This Season, We Urgently Need Your Help

HOPE BEYOND THE HEADLINES — THE FOURTH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON FEMINIST FOREIGN POLICY: RESIST. UNITE. ACT.

A Letter from Lyric Thompson, Founder and CEO of the Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative

What a difference a year makes. Coming out of the French-hosted Fourth Ministerial Conference on Feminist Foreign Policy, a new group of champions is emerging to meet this moment — to “resist, unite and act.”  

This was far from assured. A year ago, the world was in the throes of numerous and consequential elections, with incumbents being ousted and a rightward swing sweeping the globe. As my colleagues and I looked ahead to 2025, we wondered if this might be the beginning of the end of the feminist foreign policy experiment. In our final newsletter of 2024 we pledged to use 2025 as a test case, asking: 

Can feminist foreign policy be an answer to the growing authoritarian and strongman leadership sweeping the globe? Can this new political geometry provide a diplomatic counterweight, a champions-only space for the defense of people, peace and planet?

We are encouraged and more than a little relieved to conclude that the answer is yes. In Paris, more than 31 countries adopted a political declaration pledging to “stand in unity and solidarity as the world faces a growing number of protracted and multidimensional crises, and at a time when international law as well as agreed norms and standards on human rights, including women’s and girls’ rights, are being challenged” while explicitly committing to defend abortion rights, diverse forms of families, and feminist organizations.

And while the political outcome affirmed that this movement is indeed charging ahead, not shrinking from the challenge at hand, I found the content of the Conference, various side events (including three that we hosted to launch new research described in the recaps and press hits below) and the community of feminist activists, government officials and philanthropic leaders who gathered in support of this agenda, to be the most inspiring outcome of all.

Our latest edition of our seminal research series, *Defining Feminist Foreign Policy 2025,* found similar trends emerging. Launched in Paris at an official Conference side event, our most comprehensive paper yet chronicles a staggering amount of progress at national, regional and global levels, with new FFPs being released, codified in various legislative and administrative codes and, importantly, surviving more elections than they have lost. We’re thrilled to be able to tell this good news story, and grateful for the widespread press coverage it has received. (Side note: I’ll be doing an interview about this on FP Live on November 17th, and would be grateful if you could tune in). 

It has been an honor to be able to spend some time telling the story of this field’s rise, expansion and, most recently, resilience in the face of profound challenges. 

This is not to say that all the news is good: There have been renouncements, regressions and a real backsliding particularly on the resourcing front, which is affecting the entire movement. With this newsletter, we are kicking off a Giving Tuesday campaign to help us to ensure this movement and our role supporting it remains strong. We have never before solicited funds from this list, but times are changing and we find that we must change along with them.

A precarious picture, but one not without seeds of hope. The Collaborative and the field it represents would not exist without the contributions of countless dreamers, partners, thinkers and doers around the world. As beautifully chronicled in this interview with Bonnie Marcus, there is a special magic to this movement, which she describes as a “global sisterhood reimagining power,” tracing our history as interlinked with the many individuals and organizations that have come together to support it. She closes with the powerful conclusion that “the most powerful foreign policy isn’t about conquering—it’s about connecting. And in that connection lies our best hope for the future.”

I have felt this deeply throughout my time in this movement, perhaps never more so than the past few weeks as our team and partners pushed through to deliver the ream of research, events and impact described below, as well as the ways in which our community has shown up for us in our hour of need. To those of you who have already answered our call for help–or who are considering doing so this month — thank you. At a time of profound threats to the global women’s rights ecosystem — threats which we at the Collaborative are feeling directly and acutely — we are inspired by and grateful to the transnational feminist ecosystem of organizations and individuals who are standing up to support this work and our role in it. 

There will be more to say on that in future posts, but for now: thank you. Keep up the fight — we are still in it.

Warmly,

Lyric

Learn more about the impact and reach of the Collaborative on our website.