European Commission · Governance, Democracy, Gender Equality, Human Rights · INTPA
- “Thank you very much. And thank you for all these questions. I'll take them in order. Um, you mentioned the parliamentary cooperation. Uh, it made me think also that we are currently also jointly working with UN women and others, uh, on a program which is called Wide Women and Youth Democratic Engagement Initiative, which has different strands of work, but two are relevant for the Parliament. First of all, we have with international idea this work on peer to peer parliamentary exchanges, um, related in particular also to reinforcing women caucuses or gender budgeting in parliaments. Uh, and this is happening now. We are also very much in contact with, with your colleagues, um, and with the Dag on this, if you are interested to follow up, I would be glad. And the second, uh, we have also a strand of this program which is called Women Leadership, which really focuses on addressing the obstacles for women to join politics and to engage in the civic sphere is also very much linked to the agenda. Um, and, uh, for instance, we do look into the barriers online. I mean, a lot of women in politics actually step out of politics or don't get into that point because of harassment online. So that's something we are really working on. Um, right now. Um, on on your reflection, thanks so much. Um, we have quantitative data. Uh, of course, uh, as, uh, in terms of our gender marker, I think that's really, really important. And it proved useful for us to be able to track what we do, uh, in terms of promoting gender equality and women empowerment overall, uh, across across all our actions in the, in the in Global Europe instrument.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU development policy (gender conditionality)
- “So despite being hardly hit by conflicts, women remain largely excluded from peace processes. And over the past five years, only 7% of negotiators and 14% of mediators were women. So we see a disproportion there. Lastly, lack of accountability and justice does impede lasting peace and reconciliation and deprive women and communities at large of their dignity. So against this background, let me just make three three points and give you some perspectives for the discussion forward. The first point, um, the women, peace and security agenda cannot be addressed in a silo. It must be integrated, uh, and and not be an add on across various policy strands and operational work to achieve lasting results. So, for instance, to better achieve objectives, we have integrated the WTS agenda as a priority within the broader EU gender Equality plan. Um, the gap three and this ensured that the women, peace and security objectives objectives are embedded into this broader implementation framework, including to the country level implementation plans which are produced and acted upon by all our EU delegations on the ground. Uh, also, most EU delegations carry on a dialogues both on gender equality, women empowerment and women peace and security agenda. 80% of them with civil society and governments. Um at country level, uh, more broadly, women, peace and security also require integration into um, the durable development efforts.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU development policy (gender conditionality)
- “Un women mentioned it is important that we start with evidence based understanding of, um, what we need to do and where where we are acting. And I also draw on the experience of our member states like Sweden and their commitment to join gender sensitive analysis. Uh, there, um, a crucial challenge, of course, is to advance on women, peace and security and gender equality in countries that are not only highly fragile, but they are also politically constrained, such in Sahel, Afghanistan or Myanmar. But we have seen that, um, it is it remains important to be engaged with and for the population and women's rights organizations and what they can do on the ground there, uh, is, is very crucial. And we are supporting also together with, with the UN in this context. However, that do not harm principle must be really front and center. Uh, of of our approach. Uh, and you mentioned protection, indeed, the protection of, uh, the organizations, the women human rights defenders is key, the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse. And this also entails engaging men and boys more broadly. Um, so protection is important is not enough. However, uh, EU funded programs such as in the Central African Republic and Sudan operationalized the WPA agenda by also enhancing women's participation in peace processes, governance, transitions and, as I mentioned, accountability processes, including the documentation of violations in view of international jurisdiction cases in DRC.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU policy on Sahel and Sudan
- “Thank you. Um, as the chair mentioned in his introduction, the European Union does have a strong policy framework on women, peace and security, and we are committed to the implementation of all pillars of the women peace and security resolutions and to advance gender equality and women's rights. It is important to note that this has been very recently also reconfirmed. The European Commission put forward in March the roadmap on Women's Rights, and this roadmap has been endorsed last 16th October by the European Parliament. So I think we are well placed to play a key role in the implementation of this agenda. Um, the 25th anniversary of the women, Peace and Security. 1325 resolution is indeed an important opportunity to to to mark the occasion, to celebrate the progress and progress has been done. However, as our colleague from UN women was recalling, we can't deny that the promises of the agenda remain unfulfilled for millions of women and girls who are caught in conflict and and crisis today. Nowhere, I believe, is more evident today than in Sudan and Gaza, where the human cost of war is staggering and disproportionately borne by women. In Sudan, women face rampant conflict related sexual violence, rape, trafficking, forced marriages and these atrocities are not incidental. They are becoming they have become strategic tools of terror used to humiliate and destabilise entire communities. Um, so these are really the most vivid illustration of a broader issue which relates actually to to to broader and entrenched discriminatory norms and inequalities.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU policy on Sahel and Sudan
