BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s foreign and development ministers unveiled new guidelines for their government’s feminist foreign policy on Wednesday, which …
BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s foreign and development ministers on Wednesday unveiled new guidelines for their government’s feminist foreign policy, which are meant to ensure that all people “have the same right to representation and access to resources.”
The policy will address and support the needs of women and girls in particular to erase discrimination, which they say will lead to greater stability in societies as a whole.
“We are not calling for a revolution here, but we are doing what is self-evident,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock told reporters in Berlin.
“Feminist foreign policy permeates all areas of our foreign policy, from humanitarian aid to stabilization measures, peacekeeping missions, and foreign cultural and educational policies,” Burbock added.
“We want to make society fairer. And you cannot do without half the potential, namely women, but they must be taken into account,” said Minister of Development Svenja Schulze.
Among other issues, the Feminist Development Policy Guidelines stipulate that in the future more than 90% of new project funds should go to global projects that also promote gender equality. In 2021, this indicator was about 64%, reports the German news agency dpa.
Burbock emphasized that the government’s new foreign policy guidelines also include achieving greater gender parity in the country, particularly in Germany’s foreign ministry, where currently only 26% of ambassadors are women.
“We see that we can learn a lot from other countries,” the foreign minister said, adding that about 30 countries around the world have officially committed to a feminist foreign policy “from Chile to Spain to Mongolia.”
Schulze said societies with greater equality struggle less with hunger and poverty and are generally more stable.
“That’s why it’s just a matter of common sense to pay special attention in development policy to ensure that women also have rights, that they have resources and that they are also represented,” Schulze said.
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