Launch Event and Presentation of the Project “Strengthening Feminist Foreign Policy and Feminist International Cooperation through a community of practice between Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Germany and ECLAC”

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have recognized that South-South and triangular cooperation is increasingly essential to face the challenges of sustainable development, without leaving anyone behind. The current international context of cascading crises is characterized by growing and simultaneous challenges that have had an impact on the advancement of compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals and the implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda. Likewise, these cascading crises have impacted progress in gender equality, the guarantee of women’s rights in all their diversity and the exercise of their autonomy, preventing their full participation in all areas of society. Recently, the region has shown significant progress in terms of Feminist Foreign Policy (PEF) through the adoption and implementation of these policies. Thus, there are currently three countries in the region that currently have a Feminist Foreign Policy: Chile, Colombia and Mexico. Mexico stands out as the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to adopt a Feminist Foreign Policy in 2020 that seeks to mainstream the gender perspective and intersectionality in all areas of foreign policy. On the other hand, Chile is the first South American country to adopt a PEF, working on it since 2022 and officially presenting, in June 2023, the Feminist Foreign Policy from the country. Its objective is to establish the principle of equality and non-discrimination as a guiding axis in the work of Chile’s foreign policy. Later in 2024, as part of the commemoration of Women’s Day, the country also launched its first Feminist Foreign Policy Action Plan that will guide the implementation of the instrument. Among other milestones at the regional level, Colombia presented its Feminist Foreign Policy for the first time in March 2024 during the 68th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Legal and Social Status of Women.

The project “Strengthening Feminist Foreign Policy and Feminist International Cooperation”, recently approved by the Regional Fund for Triangular Cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean (BMZ/GIZ), aims to strengthen the capacities of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Agencies of Chile, Colombia and Mexico and Germany, in the design and implementation of Feminist Foreign Policies and International Development Cooperation with a gender perspective.

The transformation proposed by the project constitutes a great opportunity to advance the Regional Gender Agenda and with it in substantive equality between men and women, as well as to guide other countries that decide to initiate this transformation of their foreign policy and international cooperation. in Latin America and the Caribbean and from the Global South. On the other hand, it is important to highlight that the development of this project and its results will contribute to the exchange between countries at the III Ministerial Conference on Feminist Foreign Policies (Mexico, 2024), the Second Meeting of the Regional Conference on South-South Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (Santiago, 2025) and at the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (Mexico, 2025).

The CoPEF project constitutes a special milestone for both ECLAC and GIZ/BMZ and the participating partner countries in terms of cooperation modality, as it is the first triangular cooperation measure on gender equality and feminist cooperation of the Regional Fund for Triangular Cooperation of BMZ/GIZ and the first in which ECLAC participates. For this reason, we encourage your organizations to be part of this transformative process by accompanying us in the launch and presentation of this innovative project.