• A feminist foreign policy calls into question the budget priorities that mean that by 2021, for every dollar spent on Official Development Assistance (ODA), Australia will spend $11 on defence and divert an additional $3.8 billion (the equivalent of the annual aid budget) towards arms manufacturers (ACFID, IWDA & CARE, 2018).
• A feminist foreign policy puts a gender lens across recent announcements on infrastructure investment facilities, which have shifted the focus of Australia’s interests in the Pacific. There are gendered implications of this policy turn, including the gendered impacts of sovereign debt and of infrastructure projects (IWDA, 2019).
• The climate change impacts of infrastructure investments also raise issues for women, who are disproportionately affected by climate-induced natural disasters. These disasters pose an increasing threat to the stability of Australia and our region, and gender is a compounding factor in vulnerability. Evidence shows that more women than men die from natural hazards, and that gender inequality in access to decision making, control over financial resources, technology and information is compounded by environmental disasters (Neumayer & Plümper, 2007).
• The impacts of trade liberalisation and globalisation on women so far demonstrate both potential and risks. Evidence shows that global trade liberalisation has exacerbated existing gender inequalities and in many cases has worsened women’s economic and social status (Kabeer, 2018). Trade policies are often designed and implemented without consideration of gender issues, resulting in missed opportunities and gender inequitable outcomes, as well as inefficient and ineffective policy. For example, the negotiations of the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) Plus trade agreement lacked transparency, and failed to adequately account for the different economic and social roles of Pacific women and men (Pacific Network on Globalisation, 2016).
• Development assistance funding and targets should support gender equality, including the funding of women’s rights and feminist organisations. Research in 70 countries across four decades has found that the mobilisation of women’s organisations and movements is more important for tackling violence against women and girls than a nation’s income, progressive political parties, or the representation of women in politics (Htun and Weldon, 2012). Despite this, support for women’s equality organisations makes up just 1.22% of Australia’s aid (OECD, 2018).
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