UK launches gender equality plan but critics call funding a ‘drop in the ocean’

A woman attending a meeting in Sierra Leone, wearing a T-shirt saying, ‘It pays to send your children to school, especially girls.’ Photograph: Des Willie/Alamy

The UK government has launched a new strategy to advance gender equality around the world on the same day that MPs announced plans to investigate the impact of UK aid cuts on women and girls.

The global strategy, launched by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on International Women’s Day on Wednesday, will, it says, put more focus on gender equality in its work, while also supporting sexual and reproductive health programmes and funding grassroots women’s rights groups.