Towards Feminist Development Policy: Prioritizing the Foundational Economy and Universal Basic Services

This report departs from the research question “In how far can prioritizing the foundational economy (FE) and Universal Basic Services (UBS) in international development cooperation be seen as a transformative step towards feminist development policy?” To tackle this question, the report in a first step reviews academic and policy debates around FE and UBS with a focus on links to approaches and interventions from the Global South.1 In a second step, feminist development theories are introduced, different definitions of feminist development policy are considered, and a benchmark of what constitutes a ‘transformative’ (feminist development) policy is presented.