Gender equality and empowering women and girls

Gender equality is one of the European Union’s core values. All people, in all their diversity, should be free to live their chosen life, thrive socially and economically, participate and take a lead as equals.

Women and girls, in all their diversity, are key agents of development and change. Achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls is vital to building fair, inclusive, prosperous and peaceful societies everywhere.

EU Gender Action Plan III

Further to the EU gender equality strategy 2020-2025, the Gender Action Plan III 2021-2025 sets out the EU’s political and operational roadmap towards a gender-equal world. The EU extended the duration of the GAP III until the end of 2027, in alignment with the multiannual financial framework.

The EU aims at tackling the structural causes of gender inequality by taking a transformative and rights-based approach, and addressing the intersectionality of gender with other forms of discrimination.

The Gender Action Plan III focuses on 5 pillars

• making gender equality and women and girls’ empowerment a cross-cutting priority of EU external action. By 2025, 85% of new EU actions should contribute to achieving this objective, with more actions including it as a main objective
• working together with EU Member States as Team Europe at multilateral, regional and country level, and fostering partnership with stakeholders, CSO, women’s organisations
• accelerating progress by focusing on key areas of engagement
  • ending gender-based violence
  • sexual and reproductive health and rights
  • economic and social rights and empowerment
  • equal participation and leadership
  • women, peace and security
  • green and digital transformations
• leading by example, by striving for a gender-responsive and balanced leadership, more capacity and expertise, and a reinforced network of gender focal points
• putting the focus on results, accountability and transparency through qualitative, quantitative and inclusive monitoring

The Gender Action Plan is the EU's ambitious strategy contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a particular focus on SDG 5. It seeks to accelerate progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment, positioning these as central priorities across all EU external policies and actions, including within the Global Gateway strategy.

Implementation

The 'Joint mid-term report on the implementation of the EU Gender Action Plan (GAP III)' issued by the European Commission and the European External Action Service in November 2023 indicates that the European Union considerably increased funding for building a more gender-equal world during the first years of implementation. 

The percentage of new external actions with gender equality as a principal or significant objective went from 64.71% in 2019, before the adoption of the GAP III, to 72% in 2022, a clear progress towards the target of 85% by 2025. EU funding with gender equality and women's empowerment as policy objectives has increased from around €9 billion in 2021 to €13 billion in 2022. The Global Gateway strategy, published in December 2021, will further boost gender equality by integrating the GAP III objectives.

In 2022, gender equality was on the agenda of political, security and/or human rights dialogues between the EU and around 100 partner countries. With 33 countries, the dialogues focused exclusively on gender equality. In addition, EU Delegations have set up 131 country-level implementation plans adapting the Gender Action Plan to local context, enhancing the Team Europe approach of the EU and its Member States.

At global level, the EU and its Member States have partnered with and driven resolutions at the United Nations to combat violence against women, contribute to the Commission on the Status of Women, increase political and civic participation of women and girls, boost support to women rights' organisations and promote gender perspectives in climate and digital decision-making. Against the backdrop of alarming security and conflict shifts and geopolitical power competitions, the implementation of Women, Peace and Security agenda and the commitment to mainstream gender perspective in responding effectively to these security threats is ever more important.

The EU will continue to enhance gender mainstreaming, increasing gender-targeted actions and funding, and ensuring a gender-responsible review process of all Global Gateway and Team Europe initiatives. Gender analysis and data collection are vital for targeted policies and result monitoring. The EU will also continue to step up efforts to ensure that EU-funded humanitarian aid adequately addresses the needs of women, girls, men, and boys.

Background: GAP I and II

In 2010 the EU adopted its first Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Development (2010-2015). It aimed to ensure a stronger leading role of the EU in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment in development, as well as ensuring adequate human and financial resources. By 2015, almost half of EU Official Development Assistance was contributing to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

By November 2015 the Gender Action Plan II, ‘Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Transforming the Lives of Girls and Women through EU External Relations 2016-2020’ (GAP II) was adopted. It committed the EU to further strengthen the work to make gender equality a palpable reality for women and girls around the world. The thematic areas of action were: ensuring girls and women's physical and psychological integrity; promoting the social and economic rights / empowerment of women and girls; and strengthening girls and women's voice and participation.

Examples of actions and initiatives

Gender Action Plan stories of change | Capacity4dev (europa.eu)

Global Gateway Forum: EU boosts employment in Tajikistan with €30 million in budget support (europa.eu)

EU and UN Women to boost women's rights coalitions on ending violence against women (europa.eu)

Summit for Democracy: EU launches milestone programmes to empower youth as key actors of democracy (europa.eu)

EU and Latin America and the Caribbean (europa.eu)

Investing in Young Businesses in Africa (europa.eu)

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Africa (europa.eu)

Gender for Development in Uganda