Response to the UK government’s White Paper on International Development

November 2023

Response: On 20 November 2023, the UK government launched its White Paper on International Development.

The White Paper seeks to dictate the UK’s international development approach to the new global realities we face. GADN welcomes the White Paper’s important political prioritisation of gender equality and the rights of women and girls, along with the ambition to strengthen and reform the international system. However, concerns remain about the substance of these commitments and how they will be operationalised up to 2030. To put this rhetoric into practice will require:

  • A deeper understanding of how to achieve transformative and lasting change on gender equality.

  • Mainstreaming ambitions on gender equality across the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) as well as Whitehall.

  • Resourcing for all the priority areas identified within the International Women and Girls Strategy 2023 – 2030.

  • Recognition of the limits of British International Investment (BII) and private financing in resourcing the White Paper’s equality objectives.

  • Clear and transparent accountability mechanisms.

Responses & statementsGADN CoordinatorUK Aid, VAWG, Women's political participation & leadership, Girls' education, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Women's economic justice