Gender policy coherence: annual statement 2025

International Policy

Feminist Approach to International Relations

We want to be a global leader in gender equality. This is why in the 2021-22 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government committed to developing a feminist approach to foreign policy.

Our Feminist Approach to International Relations (FAIR) commits us to four policy focus areas: International Development, Climate, Trade and Peace and Security. Across these areas, we collaborate on and implement policies for a fairer, more sustainable world. This includes advancing gender equality and the rights of women, girls and marginalised groups. We want to amplify women’s voices in finding solutions to inequality and insecurity.

We integrate feminist principles across all aspects of our international policy making. We also learn from other countries, which helps us address inequality in Scotland. Many of our domestic policies such as the Baby Box, Wellbeing Economy, Period Poverty and our approaches to the Just Transition have either been shaped through learning from other countries or have been shared internationally as examples of progressive, transformative policies.

Climate

Women are at the frontline and remain disproportionately affected by climate change and nature loss. They are also underrepresented in climate decision making at international conferences. The Scottish Government advocates for women and girls to lead on solutions to the climate crisis at community, national, and international level. Through our partnership with the Women’s Environment Development Organisation (WEDO), we have provided grant funding to support 17 women from Global South countries to travel and negotiate at climate negotiations, including at Conference of the Parties (COPs) and Subsidiary Bodies sessions. We have also supported WEDO’s Gender Just Climate Solutions (GJCS) Scale Fund, which provides small grants to grassroots feminist organisations in the Global South, enabling them to scale their climate solutions and showcase the transformative impact of gender-just approaches.

Trade

We promote our ‘Vision for Trade’ to international stakeholders, highlighting our work on the impacts of trade on women and the barriers they face in accessing the full benefits of international trade.

Peace and Security

We have contributed to the international Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda since 2016, through the Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship. Over 360 women peace-builders from 40 conflict affected countries and regions have come to Scotland for expert training and capacity building, enabling them to play a more active role in peace processes.

International Development

Within our 2021 International Development Review, we outlined our commitment to advancing equality for women and girls, set out in our specific Equality principle:

‘We recognise the enduring and intersectional inequalities that exist and we ensure reducing inequalities is central to how we work. We oppose racism in all its forms and aspire to be anti-racist in our work. We prioritise the rights of women and girls, their advancement and equality.’

The Review also committed to establishing a new equality programme in our partner countries of Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda, with a particular focus on the promotion of equality and empowerment of women and girls. This commitment was in recognition of the disproportionate impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on women and girls, exacerbating pre-existing inequality.

Our feminist approach to international development work is underpinned by two key strands: equalising power and advancing gender equality. Within our work we are implementing a gender-equality-focused programme as well as mainstreaming gender equality across all of our international development portfolio. This aligns with the NACWG’s recent report which recommends that the Scottish Government adopts a twin-track approach to equality, in line with international good practice on gender mainstreaming.

Implementing a gender-equality-focused programme

We launched the £3 million Women and Girls Fund (WGF) in March 2024. Women and girls in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia are driving the design and delivery of this Fund to advance gender equality in their own countries. The lead delivery partner is international research consultancy Ecorys, working in collaboration with local partners Forum for African Women Educationalists. The WGF takes a participatory design approach and has been co-developed by women and girls, and women and girl-led organisations, in the three countries. This work aligns with the Scottish Government’s vision for public participation, ensuring that communities affected by our work are at the heart of the decision-making process. Learning gained from this participatory methodology will inform future programming.

We also support the Police Scotland Peer-to-Peer Partnership with the police services of Malawi and Zambia. This partnership supports the Malawian and Zambian police services to tackle violence against women and children through the delivery of training, improvement of IT systems and awareness-raising activities. This work aims to improve the experience of victims reporting and seeking support in relation to gender-based violence, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 5, 16 and 17. It also aims to increase the reporting and conviction rate for incidents of violence against women and children, and to influence attitude change around gender-based violence and child protection.

Mainstreaming gender equality across our international development and climate justice portfolio

We are mainstreaming gender equality across our international development portfolio, including in our health, inclusive education, renewable energy and peace programmes, and across our climate justice spend. In 2023, we published our Gender Equality Mainstreaming Guidance Note which outlines our commitment to apply the OECD DAC gender equality policy marker to score all Official Development Assistance spending, with the aim to fund more work which is gender sensitive or gender transformative.

All our ongoing Climate Justice Fund programmes include a specific focus on advancing gender equality. Our £24m Climate Just Communities programme and our £5m Non-Economic Loss and Damage programmes have been designed to tackle climate impacts in a gender responsive manner, with interventions helping to address some of the underlying causes of structural inequality.

Finally, we are currently conducting a review of the Scottish Government’s Humanitarian Funding to inform our future response to global humanitarian crises. This includes a review of international best practice with a particular focus on feminist and gendered approaches to humanitarian funding. It also considers how to ensure gender equality and climate justice are mainstreamed throughout our humanitarian spend in practice.

As part of the FAIR policy, we recognise the relationship between addressing inequality and tackling insecurity in pursuit of a fairer world for all. We strive to give people most affected by inequality, injustice, conflict, climate change and environmental damage a platform to speak for themselves, influence others and make decisions. We are developing a proportionate approach to monitoring and evaluation in relation to FAIR. This will help us to continue efforts to mainstream this policy in our international work.