Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make it his policy to adopt and implement the Department for International Development's Strategic Vision on Gender Equality as the gender strategy for his Department.

As the Foreign Secretary said in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on the 1 October, we must use this moment as a catalyst for change, so that all women and girls have equal rights, so that they can fulfil their potential. Global Britain is proud to be a force for good in the world, holding up democracy and human rights as our guiding lights.

As part of the launch of the new FCDO, we will refresh and build on existing strategies, as well as develop new approaches, but we do not see the core ambitions of the Strategic Vision for Gender Equality changing. The challenges of advancing girls' education, sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), women's political empowerment, women's economic empowerment advancing the Women Peace and Security agenda, tackling and ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) including conflict related sexual violence, are as acute now, if not more so, as when we published the strategy in 2018.