Where can transformative decolonial action take root in a moment of backlash? - A collective conversation

January 2026

GADN Members’ Meeting: This GADN members’ meeting on Where can transformative decolonial action take root in a moment of backlash? brought together experts in this field to lead a collective conversation with members on decolonial practice and process within the sector. With thanks to Dr Lata Narayanaswamy, Associate Professor in the Politics of Global Development at the University of Leeds; and Priya Lukka, Economist and PhD Researcher specialising in repair-based approaches, for guiding the group conversation.

Meetings events webinarsGADN Coordinator3 February 2026Feminist advocacy, UK Aid

GADN submission to the IDC's Inquiry on the Future of UK Aid and Development Assistance

November 2025

Response: GADN’s response to the IDC’s inquiry into the future of the UK’s international aid and development assistance work sets out the importance of focusing on gender equality and the rights of women and girls in all their diversity, cautions against the unregulated use of private finance and outlines stepping stones for the UK to move towards equitable partnerships.

Responses & statementsGADN Coordinator27 November 2025UK Aid

Resources and Rights under attack: Obstacles and Strategies

November 2025

GADN Members’ Meeting: This meeting continued and broadened the discussion started at our June Members’ Meeting, ‘Feminist Solidarity in a Time of Aid Cuts and Backlash: Reflecting, Resisting, Reimagining’. In this meeting, speakers provided a wider analysis of the changing landscape in which we are doing our work, looking particularly at the financial context in relation to bilateral aid, funds and foundations and private finance, as well as the rollback on rights.

Meetings events webinarsGADN Coordinator17 November 2025Feminist advocacy, UK Aid

GADN Annual Review 2024-25

October 2025

Our 2024-25 Annual Review has now been released, detailing the activities and impact of the network.

UpdatesGADN Coordinator6 October 2025

Achieving transformative change on gender equality through a new approach to mainstreaming: Proposals from GADN members

September 2025

Briefing: Following the UK government’s proposal to mainstream gender equality across FCDO as a response to aid cuts announced in early 2025, this paper details suggestions on how to make this as effective as possible. Stressing that the new approach must retain standalone initiatives alongside transformative gender equality objectives across the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, we also include specific policy recommendations to support its implementation.

Gender Mainstreaming - what is it and what have we learnt?

August 2025

Briefing: This briefing responds to the UK International Development Minister’s intention to mainstream gender throughout the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) following cuts to the aid budget earlier this year. Reflecting on lessons learned from decades of efforts to gender mainstream, we outline a set of core building blocks for success and stress that protecting standalone gender programming is essential for effective mainstreaming.

Response to the 2025 G7 Leaders' Summit

June 2025

Response: The 2025 G7 Leaders’ Summit concluded with a set of statements covering limited and narrow subjects in the absence of a Leaders’ Communiqué. These statements signal a significant regression from previous years’ outputs, with only superficial reference to women and girls scattered across the texts.

Responses & statementsGADN Coordinator18 June 2025G7

Feminist Solidarity in a Time of Aid Cuts and Backlash: Reflecting, Resisting, Reimagining

June 2025

GADN Members’ Meeting: This GADN members’ meeting on Feminist Solidarity in a Time of Aid Cuts and Backlash: Reflecting, Resisting, Reimagining brought together a panel of speakers to reflect on the current challenging context that our sector is facing, from cuts to US AID and UK ODA to the escalating attacks on women and girls’ rights. The panel was chaired by Piyumi Samaraweera and we heard interventions from Dorothy Sang of Care International UK, Alex Farley of Bond and feminist activist, writer and development consultant Esua Jane Goldsmith.

Meetings events webinarsGADN Coordinator6 June 2025Feminist advocacy, UK Aid

GADN response to Minister Chapman’s IDC statement on aid cuts and gender equality

May 2025

Response: GADN responds to Baroness Chapman’s remarks made at the IDC on 13 May 2025, suggesting that gender equality spend is one of the areas most at risk in the cuts to ODA announced earlier this year. With 11 June 2025 being a key decision point for the future of UK aid spend, GADN calls on the Foreign Secretary to protect gender equality spending.