- “We will hear it in a moment, but the EU delegation is co-leading the DRC Gender Coordination Group, together with the UK and looking to support the implementation of the National Action Plan on. And we support, as you might have seen on the ground, different programmes, including two programmes on dedicated to sexual and gender based violence in DRC. Also, we have been supporting the Global Survivor Fund, which provides reparation from medical to psychological and economic compensation and support to survivors of conflict related Ated sexual violence. So indeed, the bottom line and it's women organizations are a central actor. They are underfunded at the EU level. We are playing our part. We are scaling up flexible, long term funding for women's rights organization. And we have been tripling the support in the last couple of years. Um, we are starting also to track funding to women's rights groups in fragile contexts to make it more visible. Uh, last point, because we are eight minutes. I'm sorry, can I. It's okay to be efficient. We must step up coordination for impact here. I just wanted to bring two examples. Simple ones, but important ones. In 2024, the EU and the UN conducted the first ever joint gender responsive conflict analysis. And this has really led to better coordination, common strategies and actions on the ground.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU-Congo (DRC) relations · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid
- “So we have data on that. Uh, and the aggregated data show that for 21, 20, 23, 78.4% of all external actions, um, Under this are gender responsive or targeted. And as you might know, we have a target to reach 85% by 2025. I think we are in a good way of, of of getting there. Uh, very shortly we will come up with our annual report with the 2024 data. I can already anticipate that the figure has gone up. Uh, so for now, that's all good, but we need to keep, uh, we really need to keep this pace. Also, um, 5% of the 85% should be action, which have gender equality as a principle objective. And there we are not yet, uh, in target. Between 21 and 24, we are at 3.8% of targeted actions on gender, meaning a program on gender based violence, program on gender economic empowerment. Um, but indeed, we take this, this three pronged approach that everything we do must, in the end, contribute positively to gender equality, women empowerment. So you mentioned global gateway. For us. This is crucial because every intervention we make takes a digital program will have to include at least a subcomponent, an objective, an indicator which delivers positively for gender equality and women empowerment, be it in terms of digital bridging, the digital gender gap and teaching girls into the and bringing girls into the Stem sector, uh, or other.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU development policy (gender conditionality)
- “Um, I was in New York only in September, where we reiterated, uh, the the big, uh, support to the African Union agenda, gender agenda 2063 and the Maputo Protocol. And we are supporting with a new, uh, kind of spotlight .2.0 program, really, the actions focusing on girls marriages and FGM, uh, for the uh, for sub-Saharan Africa. And we are also initiating, um, and or continuing programs under the spotlight strand in countries that, as you say, have the law but don't have the means or full capacity to implement the law. So that's really going on in Sierra Leone, Uganda and other countries. Um. The last question was about, uh, the women's rights organization at grassroots grassroots level, and we should do more. I agree. Um, um, as I said, we tripled, uh, for the moment, our funds, uh, we were at, uh, 56,000,000 in 2021, 2022, we we reached 161 million 2324. But I think more than figure is really about ensuring the that we support, uh, these organizations in the right in the right way. Um, avoiding that uh, we have too many intermediaries. Intermediaries and overhead. And in the current crisis, um, of funds. Uh, what I see is that we are in talk also with our partners to understand to how we can increase, for instance, core funding or increase the percentage of direct sub granting that intermediaries can, uh, can then utilize to fund very grassroots NGOs.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU development policy (gender conditionality)
