France has pursued feminist diplomacy and offered funds globally for projects in favour of empowering women.
French Ambassador in Dhaka Marie Masdupuy made the comment at a reception she hosted together with German Ambassador Achim Tröster on Thursday, ahead of International Women’s Day.
Germany also has pursued feminist foreign policy.
But France became the first country in the world to include abortion rights in the constitution on Monday.
The French ambassador said they had decided to make their fund for empowering women much bigger than the usual one.
“So, we topped up the fund with Euro 100 million in addition to Euro 250 million that we already had funded in the previous years,” she said.
“This fund is very important. We should look for it and especially for those of you who are directly engaged in projects favoring the environment of women, I'm sure you would find inspiration in it,” she said as representatives from different NGOs and civil society groups who work on women empowerment issues were present at the reception at the French embassy.
France is advocating gender equality in international forums and wants this goal to be taken into account in all issues, including inequality reduction and sustainable development, peace and security, defence and promotion of fundamental rights, and climate and economic issues.
By 2025, France is committed to ensuring that 75% of the projects funded by France’s official development assistance help to improve gender equality.
During Monday's voting in the parliament on abortion rights, Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly, said: “To women in France, we say that we will never roll back (this freedom).”
“To women of the world, we say that we will support you and that we will be at your side,” she added.
Ambassador Marie Masdupuy said, now any government that would like to cancel the law would have to touch the constitution, which of course is “much more difficult”.
“And France is the first country in the world to have done this,” she said, about the historic bill.
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day to be celebrated on Friday is “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”.
