GENDER

Feminist Cooperation: AECID’s Commitment to Gender Equality 

The 2030 Agenda places gender equality at the heart of sustainable development, recognizing it simultaneously as a fundamental human right and as an indispensable condition for building peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable societies. This approach is based on a clear premise: without real equality between women and men, it is not possible to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a whole or to promote transformative foreign policy.

In this vision, Spanish Cooperation considers gender equality as a strategic pillar of its development policy. Law 1/2023 on Cooperation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity defines it as an essential, transversal cross-cutting, and distinctive element of Spanish cooperation. Its objective is to reduce structural inequalities, close gender gaps, eradicate all forms of violence and discrimination, and promote the empowerment of women, girls, and adolescents, with particular attention to protection of sexual and reproductive rights from a human rights and universal public health perspective.

Consistent with this framework, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation’s Feminist Cooperation Strategy establishes gender equality as a defining feature and guiding principle of Spain’s development and external action.This strategy promotes a transformative feminist approach that addresses structural gender inequalities through an intersectional lens. Its ultimate goal is to transform power structures and advance a fairer, more inclusive, and sustainable distribution of opportunities, resources, and capacities.

This vision reflectec in a dual approach: gender equality is both a priority sector for intervention and a cross-cutting principle integrated across all policies, financial instruments, programmes and actions of Spanish Cooperation. Specific initiatives are therefore combined with the systematic mainstreaming of a feminist perspective in areas such as humanitarian action, peacebuilding, poverty reduction, climate justice, and economic and labour rights.

A Clear Diagnosis: Why Feminist Cooperation Is Needed

The global context highlights the urgency of this approach, according to UN Women’s report. Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2024, violence against women and girls remains a major human rights emergency: one in eight women aged 15 to 49 has experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner. In countries without specific legislation against domestic violence, prevalence rates are significantly higher.

These forms of violence are compounded by persistent harmful practices, such as child marriage, which still affects nearly one in five young women and, at the current pace, will not be eradicated until well into the twenty-second century. Female genital mutilation, has already affected more than 200 million girls and women worldwide.

Economic and care inequalities further reinforce this cycle of discrimination. Women spend approximately 2.5 times more time than men on unpaid domestic and care work, limiting their access to decent employment, social protection, and decision-making spaces. In more than half of all countries, legal restrictions still prevent women from accessing certain occupations.

Political and economic underrepresentation also remains a structural challenge. Women currently hold around 27% of parliamentary seats and senior management positions worldwide,.If current trends continue, gender parity in national parliaments will not be achieved before 2063.

This situation is further aggravated by setbacks in women’s rights and by the impact of climate and humanitarian crises, which disproportionately affect rural women and women living in poverty, increasing the risks of violence, displacement, and loss of livelihoods.

AECID’s Response

In response to these challenges, AECID works in close partnership and with partner countries, through its Cooperation Offices abroad and through alliances with international organizations, feminist organizations, civil society actors, and public and private institutions.

Within this framework, AECID initiatives aimed at:

• Ensuring the full and effective participation of women, girls, and adolescents in political, economic, social, and cultural life, and the protection of their rights.
• Expanding access to basic social services, justice, and social protection mechanisms through a gender-responsive and human rights-based approaches.
• Combating poverty, gender-based violence, trafficking in women and girls, and other harmful practices, as well as promoting women’s participation in conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and peacekeeping.

This efforts are complemented by the systematic integration of a feminist perspective throughout the entire cooperation cycle—from diagnosis and planning to implementation and evaluation—and across all strategic sectors, including humanitarian action, peace and security, ecological transition, digital transformation, the care economy, and decent work.

Progress, Challenges, and Commitment to SDG 5

Despite significant progress, structural gaps in areas such as violence, poverty, political participation and care responsibilities continue to hinder the achievement of SDG 5 and the broader 2030 Agenda. In response, Spanish Cooperation and AECID have adopted a feminist cooperation approach based on four pillars: rights, representation, resources, and alliances, with the aim of transforming power structures advancing more equal, just, and sustainable societies.

At the same time, international commitments delivering tangible results: child marriage and female genital mutilation are declining, more girls are attending school, and of women´s participation in political life is higher than ever before, although still insufficient. These advances demonstrate that feminist cooperation and the promotion of gender equality remain among the most effective pathways for accelerating sustainable development worldwide.