- “So that's the way we go. And I think it's quite effective. And we are aiming at keeping that. Um, I take now your question on the, on the new MFF um, in the new MFF, uh, the Global Europe instrument proposal, uh, keeps, uh, a strong focus in the, uh, in the general provisions that what we do need to integrate gender equality, women empowerment. There is a recital which refers to the gender action plans, uh, saying that, uh, that, uh, we will have to follow, uh, the policy objectives and targets enshrined in the gender action plans. So, um, we will come with the gender action plan, uh, in 2027. So that is an opportunity to, uh, to keep the pace. But indeed, um, there is no targeted such, um, on, uh, on the data on women, peace and security. The reason why we don't have a quantitative figure right now is because in terms of measuring, we normally use this, uh, kind of, uh, indicators, and there is none on. So we are now finding another methodology to be able to extrapolate the data. And that's the object of this mapping that we are doing uh, right now. Um, yeah. To speed up. So, uh, on on forced and child marriage and FGM. Thank you for the question. This is really a central issue. How do we go about it? Well, we have a well-established partnership, for instance, with the African Union and the United Nations.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU development policy (gender conditionality)
- “And this is the condition to achieve lasting peace. Um, gender equality is linked to fragility. Recent data showed that while half of the Oda to fragile context targets gender equality, no fragile context country is yet on track to achieve the SDG five objective. Conversely, we do build our approach on the OECD recommendation on the nexus humanitarian development peace nexus. This was also mentioned which recognises gender equality as a driver of resilience and really important for sustainable peace. So in the integrated approach I mentioned, of course, we need to really look across the silos of the humanitarian development, peace actions and actors. And we see some progress there. A couple of examples in Somalia, for instance, where they use Somalia, know how program links early warning systems with women led peace networks in Sahel, where the EU supported dialogues in Chad connecting women's organizations with local peace and security structures. So we see how women leadership can bridge between humanitarian response, development and peace building. My second point is that women, peace and security require responses that are that are people centered, that are conflict sensitive, and they are locally owned. Uh, and we will, I think, hear about it in a minute from our, um, guest from the DRC. So this really starts by reinforcing risk informed and gender sensitive analysis.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU development policy (gender conditionality)
- “Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. On behalf of the European Commission, the previous speaker said it, despite we are 35 years to the convention on the rights of the child, and despite we had a good progress, we have seen in recent years stagnation and worrying drawbacks, and the current figures remain staggering. Some 1 billion children, 1 billion worldwide, still have limited access to education, to health, to nutrition and basic needs like food and water. So, of course, as our colleagues mentioned, this has lost lifelong consequences on on children. And we really risk losing generations. Relations are also under the background, on the background of increasing conflicts and child induced displacement and other crises. So indeed, as Alice mentioned, the EU strategy on the rights of the child alongside the action plan, human rights and democracy is really our compass to to commit politically, but also very much to take action operationally in many of the areas of the convention, from child protection to child participation. And we walked the talk, I must say, so far I looked into 2024 data. So we have more than 80 projects specifically targeting children that have been ongoing or signed in 2024 for a volume of €134 million. And as you mentioned, as well, even more important is ensuring child mainstreaming. So we really ensure that child rights are embedded in the design and implementation of other policies and programs. So let me quote a few. First point education. Very important. Central for that. As you may know, the previous European Commission and as committed and Commissioner Kelly reaffirmed commitment to keep for this MFF at least some 13% of all of our NDC budget to be devoted to education, and this includes half of bilateral education in fragile countries and 92% of financed education grants includes gender targeted actions really looking at girls, but also the most vulnerable in a broad sense.”
Child poverty policy · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU development policy (gender conditionality)
- “We have 7700 primary schools across 13 counties in Kenya connected thanks to this. And we look at more suitable solutions so that this connectivity is not expensive and virtually not at zero cost. So that and this is applying to 300 schools already. So that what we do really is takes a systemic approach and a systemic approach we need to take. And I'm out of my time if I have 30s because we need to go to second generation. So we look at the entrenched barriers that actually impair progress on rights of the child. And a key barrier is violence. You mentioned, I'm happy to say that we are working very well and hand in hand, both with civil society and with Unicef. We have the Joint Programme on Combating Child Marriages and FGM, which which has just renewed. But indeed we need to work on the triangulation. Education, sexual education and health and violence because the three are intertwined together. And lastly, poverty of course. Is the underneath and the main driver of that that really perpetuates this vicious circle for for children. And we think that accessible compulsory education coupled with social welfare programmes and we have developed social protection programmes, reaching to children in need, are a good combination also to to to lessen the issue of child labour on child labour. I am happy to say more, but of course we work also very much with Ellis and he spoke about it. Thanks. Merci.”
