G7 Commitments to Gender Equality: Will Leaders Back Words with Action?

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G7 Commitments to Gender Equality: Will Leaders Back Words with Action?
7/12/2022 by Foteini Papagioti and Spogmay Ahmed



World leaders at the G7 Summit in Elmau, Germany, June 2022. (Wikimedia Commons)

Last month, G7 leaders met in Elmau, Germany to discuss solutions to global challenges and reaffirm their commitment to universal human rights and multilateralism. The summit focused on climate change and the environment, energy solutions, pandemic preparedness and response, food security, foreign and security policy, and a just transition, as outlined in the outcome document, or communique. But while the communique also included important language and some policy adherence on gender equality, there were few tangible and financial commitments — making calls for benchmarks and standards of accountability ever more important in subsequent years.

The communique does outline the gendered impact of the multiple intersecting environmental, economic, social and health crises the world faces today, and the rising tide of authoritarianism that drives the backlash against the rights of women and LGBTQ+ persons and emboldens discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression. It also includes welcome commitments to enhance gender equality and diversity in the energy sector; adopt inclusive and supportive economic and fiscal policy frameworks; achieve comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all; and place gender equality at the core of multilateral contributions to global health, including through contributions to funds like the Global Financing Facility for Women, Girls and Adolescents (GFF) and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). It commits to promoting women and girls, LGBTQ+ persons, and other marginalized groups as critical agents in conflict prevention and resolution, relief and recovery, and long-term peacebuilding.

Notably, G7 leaders commited to strengthening the rights, resources and opportunities for women and girls in all their diversity “in the spirit of feminist development, foreign and trade policies.” We applaud this acknowledgement of feminist foreign policy as a guiding framework for prioritizing peace, gender equality, and environmental integrity, to which three G7 members — Canada, France and Germany — have committed to date, and hope to see this language maintained and expanded in future communiques.

Financial commitments include a collective increase of the share of the G7’s bilateral allocable aid advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls over the coming years. While charting a positive pathway forward, this commitment is less ambitious than advocates’ calls for countries to dedicate 100 percent of their aid to address gender and at least 20 percent to support programs with gender equality as a principal objective. Canada is the only G7 member to have met the 20 percent benchmark.

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https://msmagazine.com/2022/07/12/g7-summit-germany-2022-commitments-gender-equality/