This challenge is completed!
A big THANK YOU to the 50 volunteers, 20 senior experts and 200 participants from five continents who made it possible!
Check out the resulting publication!
Watch the conversations from our launch event, including with Delphine O (French Ambassador and Secretary-General of the Generation Equality Forum), Hannah Neumann (Member of the European Parliament) and more!
What should a feminist foreign policy look like in the 2020s?
Now is a pivotal moment for mapping the future development of a feminist foreign policy agenda. 2020 is an extraordinary year for international commitments on gender equality: it marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, the 20th anniversary of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and the 5thanniversary of Sustainable Development Goal Nr. 5 (Gender Equality).
As the global system reels in the context of environmental catastrophes, staggering levels of inequality, conflict, and confrontational political leadership, the need for a transformative and more inclusive foreign policy seems evident.
Women and traditionally marginalized groups - such as LGBTQI people - have been historically underrepresented in government, policy-making and, subsequently, in foreign policy. This has led to foreign policies that traditionally neglect the interests of these groups and have, in consequence, sometimes increased (pre-existing) gender inequalities. Thus, by centering the needs and agency of traditionally marginalized groups and by analysing international affairs through a bottom-up perspective that acknowledges the intersectional nature of inequality (age, gender, class, ethnicity, etc.), a feminist foreign policy (FFP) could provide an alternative to power politics and the behaviour of domination prevalent in today’s global climate.
While UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was an acclaimed milestone for considering gender in global security politics, FFP does not need to be limited to gender equality in the security realm, but can embed gender equality as a cross-cutting imperative in all areas of foreign policy (e.g. trade, development, environment, etc.). This way, FFP promises to promote greater policy coherence with regard to gender equality across different sectors and government units.
But how could the formulation and implementation of such a feminist foreign policy look like in practice in the 2020s?
Submit your proposals on Policy Kitchen or at any of the online workshops below!
Curious to take a deep dive in Feminist Foreign Policy? Take a look at existing literature and current debates, read our background reader and get inspired for our challenge.
The process
Using the collaborative online platform Policy Kitchen, as well as a series of online workshops, the Open Think Tank Network - Agora (UK), Argo (FR), foraus (CH), Polis180(DE) and Ponto (AT) - invites the public to address this question in an accessible, engaging and interactive process. We seek to bring together different perspectives, so join us and envision a future for feminist foreign policy!
We will collect your policy proposals until May 15, 2020. The project team will then cluster and evaluate these proposals as a basis for a joint publication to inform and inspire policy makers. You retain the ownership of your idea and will be credited in the publication. The publication will be reviewed by an expert advisory board.
We generate impact for your ideas by organizing events with policy makers and other stakeholders in different countries, as well as using the communication channels and networks of all partners in this challenge. Use this opportunity to get your voice heard!
In addition, you can develop your idea into a separate blog or policy paper to be published through any of the partnering think tanks. We welcome your engagement in any capacity.
Workshops
Due to the current circumstances because of Covid, all interactive ideation workshops will be held via Zoom. The workshops are open to everyone, regardless of experience or background. If not indicated otherwise, they will be held in English.
Date | Organizer | Experts | Registration |
April 20 18h30-20h30 CET |
Polis180 in German |
• Ines Kappert (Head Gunda-Werner Institute) • Dr. Joy Asongazoh Alemazung, BMZ (UN Women Germany #HeforShe-Ambassador/Senior Analyst Global Governance Institute Brussels) • Sarah Louis Montgomery, gender cc – women for climate justice. |
Fully booked |
April 21 16h00-18h00 CET |
Ponto | • Christina Stummer (Gender Expert for the Austrian Development Agency) | here |
April 22 18h00-20h30 CET |
foraus Geneva |
• Caitlin Kraft-Buchman (CEO women @ the table) • Gabriella Irsten (Policy & Advocacy Officer, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom) |
here |
April 27 19h30-22h00 |
Argo in French |
• Delphine O (Ambassador and Secretary General of the UN World Conference on Women) • Guillaume Gouffier Cha (Member of French Parliament) • Representative of European Council on Foreign Relations (tbc) |
Zoom registration |
April 28 18h00-20h30 CET |
foraus St. Gallen | • Anoush der Boghossian ((first) Gender Focal Point, World Trade Organization) | here |
April 29 18h00-20h30 CET |
foraus Zurich |
• Daliborka Janković (Human Rights Officer, Swiss Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs) • Cecilia Pellosniemi (Women, Peace & Security Specialist at UN Women) |
Fully booked |
May 7 18h00-20h00 London time |
Agora | • Marissa Conway (Co-Founder and UK Director, Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy) |
|
Advisory Board
- Saskia Stachowitsch (Scientific Director, Austrian Institute of International Affairs and Professor of International Politics at the University of Vienna)
- Nina Bernarding (Director, Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy)
- Ben Donaldson (Head of Campaigns, United Nations Association-UK)
- Mathilde Ciulla (Programme Coordinator, Paris Office of the European Council on Foreign Relations)
- Patricia Schulz (Former Board Member and presently Senior Research Associate at UNRISD, former Director of the Federal Office for Gender Equality at Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA), former member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW))
- Preet Kaur Gill MP (UK Shadow Secretary of State for International Development)
- Dr. Joy Asongazoh Alemazung, BMZ (UN Women Germany #HeforShe-Ambassador/Senior Analyst Global Governance Institute Brussels)
- Dr Jamie Hagen, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Queen’s University Belfast, Co-Director of the Centre for Gender in Politics and Visiting Fellow at London School of Economics
Project team
Agora (UK)
- Pascal Roelcke (London)
- Holly Harwood (London)
- Anna-Lina Müller (Oxford)
- Noah Sutter (Oxford)
- Vinya Mehta (London)
- Maëlys Bablon (London)
- Rebecca Wilson (London)
- Yvonne Reinhardt (London)
- Kristin Thue (London)
- Barbara Wachter (London)
Argo (FR)
- Paymon Azmoudeh (Paris)
- Katie Humphries (Paris)
- Pierre Ollier (Paris)
foraus (CH)
- Jonas Nakonz(Policy Kitchen)
- Niniane Paeffgen (Zurich)
- Amber Zenklusen (Policy Kitchen)
- Sophie von Wartburg (Zurich)
- Cécile Schluep (Zurich)
- Jana Muthurasa (Zurich)
- Anja Portmann (Geneva)
- Julia Gubler (Geneva)
- Lara Twerenbold (Geneva)
- Timon Lüthi (St Gallen)
- Wailea Zülch (Zürich)
- Eduardo Belinchon (Geneva)
- Pauline Seppey (Geneva)
Polis180 (DE)
- Lisa Müller-Dormann (Berlin)
- Sonja Schiffers
- Emilie Rosier
- Esther Luigi
- Kathrin Meyer
- Maxi Linde
- Alina Zermühlen
- Robert Fischer
Ponto (AT)
- Ninja Bumann (Vienna)
- Mariam Lalaian (Vienna)
- Mechthild Geyer (Vienna)
- Hanna Grininger (Vienna)
- Marylia Hushcha (Vienna)
- Ronya Alev (Vienna)