Democracy Brief
holding the line: A G7 Agenda for
Democracy and Equality
Amid Global Challenges
Key Recommendations for G7 Leaders
Reinforce Multilateralism: Uphold international law and institutions; maintain consistent support regardless of political shifts.
Reaffirm Democratic and Human Rights Commitments: Protect SRHR, LGBTQI+ rights, and international conventions like CEDAW and ILO C190.
Protect Civic Space and Human Rights Defenders: Create a Civic Space Task Force, emergency funds, and press freedom mechanisms.
Fund Gender Equality: Increase ODA to 0.7% by 2027; allocate 20% specifically to gender-focused initiatives.
Promote Diverse Women’s Leadership: Enact quotas, criminalize GBV in politics, and include displaced and minority women in policymaking.
Advance the WPS Agenda: Ensure national action plans are funded and monitor implementation.
Adopt Feminist Foreign Policies: Apply gender analysis across all policy areas; update G7 Gender Dashboards.This W7 policy brief urges the G7 to radically transform its approach to economic resilience by embedding feminist principles into international financial and trade reform. Moving beyond market stability and supply chain protection, the brief emphasizes that true resilience must center women and marginalized groups, ensuring they have the resources and support to withstand and recover from global shocks like pandemics, inflation, climate crises, and austerity measures.The brief highlights six interconnected policy areas where the G7’s past commitments have fallen short:
Finally, the brief stresses the importance of resourcing feminist movements and women’s rights organizations at the grassroots level. These actors are vital to building local economic resilience and holding governments accountable. The G7’s economic leadership, the brief concludes, must be driven not by financial orthodoxy, but by human rights, equity, and care.