Invitation: Regional Structured Dialogue Meetings - GAP III, September 16-28, 2025.

Dear partners,

The European Commission (DG INTPA, DG ENEST, DG MENA) and the European External Action Service (EEAS), in collaboration with the Policy Forum on Development (PFD), would like to invite you to a series of regional structured dialogue meetings to gather insights and provide inputs on the implementation of EU’s Gender Action Plan (GAP) III at country level. This includes identifying challenges and good practices that will inform the ongoing GAP III intermediary evaluation, through focus group discussions.

The GAP III intermediary evaluation was commissioned by DG INTPA in 2024 and is carried out by ADE. One of the specific areas of focus of the intermediate evaluation is the EU’s approach and results achieved through engagement with, and support provided to, women’s rights organisations and other CSOs, to promote gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment, with a focus on fragile and conflict-affected countries and contexts.

The evaluation also looks at gender-transformative outcomes and the role of civil society organisations in reaching marginalised women and girls through an intersectional and human rights-based approach, with a distinct focus on identifying lessons and best practices.

The inputs provided during the focus group discussions will feed into the evaluation and its final report.

The meetings will take place on three different days and time zones, allowing for regional perspectives:

• Tuesday 16th September at 13:00 – 16:00 CEST: focus Middle East/North Africa/the Gulf & Sub-Saharan Africa (in English / French)
• Wednesday 17th September at 09:00 – 11:30 CEST: focus Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood/Asia-Pacific (in English)
• Thursday 18th September at 16:00 – 18:30 CEST: focus Latin America & Caribbean (in English / Spanish)

Please find attached a concept note with the agenda and guiding questions for discussion. You may register for more than one meeting.

We would like to invite you or the most suitable person in your organisation to take part in the structured dialogue and share your experiences in promoting gender equality and issues related to the GAP III implementation.

In the registration, you will be asked to indicate your language preferences and which group discussion you would like to attend (clusters 1 and 2 in the concept note, if run in parallel). Please register here as soon as possible. Registration closes September 10, 2025.