Reflection on meeting with the EU Commissioner on the Global Gateway strategy
What is the EU’s Global Gateway strategy for investments in partner countries, and why should feminist civil society organisations be involved.
International partnerships are increasingly becoming transactional, focussing on investments and the private sector. The EU launched an overarching strategy 3 years ago, the Global Gateway, bringing together investment funding from its 27 Member States under one umbrella, and under one set of six principles: high standards on human rights, gender equality and environment (1) transparency (2) equal partnerships (3) green investments (4) security (5) and leverage (6).
With our regional focal point partners FEMNET and WEP, we have joined the governance body for civil society to the EU, the ‘CSO and LA Advisory Platform on Global Gateway’, and represent the larger group of almost 60 organisations in the steering committee. Feminist organisations need to be at the table when investment decisions are being made, keeping a critical eye on the decisions, making sure the Do No Harm principle is fully applied, especially in polluting – and often violent prone – sectors such as mining and minerals. Earlier this year, we joined our network partners from Kazakhstan at the Global Gateway Forum in Brussels (link to article already on our website) and shared some of our key concerns and recommendations.
On 1st of December 2025, we joined the members of the Advisory Platform in Brussels for a dialogue with the Commissioner of the European Commission responsible for International Partnerships and Global Gateway, Mr Jozef Sikela, and our international director Sascha Gabizon presented key messages on behalf of the platform, focussing on 2 areas: A) Roles of civil society and local authorities in the Global Gateway B) Governance of Global Gateway: how to contribute better as (feminist) CSOs, as currently there is hardly any exchange with the other governance bodies of ministers of the EU, and of the large companies of the Business Advisory Board (BAG).
Sascha shared with the Commissioner that Civil Society Organisations are important as monitors and advisors. They engage in policy processes, to create enabling environments, better norms, better laws, better institutions despite civil society space shrinking fast. Through these strategies CSOs and LAs contribute to improving EU’s external cooperation and partnerships, with policy recommendations from our work on the ground.
Many of the advisory platform organisations have been doing analysis of the global gateway, and looked at the flagships in the countries where we work with partners, and we see some really interesting programmes, but also, we see some risks and gaps.
Conventional infrastructure projects are dominant, in connectivity, in renewable energy such as hydrogen, but as climate disruption is increasingly showing, our economies stand or fall with intact ecosystems.
A peer-reviewed study published last month in the prestigious journal ‘Science’, highlighted there are insufficient biodiversity safeguards and environmental screenings across Global Gateway projects. We need a better application of the Do No Significant Harm principle across all Global Gateway investments. And we see a need to deliver grant-based funding for biodiversity and nature-positive investments, so NDICI targets can be met
We are on the ground and work with the local communities, these local communities often have seen a lot of injustice, damage done, but we have also already developed instruments to correct this. We have the inequality marker, we have the gender-marker, how are they being implemented really on the ground, where do the investing companies need more capacity.
Sascha accompanied our local partners from Kazakhstan to the GG Forum in October. For decades they have been working with local communities in the mining areas, they have lead consultations, they have done testing of pollution, they have helped them formulate their needs and policy demands, they work on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the EITI, and achieved a lot of improvements. Still, their key demand to the commissioner, is to make sure transparency is further improved.
The area of Critical Raw Materials is full of terrible examples of abuse and damage, not necessarily only by EU investors, but as a sector, the hundreds of people who died from the Brazilian mining dam collapse, the Sino-metals dam collapse in Zambia this year, polluting a large part of the countries water sources. So there needs to be access to information on what is in the contracts, who to hold accountable when – and before – disaster strikes, how can communities raise the alarm bell. Currently this is quite complicated, each DFI has their own system. The Global Gateway is an opportunity to streamline transparency, we should have a single-window for raising the alarm bell, and for grievances.
Talking to the INPTA colleagues working on Critical Raw Materials (CRM) last week, we shared that we have documented the CRM sector as being particularly prone to Sexual and Gender Based Violence. If we involve local CSOs and gender experts from the beginning of project design, this can be avoided.
We shared that when working in Kenya, companies had made great efforts working with local gender experts on preventing Sexual and Gender Based Violence; they trained staff, increased women in the managerial level, created grievance mechanisms. Each Global Gateway project should do the same. Let it integrate the Gender Action Plan III principles and criteria at every stage.
As part of our ecofeminist capacity building, a training session on the Global Gateway is available for interested network partners, contact wecf@wecf.org.