#11 JUNE 2023 Feminist Foreign and Development Policies: A Reflection from a Rwandan Feminist Olive Uwamariya(she/her) On March 1, 2023, the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock launched a new feminist foreign policy, followed by the launch of guidelines for a new feminist development policy by the German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze. The policy and guidelines aim at anchoring gender equality in Germany’s foreign diplomacy and development work by promoting and strengthening rights for women, girls and other marginalised groups around the world, lobbying for better representation of women in leadership, the allocation of more resources to address gender inequalities and changing powers and structures that continue to reinforce gender inequalities. Germany joined a growing number of governments that adopted feminist foreign policies(FFP). In 2014, Sweden was the first to adopt such a policy, and this set precedence to other countries including Canada in 2017, France in 2019, Mexico in 2020, Libya, Luxembourg and Spain in 2021, and more recently Chile in 2022. So, what are feminist foreign policies, and what role should governments play in promoting feminist principles in their foreign diplomatic engagements? Are these policies truly designed and implemented to address the most pressing issues of our times? Do they recognise and build on all the amazing work done by feminist movements and activists who work tirelessly to bring about change in their communities? What impact do they have on the lives of the most marginalised groups, especially women and girls in all their diversities in my beloved country Rwanda, and in other developing nations? Or are these policies business as usual, if not simply extension of patriarchal and colonial power structures that continue to dominate the global political and economic order? While I agree with German Minister Baerbock that feminist foreign policies are not meant to be‘a 1