The EU Gender Action Plan (GAP) is the European Union’s main policy framework for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment through its external action, setting out commitments, targets and guidelines for how the EU integrates gender equality into its international partnerships, development cooperation, humanitarian aid and wider foreign policy. Since 2010, successive GAPs have steadily expanded in scope and ambition.
GAP III will come to an end in 2027. In March 2026, the European Commission and the European External Action Service launched work on GAP IV, covering 2028–2034, alongside a renewed EU Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. GAP IV is due to be published in early 2027.
This briefing sets out Oxfam’s key recommendations for GAP IV. It calls on the EU to set an ambitious and accountable framework that maintains the 85% target and builds staff capacity and funds feminist civil society. It urges the EU to protect civic space from anti-rights movements, make humanitarian aid gender-responsive and lifesaving. It calls the EU to recognise and invest in care, deliver on the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and protect LGBTQIA+ rights while putting intersectionality into practice.