Joint open letter to Foreign Secretary Cooper on mainstreaming gender equality at the Global Partnerships Conference

April 2026

Letter: This open letter to UK Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, stresses that the upcoming Global Partnerships Conference is a key opportunity for the government to implement its new cross-departmental priority on women and girls and commitment to an ambitious gender mainstreaming approach. At a time of escalating attacks against the rights of women and girls in all their diversity globally, these efforts are urgent, and GADN calls for the visibility of gender mainstreaming across the conference to be increased. GADN proposes examples of how gender mainstreaming could be operationalised through the conference themes and sessions, underscoring points on gender equality and rights language, framing and analysis, the meaningful inclusion of women’s rights organisations and feminist movements in civic leadership and a new partnerships framework, mobilising finance and fiscal resilience. 

GADN also encourages the government to ensure that the conference’s approach to violence against women and girls (VAWG), as a standalone track, is gender-transformative and rights-based, addresses root causes and platforms survivor-centred best-practices for violence prevention.