November 27th, 2025 

On November 27th, partners and network members from the WomenPower2030 consortium came together for a capacity strengthening session to discuss and share ideas to collectively understand the role of feminist civil society in the EU Global Gateway and the Gender Action Plan (GAP III & IV). The meeting’s objectives were to encourage ongoing peer exchange and collaboration for greater impact, to share practical strategies for navigating new funding requirements, and to strengthen civil society’s knowledge of the Global Gateway Strategy’s and its relevance to advancing gender equality and climate justice.
 

The Global Gateway is an international investment strategy launched by the European Union in 2021 with the aim of supporting global sustainable development by mobilising up to 300 billion in investments for digital, energy, transport, health, and education sectors. As civil society organisations, we have a key role to play in ensuring that the strategy maintains democratic values, good governance, transparency, and inclusivity. We help ensure that the projects invested in are responsive to local sustainable development agendas and the needs of the communities. 

The Gender Action Plan (GAP III & IV) is a policy framework that shapes how gender equality and women’s empowerment are integrated into the EU’s external actions. This includes influencing how Global Gateway projects are carried out by requiring the inclusion of gender equality as a key objective, involving gender perspectives across all sectors, and working together with civil society and women’s organisations as partners to ensure investments reflect realities and lived experiences. 

The language used in frameworks such as the Global Gateway and the Gender Action plan are frequently technical and policy jargon heavy, making it more difficult for local communities, especially those most affected by these projects, to understand and participate. The goal for these ongoing capacity strengthening sessions is to ensure feminist civil society has the tools to engage meaningfully and equitably with these frameworks and to ensure they can contextualize this information to be involved in these decisions and processes at the local level.  

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