Vol. 9 No. 2 (2024)

Feminisms and development: a necessary cartography of power in international cooperation

The world in which international cooperation was born has changed substantially. However, and although the development and international aid agenda has undergone major changes, they have not been sufficient to advance collective and fair responses to current global challenges. It is paradoxical that when cooperation, collaboration and solidarity efforts are most necessary, development cooperation is going through a deep crisis of legitimacy, results and identity. The current unavoidable challenge of the system is to fully transform itself in the face of the risk of becoming a completely irrelevant policy, or of losing its distinctive character. The transformations that development cooperation needs transcend the changes in the aid measurement system, and emphasize the need to address a deep debate around its orientations and objectives, the power relations established between countries and actors, or the norms, instruments and procedures that are its own (Alonso, Aguirre and Santander, 2019; de la Cruz, 2015; Martínez, 2019; Pajarín, 2021; Ramos, 2024; Unceta, Martínez and Goiria, 2021; Zabala and Martínez , 2017).
In this context, the proposals for change that aim to strengthen the role of international cooperation in the formation of a new framework of international justice, as well as its contribution to the transition towards models of production, consumption, organization and coexistence, are of special interest. global alternatives (Martínez, 2019) focused on social justice, gender, racial and environmental justice. From this perspective, an exploration and a more forceful and systematic commitment to formulas of Education for Global Citizenship or Global Justice is necessary. Feminisms, and specifically, transformative feminist education, constitute the essential compass in this process. A new model of international cooperation must be oriented towards the structural causes of inequalities and violations of rights, as well as the generation of critical, responsible citizens, with conscience and global ties. Once again, the feminist emancipatory project as an experience of an advocacy social movement with global links and, at the same time, with proposals for transformation that are based on knowledge and daily and localized experiences, becomes the axis of a truly transformative change (Pajarín , 2022)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17979/arief.2024.9.2

Published: 2024-07-24

Table of contents