Re-imagining development by (re)claiming feminist visions of development alternatives

Abstract

ABSTRACTOver the past 30 years, new frameworks and procedures have influenced the language of development, as well as the understanding of what ‘good development’ and success look like. While feminist concepts have been incorporated into some of these approaches, the core challenges of patriarchy, race, as well as class and gender inequalities are not centre stage. Approaches that address development as a complex political project have receded (though not disappeared), and given way to a development characterised by logic language, technical changes, planned and achievable in the short term, measured by standard metrics. This article is a personal reflection by a long-term feminist in development about the power of language, policies, and procedures in shaping the work, and the need to reconnect to the roots of feminism to reimagine a more radical and transformative development.