Responses & statementsGADN Coordinator15 May 2025UK Aid

Joint letter to Foreign Secretary Lammy in response to UK ODA cuts

March 2025

Letter: Prime Minister Starmer has announced substantial cuts in UK aid. GADN and members call for a reversal of the decision and urge Foreign Secretary Lammy to prioritise gender equality within diminished aid budgets while championing the rights of women and girls on the international stage.

Responses & statementsGADN Coordinator7 March 2025UK Aid

Reflecting on 30 Years Since Beijing: Preparing for CSW69

February 2025

GADN Members’ Meeting: This GADN members’ meeting, titled ‘Reflecting on 30 Years Since Beijing: Preparing for CSW69’ convened speakers representing women’s rights organisations from the UK and beyond as well as UN Women to discuss the upcoming CSW, sharing priorities and reflections with the Beijing Platform for Action in mind. The panel was chaired by Yamina Ouldali and speakers included Brianna Howell and Loui Williams of UN Women, Nicole Maloba of FEMNET, Heather Knight of Plan International UK and Shiphrah Belonguel of Fòs Feminista.

Gender in Humanitarian Action: Recommendations for UK FCDO

December 2024

Briefing: Targeting the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), this briefing explores recommendations for more gender-responsive humanitarian engagement, covering suggestions around leadership and approaches, funding modalities as well as civil society partnerships and engagement.

Briefings & reportsGADN Coordinator12 December 2024Humanitarian, WG Humanitarian

Feminist and Decolonial Ways of Working

October 2024

GADN Members’ Meeting: This GADN members’ meeting on Feminist and Decolonial Ways of Working provided a space to look at some of the established and emerging practices and discuss experiences and insights by hearing from a range of different speakers, and exchanging with other GADN members. A hybrid panel discussion was moderated by Leila Billing, and we heard from Dr Ramatu Bangura, Pranita Choudhry, and Arundhati Sridhar.

GADN Solidarity Statement on UK Race Riots

August 2024

Statement: GADN Board and staff stand in solidarity with anti-racism activists and movements as part of our own ongoing commitments towards anti-racism work.

Responses & statementsGADN Coordinator9 August 2024Anti-racism & decolonisation

GADN Annual Review 2023-24

July 2024

Our 2023-24 Annual Review has now been released, detailing the activities and impact of the network.

Briefings & reportsGADN Coordinator30 July 2024GADN MEL

Towards conflict transformation in global feminist cooperation: Reflections and learning

July 2024

Learning paper: This learning paper explores the concept of ‘global feminist cooperation’ and some of the inherent conflicts within it, before looking at what conflict transformation approaches can offer in these spaces. It sets out GADN’s learnings in this area and concludes with a reflective exercise for readers.

Briefings & reportsGADN Coordinator24 July 2024Feminist advocacy

Where next for feminist foreign policy on humanitarian response?

June 2024

Briefing: This briefing examines how states that have feminist foreign policies (FFPs) or whose foreign policies are inspired by feminist ambitions can meaningfully apply feminist approaches to humanitarian action, which is a sub-sector of foreign policy that has received comparatively little attention in FFP debates thus far.

Briefings & reportsGADN Coordinator10 July 2024Humanitarian, WG Humanitarian

Response to the 2024 G7 Leaders' Communique

June 2024

Response: The 2024 G7 Leaders’ Communique included some positive language on gender equality but presents a regression from last year’s text, especially concerning sexual and reproductive health and rights - particularly the omission of reference to safe and legal abortions.

Responses & statementsGADN Coordinator20 June 2024G7

Palestine: Feminist, anti-racist and decolonial perspectives

May 2024

GADN Members’ Meeting: This GADN Members' Meeting on feminist, anti-racist and decolonial perspectives on Palestine provided an educational space for GADN members to engage with these issues through the perspectives and analyses of anti-Zionist feminist speakers of Palestinian and Jewish descent. The virtual panel was moderated by Awino Okech, with speakers Nada Elia and Walaa Alqaisiya.

From decolonisation to locally-led development: repoliticising the agenda

February 2024

GADN Members’ Meeting: This GADN Members’ Meeting provided an opportunity to explore what locally-led development and decolonisation mean in practice with speakers Dr. Kamna Patel and Dr. Lata Narayanaswamy. We examined why locally-led development is gaining traction politically and discussed why decolonial approaches are still needed in the international development sector.

Explore GADN’s resources