Background
In the 2021-22 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government reiterated our commitment to ensuring that our policies and actions abroad are consistent with our focus on fairness and inclusion at home, ensuring that our international work reflects a feminist approach to policymaking. We have since been working on what such an approach could look like for Scotland.
SG analysts have conducted a series of interviews from those with experience implementing a feminist approach to foreign policy – and have published a report summarising the content of these interviews.
Based on these conversations, the Scottish Government has developed a background note setting the scene ahead of the next phase of engagement to define and shape a feminist approach to foreign policy. This approach seeks to ensure alignment with domestic policy that aims to address gender inequality in Scotland, shares good practice where it exists and recognises where we have further to go domestically and internationally.
As part of this work to ensure policy coherence, we are also considering how we might take a feminist approach to support development work in our partner countries. The Scottish Government is currently in the process of implementing the outcomes of its 2020/21 review of its approach to International Development against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement. The results of this review can be accessed on our website. As part of this review, we co-developed a set of Principles with representatives of government and civil society in our partner countries – and with civil society in Scotland. These Principles will underpin our future International Development work, noting that the Scottish Government has committed to take a human rights-based approach, and ensure equality, inclusion, and diversity is central to our approach.
We are keen to ensure those with the relevant feminist policy and international development expertise in Scotland and the Global South, including our International Development partner countries: Malawi; Zambia; and Rwanda, have the opportunity to shape the development of our approach. Please come ready to contribute to some of the questions outlined below.
Questions – International Development:
1. Given Scotland’s proposed feminist approach to foreign policy, do you think Scotland should seek to take a feminist approach to supporting development work, and if not, why not?
2. If so, what might this look like, in an international development context, where investment spend is usually driven by bilateral relationships and knowledge exchange – For example:
a) What might Scotland’s International Development offer look like in taking a feminist approach?
b) What lessons can we learn from other countries that have taken a feminist approach to international development assistance such as Canada?
c) Are there any lessons that we can learn from any global south feminist domestic policies/movements, for example the work driven by the African Macro-Economics Academy and the Feminist Macro-Economics Alliance of which there is a Chapter in Malawi?
d) In line with our International Development Principles, our approach is to be partner-led in our programme design and investment. This means our funding is targeted towards our partner country governments’ own priorities. In taking a feminist approach, how can we strengthen and maintain a partnership approach?
e) Should we be taking a different approach to monitoring and evaluating our international development work, where investment spend is normally a key driver of our bilateral engagement and relationship? How can we monitor and evaluate against development programme objectives, in line with feminist principles?