Princess Basma's public role began at a young age and with it her involvement and support to different local organizations. Numerous field visits to needy

rural and overpopulated urban areas, helped Princess Basma to form an initial understanding of the country's most pressing development priorities, with which she would later engage in a more formalised way.

In 1977, His Majesty King Hussein asked Her Royal Highness Princess Basma to establish the Queen Alia Fund for Social Development (QAF), now known as the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD). Chaired by Her Royal Highness, JOHUD became one of the first non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Jordan to address development issues at a national level.

At the outset of the Fund's work, Princess Basma focused on the requirements of local communities, women and children, in addition to people with special needs. For instance, in 1979 she launched the first national survey of the disabled in Jordan in co-operation with WHO and the Jordan University. This endeavour later led the Fund to set up two special centres for the physically disabled and four centres for the mentally disabled. Also around the same time, a comprehensive study of the socio-economic needs of over 250 nomadic settlements in Badia areas was initiated by Princess Basma, which determined the projects subsequently implemented by the Fund to serve target groups in various communities.

In order to strengthen the role and activities of women in rural areas, in the 1980s much of Princess Basma's work was geared to creating a network of grassroots women's committees, and promoting the training of rural women leaders. Through capacity-building and advocacy work, these committees have since helped to increase the participation of women, especially in local decision-making processes.

"Much of the success and acceptance of women's participation results from there having been a process of attitudinal change within society, especially at the grassroots level. Policies alone could not achieve such a change. Women themselves have had to carve out their own space in community life, demonstrating their skills and a conviction that it is their right to increase their public involvement."
- Speech of HRH Princess Basma on Gender and Culture to the international UNESCO Conference on Culture and Development, September 1997, Lillehammer, Norway.

Princess Basma is an active patron of several women's societies and numerous national and local organizations, most notably the Women's Police, the Jordanian Young Women's Christian Association, the Nurses and Midwives Union, the Private Schools Council, the Inner Wheel Club, the Home and Garden Club and the Amman Little League Association.

In October 2000, Her Royal Highness became a Member of the Board of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Jordan.