EU policy on labour exploitation in global supply chains · Child poverty policy · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid
- “Second child health. Also here we have a policy framework. Recently we adopted a global health agenda, a global health strategy. And if you look at it, the first priority is to have a people, people centred approach, meaning that we need to look at the wellbeing of everyone across the life cycle with an accent on, on on children and youth. So how do we deliver deliver on that? Also in the new global gateway agenda? I think we have an opportunity there because two of the five sectors of the global gateway agenda are precisely education and health. So this is a great potential for expanding the right of the child, looking at leveraging inclusive education, health, child vaccination, which was rightly mentioned, or the creation of a decent jobs for youth. In order to do this right, we really aim at mainstreaming equality and the human rights based approach in what we do in our interventions. I take one example because I'm running out of time, Kenya, where we work on digitalisation. There is not just about constructing the digital infrastructure, but also really making sure that we have the last mile connectivity for underserved areas in more remote areas and that they connect to school schools connectivity.”
EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · Global priorities for international development
- “He spoke a little bit too long earlier, but I'll let you speak now. It has been quite exhaustive. I was just thinking what is left an answer, but I would just actually complement on unnecessary char, you know, because we also asked about the gaps and the remaining gaps and are we making progress, etc.. I mean, progress is not linear from, from what I've seen because when Covid before Covid hit, like in 2019, I think we were all very, very hopeful that actually we would have eradicated FGM and and early child marriage because the data were very, very encouraging. I mean, the cases were really going going very much down. But then Covid hit. And what we have seen again is this incredible correlation, right, with between families who find themselves in extreme poverty or in dire situations, in conflict that are displaced for climate or other reasons, but also families who do not have education and education are more prone to think that it will. It will be good for their daughters, their 11 year old daughter or ten year old daughter, and so on to be to be sold and get married so that they can have a life, and then the family can can have something at the end of the month. And that's um, that's something that we have. I think the duty collectively as international community and as EU to reverse, contribute to reverse, and is not about pushing other countries or other regions of the world because African countries are signatory to the UN convention on the on on Human Rights as a signatory to the Universal Declaration. And I make you an example of the spotlight initiative on ending violence against women and girls. I mean, we cooperate with the African Union very closely because it is about implementing their agenda, the African Union agenda on gender equality, the Maputo Protocol.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU development policy (gender conditionality)
- “So it's really about supporting them to, to, to, to, to to implement their own agenda when it also matches international standards. We are we uphold on effectiveness and impact. I just also wanted to mention it gives me the opportunity because my speech was even longer to to end by saying that we are going to publish early next year, an updated version of the EU Unicef Child Rights Toolkit, integrating child rights and development cooperation. So that contributes to to really the coherence and effectiveness of our interventions and also to the efforts really to build capacity also internally in our delegations and contributes to the efforts to mainstream systematically child rights into programming. It's about minimizing harm and maximizing benefits. And then, of course, we all have a the usual accountability reports, including our annual report on effectiveness of external external funding. But that comes on top last on the gap. I think in all fairness, we did quite a lot, but there might be still a lot to be done on child participation. And we recently adopted the Youth Action Plan in external action. I think this is really forthcoming in terms of improving youth participation and meaningful engagement. We are going to have a youth sounding boards and to engage meaningfully in a dialogue with young people in the majority of our delegations. But I think we still remain to learn on how to engage youth in the broad sense, including minor of of 18 years old. So I think there is some more to do on child participation. Thanks.”
Child poverty policy · EU engagement with youth · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid
- “For that we we put funding specifically to women's rights organizations, human rights movement, because they really play a pivotal role at the grassroot level, on the ground to support to support survivors from Chad to Colombia, from Ethiopia to Sudan, we have targeted programs to prevent and combat sexual and gender based violence. Let me mention the Global Initiative Against Impunity, which takes really a survivor centered, gender responsive approach in 27 countries. And I mentioned that for an example of Sudan, where they're working to create a platform to rebuild monitoring and documentation capacity of local women groups to really enable them to to monitor and enhance their skill. Also for comprehensive security, to document cases and collect information focusing on women's rights violations. Let me also mention as a second example, the Global Survivors Fund, Um, uh, very much also anchored in DRC and many other countries. But in DRC in particular, their approach is interesting is the approach of the Mukwege, which looks both at individual but also at collective remedial measures. So once again, it's about making sure that the survivor can rebuild their lives also in economic terms, in, in, in, in, in all senses but very much that they can reintegrate in their communities and that they are recognised by, by the communities through also local traditional reconciliation mechanisms. So we think this is quite innovative. Um, and and with that I thank you.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU development policy (gender conditionality)
- “And this is because underreporting is a key feature here, and the reporting of sexual violence is a challenge as it is due to stigma. As the ambassador mentioned, is is due to the lack of data, and it means that some of the victims may never receive any support. And so victims really require a broad range of support from medical but also physical support and access to justice, but also reparation, reparation and their own dignity and also recognition within communities and societies. So this is an issue not just for survivors of violence, but also for the families and the communities at large in these countries. And therefore, we really take an approach which goes from prevention to protection and accountability. The EU internally has put forward an ambitious agenda on victims rights, including access to justice without fear of secondary victimization. Of course, we don't have the same means externally, but we want to ensure coherence and really dialogue with the partner countries to to really achieve similar, um, similar approaches, an approach which is about putting victims at the centre, not justice. The victims of of of of violence, but indeed the agents of change whose contribution can really, uh, play a big role in peace and security. So that's why we talk about survivors also in transitional justice processes. And we work very much indeed through civil society organizations.”
