A postcolonial feminist critique of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development: A South African application

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, more commonly known as theSustainable Development Goals (SDGs), was launched in September 2015. The SDGs are aglobal target-setting development agenda aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet, andensuring peace and prosperity for all by 2030. The SDGs have been lauded for vastly improvingon their predecessor, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), by broadening the globaldevelopment agenda to include environmental, social, economic and political concerns, and for,in the process of their formulation, engaging with member states and civil society groups. TheSDGs can further be commended for broadening the scope of the targets under the goal ongender equality and women's empowerment, and for recognising that gender equality has social,economic and political dimensions.This study employs a postcolonial feminist theoretical framework to critique the SDGs and tomake recommendations on how these critiques can inform South Africa's implementation of theSDGs, with the ultimate aim of achieving substantive gender equality and women'sempowerment in the country. The study argues that the MDGs and South Africa's NationalDevelopment Plan (NDP) have failed to guarantee gender justice because they are anchored intwo cognate theoretical approaches – liberal feminism and economic neoliberalism – thatprioritise economic growth over addressing the structural drivers of women's subordination andoppression.In contrast to liberal feminism, postcolonial feminism recognises that gender inequality hasinterconnected economic, political and social dimensions in which power inequalities anddiscriminatory norms are embedded. It consequently seeks fundamentally to challenge andtransform dominant patriarchal, racial and economic power structures, both in the public andprivate domain. A postcolonial feminist critique of the SDGs highlights that corporate interestshave taken precedence over feminist critiques demanding systemic transformation. It is up to theSouth African government to recognise and enlarge women's freedom and agency, and toinitiate truly transformative local strategies that address the systemic drivers of gender injustice.Given that Government has affirmed that its unreservedly gender-blind NDP will inform SouthAfrica's engagement with the SDGs, it is highly likely that the country's 30 million women willbe left behind.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University