Objectives: Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy aims to strengthen women’s and girls’ rights, representation and resources. Work started in 2014 and is continuously being developed in order to secure that a gender perspective permeates all policy areas of the Swedish Foreign Service and paves the way for concrete results. In 2019 Sweden will scale up efforts in the following three areas:

1) Promoting women's economic and social conditions. This means strengthening women's economic rights and access to economic resources as well as enhancing the positive impact of international trade on women’s economic empowerment. It also includes countering discriminatory laws and norms, as well as fighting child marriage and all forms of gender-based violence.
2) Strengthening work on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Sweden will intensify its efforts for SRHR in all relevant forums and contexts, including in the UN and its programs. This work includes coalition-building and strengthening of international partnerships for the fulfilment of international agreements on SRHR.
3) Enhancing work for the agenda for women, peace and security (WPS). Further promotion of women's participation in peace processes is needed, not least through work within international bodies such as the UN, the EU and the OSCE. This work includes the strengthening of women’s roles as actors in peacebuilding and conflict prevention, for example through encouraging international parallels to the Swedish Women’s Mediation Network.

In terms of governance mechanisms and implementation modalities, Sweden’s Action Plan for the Feminist Foreign Policy is updated on a yearly basis and integrated in the overall action plan for the Foreign Service. The current plan was finalized and adopted in March 2019, after the new Government came into office. The plan includes indicative activities for 2019 and also guides the Foreign Service in relation to working methods and tools including international partnerships and forums.

A systematic and continuous push for gender equality responds specifically to SDG5 but has positive effects on the whole 2030 Agenda. As gender equality increases, poverty decreases (SDG1) and gender equal societies also tend to be more peaceful (SDG16).
Sweden will step up its work in all the three focus areas mentioned above, which is expected to render results. One example is that Sweden will enhance the gender perspective in trade policy which is expected to contribute to increasing international trade’s positive effects on women as well as women’s access to global markets and economic resources (SDG 8, 10, 12).
Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy is both impactful and needed, and will continue to contribute to sustainable development, gender equality and the full enjoyment of human rights by all women and girls.