On Thursday 9th November, the Scottish Government published the first stage in its response to the recommendations on what a feminist approach to global affairs might look like.
SIDA welcomes this positive commitment to focus on understanding and addressing the root causes of inequality, and the commitment to ensure the Scottish Government’s action is transformative, however a transformative approach requires Scotland to be braver than this initial response suggests. We look forward to the second stage where the government will respond to the specific recommendations in the four areas of the expert opinions that SIDA jointly developed with the Scottish Council for Global Affairs (SCGA).
This first stage is a welcome step forward. We appreciate the efforts to prioritise policy coherence, especially the pledge to map the outcomes of a feminist approach on the NPF, and we hope this will be reflected soon in the reviewed outcomes. We welcome the government’s stated aims to make policy transformative, intersectional, equitable, particiaptory, consistent, and accountable. To improve the current approach, we suggest applying the OECD’s revised gender marker.
We also appreciate the government’s commitment to make funds more accessible and flexible, and to increase transparency in processes. This is difficult to achieve under current procurement frameworks and we look forward to learning more about how this will work.
Further Reading
Taking a Feminist Approach to International Relations – This position paper sets out the scope and guiding principles of the Scottish Government’s feminist approach to international relations.