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Reimagining Economies: Alternative Feminist Frameworks in the Global South

Farah Galal,

 

In the face of economic policies that often prioritize austerity, debt repayment, and neocolonial frameworks, alternative feminist economic frameworks offer a path towards more equitable and just societies. These frameworks emphasize inclusivity, sustainability, and social justice, addressing the specific needs of marginalized communities, particularly women and gender-expansive people in the Global South. This piece explores the core principles of feminist economic frameworks and highlights grassroots initiatives in the Global South that embody these principles, as a way to illuminate viable alternative paths to the current global economic order. As Fredric Jameson (2005) states in the ever-so-relevant  “The Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia”:

What is crippling is not the presence of an enemy but rather the universal belief that not only this tendency is irreversible, but that the historic alternatives to capitalism have been proven unviable and impossible, and that no other socio-economic system is conceivable, let alone practically available.

It is imperative for us to be able to imagine the worlds we want to be able to bring them into existence.

 Principles of Feminist Economic Frameworks

  1. Anti-colonialism and Economic Sovereignty: Feminist economic frameworks challenge neocolonial practices and debt dependence that perpetuate inequality and exploitation. They advocate for economic sovereignty, self-determination, and debt justice, opposing policies that undermine the autonomy of countries in the Global South.
  2. Inclusivity and Participation: Ensuring that all voices, particularly those of marginalized communities, are included in economic decision-making processes. Economic democracy involves the participation of all members of society in economic decision-making processes. This principle opposes hierarchical and exploitative economic structures, promoting cooperative ownership, shared decision-making, and equitable distribution of resources (Molyneux, 2008).
  3. Care Economy: Recognizing and valuing unpaid care work, and integrating care work into economic planning. Care work, often unpaid or underpaid, is fundamental to the functioning of societies and economies. Feminist economic frameworks recognize the value of care work, advocating for its fair compensation and integration into economic planning. This principle challenges the traditional economic models that disregard care work, leading to the exploitation and undervaluation of those who perform it, predominantly women (Federici, 2012).
  4. Sustainability: Promoting environmental sustainability and intergenerational equity. Environmental sustainability is a cornerstone of feminist economic frameworks. It recognizes the interconnectedness of ecological health and economic well-being, advocating for practices that protect and restore the environment while promoting social justice (Maathai, 2004).
  5. Social & Economic Justice: Addressing systemic inequalities and promoting fair distribution of resources. Any feminist alternative must center social and economic justice. A feminist economy ensures a just distribution of resources that ensures social and economic justice for everyone.
  6. Local Knowledge and Context: Valuing local and traditional knowledge and context-specific solutions over one-size-fits-all approaches. Feminist economies center local knowledge and histories, acknowledging that those who know the land can best govern it.
  7. Solidarity and Cooperation: Fostering cooperation and solidarity among communities. Solidarity economies prioritize mutual aid, cooperation, and collective well-being over competition and profit maximization. These economies are built on the principles of social justice, environmental sustainability, and community resilience (Feenstra, 1997).
  8. Intersectionality: Considering multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination and privilege. Feminist economies have to be inclusive, intersectional, and just. Racial equality, gender justice, and LGBTQ+ rights are cornerstones of those economies, ensuring everyone’s well-being and socioeconomic justice across the board.
  9. Non-Violence and Peace: Advocating for peaceful and non-violent methods of conflict resolution. Militarism and prioritizing profits over lives has no place in a feminist economy. A feminist economy must put an immediate stop to the war economy.

In light of the principles highlighted above, there is a growing movement towards bringing feminist economic alternatives that prioritize social equity, environmental sustainability, and community empowerment to fruition. Grassroots initiatives across the Global South have incorporated feminist frameworks that challenge neocolonial economic paradigms by centering on the needs and rights of marginalized groups. Those initiatives combine traditional and local knowledge with a feminist imagination of the future. Below, some of these initiatives are highlighted.

SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) in India

SEWA is a trade union of women workers in India, founded in 1972. It represents millions of women working in the informal sector, including domestic workers, street vendors, and artisans. SEWA’s approach emphasizes the importance of care work and strives to improve the economic status of women through organizing, capacity building, and advocating for social security and fair wages (Self Employed Women’s Association, n.d.). SEWA’s initiatives include:

  • Healthcare and Childcare Services: SEWA provides affordable healthcare and childcare services to its members, recognizing that the well-being of women workers is crucial for their economic empowerment.
  • Microfinance and Cooperative Banks: SEWA’s financial services offer women access to credit and savings, enabling them to invest in their businesses and secure their financial futures.
  • Green Transition Centre: SEWA’s Green Transition Center works on analyzing the issues faced by informal sector workers and the adaptations that they have had to make to adapt to climate shocks

Homenet South Asia

Homenet South Asia is a network of home-based worker organizations working to improve the lives of home-based workers in South Asia (Homenet South Asia, n.d.). These workers, predominantly women, engage in various forms of care work and informal labor. Homenet South Asia works on:

  • Solidarity Building: Building regional solidarity among home-based workers and creating learning and sharing platforms.
  • Policy Reforms: Lobbying for the inclusion of home-based workers in labor laws and social protection schemes.
  • Skill Development: Providing training programs that enhance the skills and employability of home-based workers, ensuring they receive fair compensation for their labor (Chen, 2007).
  • Capacity Building: Developing the capacities of grassroots organizations representing home-based workers.

Union of Women’s Producer Cooperatives “Las Brumas” – Jinotega, Nicaragua

Las Brumas is a non-profit trade union in Nicaragua consisting of twenty three grassroots cooperatives totaling three hundred and twenty women workers, focused on women’s land ownership and small-scale agricultural and livestock production (Rodriguez, 2021). Key initiatives include:

  • Community Practitioners Platform for Resilience: Providing a platform for community practitioners to learn, share, and collectively develop advocacy agendas and engage policy makers
  • Advocating for Inclusion in Local Governments: Las Brumas’s efforts have put thirty two women from grassroots organizations in local government
  • Climate Resilience: Working on integrating natural disaster prevention and land and water conservation
  • Social Protection: Advocating for the provision of free basic services like healthcare and education, as well as access to water and sanitary systems in the communities.
  • Legal Defense: providing members with access to legal services for a variety of issues, including property rights and domestic violence.

Zapatista Women’s Cooperatives in Mexico

The Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico, has built various women’s cooperatives that embody the principles of economic democracy. These cooperatives focus on:

  • Autonomous Governance: Women participate in decision-making processes at all levels, from local community councils to broader organizational structures.
  • Sustainable Livelihoods: The cooperatives engage in diverse economic activities, including organic farming, textile production, and handicrafts, ensuring sustainable livelihoods for their members (McCarty et al., 2016).

The Intercontinental Network of Promotion for Social and Solidarity Economy in Latin America and the Caribbean (RIPESS LAC)

RIPESS LAC (n.d.) is a continental network of communal, cooperative, associative, and mutualist organizations, as well as citizen movements advocating for a solidarity economy in Latin America. RIPESS LAC promotes the creation and sharing of resources and information in order to develop the foundation of an alternative to the existing capitalist system. The network works on six axes:

  • Fair Trade: Promoting alternative marketplaces that foster harmonious connections among producers, customers, and environment.
  • Solidarity Finance: Promoting and enhancing savings and credit schemes and tailor them to the needs of families and the community and promoting financing with social responsibility, concern for the environment, and respect for cultural values.
  • Solidarity Economy Education: Advancing capacity building and technical development in the solidarity economy, disseminating knowledge, creating spaces for learning and exchange, and creating a regional network of solidarity economy trainers.
  • Gender Equality in the Solidarity Economy: Developing a theoretical framework and gender indicators for solidarity economic practices; advocating for social and political recognition of domestic, family and community work; and making care work visible as a public good.
  • Political Engagement: Advocating for public policies that favor the solidarity economy, develop regulatory frameworks that promote the solidarity economy, and systematize favorable public policy.
  • Sustainability: Promoting the articulation and linking of economic activities at local levels with a focus on comprehensive and sustainable development, strengthening initiatives that generate decent employment while being environmentally friendly, and fostering alliances with human rights and environmental social movements.

Vida Nueva Women Weavers Cooperative in Oaxaca

Vida Nueva is a collective of indigenous Zapotec women weavers in Oaxaca, Mexico, dedicated to preserving traditional weaving techniques and fostering solidarity economies (Naiana Nami, n.d.). Their initiatives include:

  • Collective Production and Marketing: Women work together to produce and sell their textiles, sharing profits and resources equitably.
  • Cultural Preservation: By promoting traditional weaving, Vida Nueva helps preserve indigenous culture and knowledge, strengthening community bonds and identity.
  • Provision of Care: The cooperative’s scope extends beyond the craft to serve the community with social and environmental projects.

