Last week, the foreign secretary David Lammy announced his intention to place climate action and nature at the heart of Britain’s foreign policy. The week prior he was in Ukraine with President Zelensky, before travelling across the Atlantic to meet with President Biden, and this week he’s attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
It’s heartening to see Lammy prioritising strengthening relationships and rebuilding Britain’s diplomatic networks. His prioritisation of climate action too is much needed. The climate crisis is wreaking havoc in the Global South, with floods, even as I write this, ruining lives in both Bangladesh and Nigeria. There’s no doubt Lammy is taking his brief seriously: but something is missing.
Successful foreign policy means listening to women. Whether it is the war in Ukraine or the conflict in Gaza, it is women who suffer the most; in conflict zones violence against women and girls can go up by as much as 200 per cent. It is women too who are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis, with women and girls 14 times more likely to die in climate-related disasters.
Yet when you look at the foreign secretary’s engagements and listen to his speeches, women are seemingly absent. Now, one must assume this to be an error or oversight as opposed to intentional. After all, Lammy has previously written on why UK foreign policy must prioritise women and girls and has even committed to taking a ‘feminist approach’.
But as he has taken on the role it seems to have slipped down the agenda, with ‘women’s issues’ appearing to sit only with the minister for development, as opposed to being seen as integral to a successful foreign policy. This is despite decades of evidence demonstrating that prioritising gender equality and working in partnership with the women leading their communities is essential to realising goals on climate action, economic growth, and greater peace and security.
While we’ve come a long way since my great-grandmother Emmeline Pankhurst fought for women’s right to vote in the UK, the struggle for true gender equality continues. Around the world we’ve seen devastating losses to women: girls barred from education in Afghanistan, growing sexual violence against women caught up in conflict in Ukraine, and the highest number of femicides in two decades recorded in 2022. Even cultural progress around how we speak about women is under threat as Donald Trump and JD Vance talk about ‘childless cat ladies’ and misogynistic influencers like Andrew Tate promote dangerous rhetoric.
And yet women the world over – those who have contributed the least to conflicts, crises and climate change – are already rolling up their sleeves, leading their communities through crisis, and fighting back. From Malala Yousafzai to Mia Mottley, Greta Thunberg to Rohini Pande, women are uniting in their communities and in high offices to disrupt the status quo. They’re transforming economies, with social justice at the forefront, and leading their communities through conflict and climate crises.
The foreign secretary could make a much stronger effort to amplify these women. Women leaders and gender-focused solutions should be a priority at every summit and a feature of every speech. Aid spending that includes a focus on gender equality nearly halved between 2019 and 2021. After years of Conservative cuts, the new government has got to start prioritising funding programmes which give women the best chance to thrive.
Lammy cannot undo decades of foreign policy decisions overnight, but he can stop further damage being done. With 80 years of working with women behind us, CARE International is clear about what the new Labour government must do to move towards a ‘feminist future.’ It must promote women’s leadership, safeguard gender-focused aid and promote feminist solutions to economic injustice and climate change.
To make fighting for gender equality a core part of its foreign policy, a first step would be ensuring it’s protected under its own aid spend. This could be done with a new target of at least 20% of UK aid tackling gender equality as a primary objective. It’s critical that this Government listens to women and supports their vision, funds their organisations and amplifies their voices through its own development work. In a climate of tough choices, ensuring the aid budget is geared towards tackling inequality – a key driver of national and global instability – couldn’t be a smarter place to start.
Alongside protecting funds for gender equality and women-led organisations, women must be involved in foreign policy at every single stage. It is more than evident that one of the most effective ways to safeguard societies from the growing threats to global progress, is by investing in women’s leadership, creating new power networks, and drawing on decades of activism and innovation that have long championed this cause.
And so, as the foreign secretary embarks on his latest diplomatic mission, I urge him to give gender equality the prioritisation it deserves. If we are to solve humanity’s problems, not exacerbate them, we have to prioritise learning from, working with, and funding women leaders. It cannot be an afterthought – it should be the starting point.
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