EU competences on human rights · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU policy on victims' compensation rights
- “I will be very complimentary. Of course, the European Commission works hand-in-hand with the External Action Service to to push forward the women, peace and security agenda. And we also integrated the PSA as one of the priorities of our three the Gender Action Plan, which has been extended up to 2027. And this also responds to really the need to take a holistic approach to gender equality and women's rights, including in conflict and crisis. So we must understand gender equality as a driver and a root cause of conflict and fragility and conflict related sexual violence in various forms is unfortunately a cruel reality as we heard of armed conflict. I also wanted to add that it affects very much women and girls, but also men and boys. And there is one striking data from from the Special Representative Pattern report, which was just presented, and it's that there is a 50% increase in reported cases of sexual, gender based violence in the last year or so. Really? Indeed, this puts puts to the test the international credibility to act and really calls on taking a bold international commitments. And there are particularly worrying situation. And I will go maybe directly into what we can do for that, particularly also for Sudan and DRC where sexual conflict related sexual violence is widespread. Just one other figure for DRC. The data is that there were at least 113,000 cases of conflict related sexual violence in DRC, and that also allows me to add that, unfortunately, the numbers are often underestimated.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU policy on Sahel and Sudan
- “Thank to you in English on the weather. We have a specific program to address harmful practices FGM and child marriages. Yes we do, and it's part of the more global program called the Spotlight Initiative on Ending Violence Against Women and girls. It's a long standing partnership with the United Nations. Lately, also, the world Bank decided to come in. But within that €500 million program, we have a dedicated regional program, for instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, really addressing specifically harmful practices, FGM and child marriage. And this is done in cooperation with the joint program by Unicef and UNFPA. And thirdly, the ICC also, I think, of course, we remain a staunch supporter of the work of the International Criminal Court. But politically, of course, but very much also on the financial side, I think the EU is, is doing what, what we can to to make sure that they can continue to operate despite the very challenging environments they find themselves in lately. Thanks.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · Support for International Criminal Court
- “Thank you. Then three brief complimentary points on your question on, um, just first of all, agreeing on on on the need vraiment besoin pour soutenir les organisations. The needs To support feminist organizations that are active on the ground. Um, I just wanted to say that we recently launched a program called Act together with UN women, and allows us to act as an intermediary to fund women's programs that operate at a regional level. And then we have Subgranting, which allows us to really provide support to these organizations. But it is true that as a lot that remains to be done here. So thank you very much also for mentioning the next MFF on that.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU development policy (gender conditionality)
- “And we could see that in Liberia, where now we are acting upon it with important programs. Uh, the second is also about the Team Europe approach. Uh, and for that, um, we have been launching now internally within the commission, a mapping exercise of all our interventions. We do a lot. But, uh, I must say we don't have a full overview. The overview is fragmented because there is no that could I mean, I get technical now. So we are starting this mapping to, to really make sure that we have a good picture of who does what, where uh, avoid duplication, look at gap and then approach our member states so that together we can take a better a better impactful action. Uh, this can be seen already in a number of places. I can mention Chad, for instance, where we jointly with our member states, we really have been coordinating, Um, the mechanism for promoting the agenda. And finally, in order to, to to have this picture, we also asked for the evaluation of the Gender Action Plan three, which is going to be produced, uh, shortly in a couple of weeks. Um, to have a lens on what? On our support to women's rights organization in fragile and crisis settings to really draw some lessons to nourish our future priorities going forward. Thank you. Sorry.”
Gender roles, equality and inclusion · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid · EU development policy (gender conditionality)