Feminist aid: a call for G7 leaders to beat inequality

Publication date: 8 May 2019
Author: Diana Sarosi, Sandra Lhote Fernandes

In an increasingly unequal world, advancing gender equality is fundamental to tackling inequality and poverty. The G7 has made important gender equality commitments and all G7 countries have gender equality integrated in their aid strategies. But efforts continue to fall short as they too often neglect to address the underlying structural and systemic barriers that keep women poor and undermine their fundamental rights and freedoms.

Feminist aid has the potential to challenge us to rethink how aid is delivered and to truly transform systems of unequal power. This paper explains the key components of a feminist aid approach. It outlines the rationale for prioritizing gender justice in aid and analyses current trends in G7 donor spending on gender equality.  It explains the need for gender-transformative, inequality-busting aid to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.