In 2014, Sweden announced the world’s first feminist foreign policy (FFP), and a decade later, international momentum around FFP continues to grow. As of June 2024, fifteen additional countries from across Europe, Africa, and the Americas have either launched or committed to adopt FFPs, including eleven in just the past three years. Yet the topic of gender data remains largely absent from many of the policies currently in place, hindering governments and other stakeholders from understanding the impact of FFPs, accurately measuring progress, and ultimately ensuring accountability.
Further, while gender data is relevant for guiding and tracking both the external work of implementing agencies and their internal policies and practices, information about the systems, processes, and practices that countries use to collect data for FFPs—and whether they adhere to feminist principles—is virtually non-existent.
In the following policy brief, Data2X and Walking the Talk explore the critical role of gender data in the development and implementation of feminist foreign policies—and demonstrate why data is a critical factor for future success.