International Women's Day: ensuring rights, justice and action for all women and girls

The global theme of the 2026 International Women's Day is "Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.", which reaffirms commitment to ensuring that the rights of women and girls are not only recognised, but effectively defended, enforced and fully exercised. This year, we want to highlight seven European Commission's Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) projects that showcase the EU's ongoing efforts in this field.

Women as key actors in peacebuilding in Bangladesh and Myanmar

In Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where Rohingya refugees and host communities face strained resources and rising tensions, FPI's project has shifted the landscape of youth peacebuilding by ensuring women's meaningful participation. Women currently represent 52% of youth peacebuilder group members, 49% of Peace Café Committee members, and 41% of Community Watch Group members, contributing actively to mediation, gender-based violence (GBV) prevention, early-warning mechanisms, and social cohesion initiatives. Their participation ensures that women's protection concerns - such as harassment, misinformation, trafficking risks, and GBV threats - are systematically integrated into community monitoring and response systems. This was possible through leadership training and digital safety capacity-building, young women have enhanced skills in conflict analysis, advocacy, mediation, and countering misinformation and hate speech online, strengthening their role as peace actors in both community and digital spaces.

In Myanmar's conflict-affected regions, young women face significant structural barriers to participation in leadership and peace processes. The Youth-Led Peacebuilding and Social Cohesion Initiatives in Bangladesh and Myanmar places gender equality at its core, fostering inclusive participation, strengthening capacities, and creating pathways for young women's leadership. The project has embedded gender equality throughout its design and implementation. From the outset, 40% of female youth leaders across Rakhine, Kayin, and Chin took part in the project. By integrating gender equality, the project is positioning young women not only as participants, but as key actors shaping peace and social cohesion in their communities.

Enhancing political and civic participation of women in Côte d'Ivoire

Through four different projects, the EU Election Programme 2025-2027 in Côte d'Ivoire trained women to enhance their political and civic participation in the run up to and during the 2025 Presidential elections. This included also media and journalism capacity-building, workshops on how to detect and counter misinformation and fake news, as well as the training and deployment of 297 women as electoral observers. The programme is helping 1353 women shape a more peaceful and informed electoral environment, from community prevention and local dialogue to media, information integrity and election observation.

Through the PREVEL project, 16 community collaboration frameworks are strengthening local early warning and response, with 560 stakeholders trained, including 40% women, on conflict prevention, human rights, gender-based violence during electoral periods and fact-checking. Through the Kouman project, women's participation is also being amplified in the information space, with women journalists or correspondents targeted among participating community radios, alongside gender-balanced youth media and information literacy activities that will reach 1,000 young people through peer-led trainings (with 50% women). These efforts are reinforced by FPI-supported information integrity and electoral support actions in Côte d'Ivoire, which bring together public authorities, media and civil society to counter disinformation, strengthen early warning and support women's role in preventing election-related violence, including through the training and deployment of 297 women as electoral observers as part of the EMAM mechanism.

Empowering women in the maritime safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea

Aware of the persistent underrepresentation of women in the maritime safety and security sector, the EU, through the EnMAR (Enhanced Maritime Action in the Gulf of Guinea) project funded by the FPI, has launched a series of conferences in 2024 and 2025. The objective is to promote access to and active participation of young women in maritime safety and security, drawing on the experiences of remarkable women from Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, the region, and Europe. These conferences helped to open, promote, structure, and secure pathways for women to careers in maritime and port security in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Senegal, with strong participation and commitment from high school and university students.

These conferences have helped to inspire, open, promote, structure and secure the career paths of women in maritime and port security in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal, thanks to strong participation and significant commitment from more than 360 high school and university students.

Empowering women through mental health and psychosocial support in Lebanon

In Lebanon, the impact of prolonged conflict, including the escalation of hostilities in 2024, has placed a heavy psychosocial burden on communities, particularly women. With the International Organization for Migration (IOM) we expand access to dignified Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) services for conflict affected communities across Lebanon. While responding to broader community needs, the initiative places particular emphasis on reaching and empowering women, recognising their central role in recovery processes, family wellbeing, and community resilience. At the community level, structured group psychosocial support sessions implemented by national partners, including Restart Centre, create safe spaces where women affected by conflict can share experiences, process distress, and support one another.

Beyond direct service delivery, the project highlights the pivotal role of women within the mental health response itself. Women facilitators play a key role in delivering community based psychosocial support, accompanying others through recovery while strengthening their own resilience. This action contributes to recovery, resilience, and stronger social cohesion in Lebanon. It demonstrates how empowering women and promoting psychosocial wellbeing are essential building blocks for peace, stability, and long-term community resilience in conflict-affected contexts.

Empowering female deminers

FPI supports humanitarian mine action globally, including the meaningful participation of women as deminers, experts and leaders. For example, in Ukraine, EU funding supports APOPO's Technical Survey Dog operations, where the team of six handlers is 50% women and all team leaders are female. In Azerbaijan, EU support has enabled the creation of women-only demining teams while strengthening the human capacities needed to address demining challenges. This life-saving work not only protects communities but also enables people to return home and resume economic activities, making mine action a key enabler of livelihoods and post-war recovery.

Putting women at the forefront of preventing and countering terrorism worldwide

Since July 2025, the EU-UN Global Terrorism Threats Facility, a joint initiative of the EU and the United Nations (UN), funded by the FPI and implemented by the United Nations Office of Counter-terrorism (UNOCT), has been implementing an initiative to strengthen the full, equal, meaningful and safe participation and representation of women in operational and policy roles in counter-terrorism and prevention of violent extremism.

Recognizing that diverse and inclusive security institutions are more effective, accountable, and legitimate in preventing and responding to terrorism, the initiative supports gender equality and women's empowerment within counter terrorism and preventing and countering violent extremism (PCVE) institutions, including intelligence, law enforcement, correctional services, and the judiciary. The EU-UN Global Terrorism Threats Facility works with these institutions in different regions of the world to help identify and address barriers to women's recruitment, retention and advancement, through self-assessment tools and targeted technical assistance.

Providing spaces to women in media and business in Asia

The voices of young women, and women in media spaces are often marginalized in policymaking discussions. Through the Agents of Change: Youth and Media for Responsible Business Practices Project, FPI is equipping youth and media to drive policy and corporate change, fostering connections across regional and national networks, and mobilizing collective action. The project takes an active gender responsive approach that cuts across all activities to recognise that the women's voices are heard in Asia, with focus countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia and Thailand. At the regional level, the project is partnering with organisations such as Women4Biodiversity to better articulate key actions businesses with respect to the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

At a national level, the project supports diverse activities tailored to the specific needs of each country. In Indonesia, the action enhances journalists' investigative capacities concerning women's working conditions in sectors like fish processing and textiles, moving women's experiences from invisibility to public accountability and emphasising gender impacts in business conduct. In Malaysia, the project collaborates with Indigenous women from Apa Kata Wanita Orang Asli to utilise filmmaking and digital storytelling to interpret the Malaysian National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights 2025-2030 through an indigenous lens. In Mongolia, gender-responsive Human Rights Due Diligence enhances engagement on intersectional issues with women-led organisations. Meanwhile, in Thailand, the partnership with Change Lab focuses on bridging businesses with young ethnic minorities through a 6-month incubation programme, offering young women the chance to engage directly with businesses on corporate responsibility, paving the way for further engagement in gender equality initiatives.