senior Fellow at the Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative;) Chandy Eng (Gender and Development Cambodia), Nalini Singh (Fiji Women’s Rights Movement) and Alice Ridge (IWDA) shared lessons from global dialogues, regional processes and national experience of implanting FFP in order to further discussions on a regionally contextualized feminist foreign policy approach for Asia and the Pacific. You can watch the event recording here.
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ASI Thought Leaders Forum: |
“Feminist Foreign Policy: Rethinking International Development”. |
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In this panel event moderated by Sarah Fowler, Alice Ridge (IWDA), Hawo Hassan (ASI Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Adviser, Somalia) and Fatimah Afzal (ASI Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Adviser, Pakistan) discussed critical issues regarding the shape and implementation of FFP; including how it differs from existing approaches within international development, such as gender mainstreaming. The panel unpacked exactly Feminist Foreign Policy is – and isn’t - and discussed the real-world challenges and opportunities in implementing FFP in the context of complex environments encountered in international development programming. You can watch the event recording here.
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Feminist Foreign Policy Analysis: A New Subfield |
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In their latest book, Professor Jacqui True (AFFPC member, Monash University) and Professor Karin Aggestam (Lund University) critically examine how feminist scholarship can advance the field of foreign policy analysis to better understand contemporary foreign policy actions and challenges. The authors have brought together contributors from around the world to offer new analyses of foreign policy topics, including diplomacy, trade, defence, environment, peacebuilding, disinformation and development assistance. AIIA Victoria invites you to join Professor Jacqui True and Professor Karin Aggestam for a panel discussion on this exciting new scholarly field. Copies of the book will be available for sale. Register to attend in person or online here.
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| Netherlands releases FFP guidelines:
On the 29th November the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a practical handbook to support implementation of the government’s 2022 FFP commitment. The handbook outlines the key principles and priorities than underpin the policy, and recommends practical steps to support implementation, including Conducting gender analyses for policies, programs, and funding decisions; Implementing the use of gender-sensitive tools like the OECD gender marker; Training all ministry staff in feminist principles by 2025; and Expanding the network of gender focal points in embassies and departments.
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Using feminist foreign policy to fund feminist organising. |
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Moving Beyond Branding: What’s next for Feminist Foreign Policy. |
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This policy brief from Belgian think tank Friedrich Ebert Stiftung calls for transformative funding practices to be an integral part of FFP. Less than 1% of gender-focused official development assistance (ODA) currently goes into the funding of women’s rights organisations and feminist movements, leaving critical feminist actors woefully underfunded. This policy brief looks into the connection of transformative funding practices and ways to strengthen feminist movements worldwide and calls upon governments and donors to commit to linking feminist foreign policy with sustainable funding mechanisms, thus unlocking the potential of feminist organising to build a more inclusive future for all.
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In this article, Detmer Kremer (GAPS, UK) argues that sleek branding that has accompanied recent FFP declarations risks the concept becoming a politicised battlefield for the anti-gender movement. Detmer further argues that to maximise the full potential of FFP, it is important that governments continue to invest in and transform existing tools that align with and can underpin FFP implementation, as well as feminist organisations and movements.
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Against all odds: implementing feminist approaches to international politics |
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The Feminist Foreign Policy Tracker: |
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In 2023, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and its Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development published guidelines for a feminist foreign and development policy. In this article, author Birte Rodenberg argues that political headwinds, however, are jeopardising the implementation of the concepts. Birte examines the challenges and risks of repetition that we as progressive feminist forces should address if we want to safeguard, further develop and sharpen these concepts and the scope and implementation of feminist approaches to international development and foreign policy.
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This tracker was created by Katie Whipkey and supplemented through Gender Security Project’s Review by Kirthi Jayakumar and Vaishnavi Pallapothu as a way to keep track of countries that have adopted, declared an intention to adopt, or have adopted and since discarded a feminist foreign policy. This page will be updated periodically as and when new information becomes available. (Last updated: September 16, 2024) |
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Diplomatie féministe française: maintenir les exigences dans un contexte de backlash |
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French NGO Equipop have published a position paper to inform the development of France’s guidelines for FFP. It argues that in the context of increased backlash against women’s and LGBTIQ+ people’s rights, France’s implementation of feminist diplomacy must be maintained and strengthened, including through accountability measures and dedicated finance. It also calls for greater ambition ahead of the planned 2025 FFP conference to be hosted by France. |
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The Australian Feminist Foreign Policy Coalition acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work and live. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present, and the Aboriginal Elders of other communities.
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