The Green Belt Movement in Kenya

Founded in 1977 the Green Belt Movement (2022) focuses on environmental conservation, community development, and women’s empowerment. Key initiatives include:

  • Tree Planting Campaigns: Mobilizing communities to plant trees, combat deforestation, and restore ecosystems.
  • Sustainable Livelihoods: Promoting sustainable agricultural practices that enhance food security and economic resilience for women.

The Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests (AMPB)

AMPB is a coalition of indigenous and local communities in Mesoamerica working to protect forests and promote sustainable development (Alianza Mesoamericana de Pueblos y Bosques, n.d.). Their efforts include:

  • Forest Conservation: Engaging women in forest management and conservation, recognizing their traditional ecological knowledge.
  • Climate Resilience: Implementing projects that enhance the climate resilience of communities, ensuring sustainable livelihoods in the face of environmental challenges.

The Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil

MST is a social movement in Brazil advocating for land reform and the rights of landless workers (Friends of the MST, n.d.). Their initiatives include:

  • Land Occupations: Organizing land occupations to reclaim unused land for agricultural production, challenging the concentration of land ownership and promoting food sovereignty.
  • Agrarian Schools: Establishing schools that provide education on sustainable agriculture, social justice, and political activism, empowering communities to resist neocolonial economic practices.

Conclusion: Building a Feminist Future

The alternative feminist economic frameworks outlined above offer a transformative vision for economies that prioritize people, planet, and social justice. The grassroots initiatives in the Global South exemplify the power of collective action and feminist principles in creating more equitable and sustainable economies. By valuing care work, promoting economic democracy, fostering solidarity economies, ensuring environmental sustainability, and resisting neocolonialism and debt dependence, these frameworks provide a roadmap for reimagining our economic systems. As we confront the challenges of the 21st century, these feminist models offer hope and inspiration for building a more just and resilient world.

 

References

  1. Alianza Mesoamericana de Pueblos y Bosques. (n.d.). https://www.alianzamesoamericana.org/
  2. Chen, M. (2007). Rethinking the Informal Economy: Linkages with the Formal Economy and the Formal Regulatory Environment. DESA Working Paper No. 46.
  3. Federici, S. (2012). Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle. PM Press.
  4. Feenstra, G. (1997). Local Food Systems and Sustainable Communities. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture, 12(1), 28-36.
  5. Friends of the MST. (n.d.). https://www.mstbrazil.org/
  6. https://hnsa.org.in/ 
  7. Jameson, F. (2007). Archaeologies of the future: The desire called utopia and other science fictions. Verso.
  8. Homenet South Asia. (n.d.). https://hnsa.org.in/ 
  9. Maathai, W. (2004). The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience. Lantern Books.
  10. McCarty, D., Cortez , D., & Bee , B. A. (2016). The empowering effects of cooperative development among indigenous women in southern Mexico. https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1307&context=jfs
  11. Molyneux, M. (2008). The ‘Neoliberal Turn’ and the New Social Policy in Latin America: How Neoliberal, How New? Development and Change, 39(5), 775-797.
  12. RIPESS LAC. (n.d.). https://ripesslac.org/
  13. Rodríguez C., M. H. (2021). Union of Women’s Producer Cooperatives “Las Brumas” – Jinotega, Nicaragua. EU-LAC Foundation. https://eulacfoundation.org/sites/default/files/2021-06/Gender_ChristianHoenisch_EStrans.pdf 
  14. Self Employed Women’s Association. (n.d.). https://www.sewa.org/
  15. The Green Belt Movement. (2022). https://www.greenbeltmovement.org/
  16. Naiana Nami. (n.d.). Vida Nueva. https://www.naiananami.com/artisans/vida-nueva

 

Farah Galal is the Gender and Economic Justice Officer at MENA Fem Movement for Economic, Development, and Ecological Justice. She is an intersectional feminist researcher experienced in gender advocacy, socioeconomic research, and program management.

Her research interests include gender; civil, human, and sexual and reproductive rights; and socioeconomic justice. Prior to joining MENA Fem, Farah worked as a Researcher at the Access to Knowledge for Development Center. In the context of her work with EIPIR, Farah worked on several research projects and wrote reports on gender, labor, informal employment, socioeconomic rights and sexual and reproductive health & rights. Additionally, she has also worked in the Gender & Human Rights unit at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) and the Nadim Foundation.

Farah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a minor in Economics from the American University in Cairo.