How do you build a digital movement? Smart strategy, good stories – and make sure it is rooted in the real world

Marieke Meeske Active citizenship, Influencing, Innovation

Oxfam Novib staff on four lessons for digital activism, drawn from their “E-motive” peer-to-peer learning project that connected campaigners across borders.

Four ways to build youth activism for peace: insights from one UK student’s campaigning on Yemen

Yasmin Turner Active citizenship, Humanitarian, Influencing

Oxfam campaigner Yasmin Turner on how she is working to draw attention to the crisis in Yemen and pressure the UK government to stop the British arms sales fuelling the conflict – from hosting a photographic exhibition to writing to her local MP.

Are schools facing a squeeze on social justice activism and debate?

John McLaverty Active citizenship, Education, Youth Participation

New government ‘impartiality guidance’ advises teachers in England to provide ‘opposing views’ to campaigning movements such as Black Lives Matter – and to discourage students from taking any action that aims to change policy. John McLaverty and Safia Mizon Thioune set out their concerns

What drives active citizenship?

Saskia Veen Active citizenship, Participation and Leadership

by Rik Linssen and Saskia van Veen Mobilising citizens to raise their voices and hold those in power to account for their actions is one of the main ways Oxfam fights poverty and inequality. Oxfam amplifies the voices of those living in poverty and injustice. By mobilising citizens in various modes of collective action (for example, signing a petitions, contacting …

A fresh approach to visual communications in development: allow me to illustrate

Isabelle Kermeen Active citizenship, Rights

2020 brought many surprises. At the beginning of the pandemic, the last thing I expected was to be coaching voice actors down a crackly line to a recording studio in Afghanistan. My organisation, Integrity Action, was producing an animated video to showcase one of the impact stories from our work – this was part of our shift, over recent years, …

On human rights, the US must repair, reflect, and re-engage

Vicki Gass Active citizenship, Land rights

On January 16, Julio David González Arango, an Indigenous land defender involved in peaceful resistance to a mining operation in Guatemala, was shot in his home. The next day, two other defenders – Juan Eduardo Donis and Pablo Adolfo Valenzuela – received text messages saying that “they would be next.”   Tragically, this incident is all too familiar to activists and human rights …

Introducing The Impact Talk Podcast from Oxfam Novib & the “Power of Citizens’ Voices” Series

Oxfam Novib Active citizenship

“People living on the frontlines of inequality have the solutions, and leaders all over the world should pay attention to what people are saying are tangible solutions”Antonia Musunga, Kenya National Coordinator, Fight Inequality Alliance, and guest on Episode 1 of the Impact Talk Podcast. Oxfam Novib announces the launch of The Impact Talk Podcast with the “Power of Citizens’ Voices” …

A deep-dive into the practice of influencing networks

Marieke Meeske Active citizenship, Participation and Leadership

In July 2020 Oxfam Novib launched the book ‘Beating the Drum: Stories of Influencing Networks’ [available in English and French]. The book, which is part of a comprehensive learning trajectory on ‘worldwide influencing networks’ (WIN), explores the practical experiences of nine influencing networks around the world and their efforts to influence decision-makers on a variety of issues. Issues include land rights, the abolition of nuclear weapons, …

Meera’s Journey: Climate, Covid and Care

Power in the Pandemic Podcast Active citizenship, Climate Change, Gender

“If we want to move away from systems of violence we have to reimagine a world that centres care” – Meera Ghani In this final episode of the Climate, Covid and Care series, we hear from Meera Ghani, a climate justice activist, anti-racist and anti-capitalist feminist, and abolitionist from Pakistan. Meera works to support community initiatives with Ecolise and co-founded the Moxie Consultancy …

Inspiring Radically Better Futures

Ruth Mayne Active citizenship, Influencing, Participation and Leadership

The Inspiring Better Futures case study series is a collective endeavour with contributions from many people around the world. Hope has been quite the buzzword in 2020. And hope is surely needed given that 2020 has seen the collision of multiple crises: the climate emergency, economic inequality, gender injustice, racial inequality and the coronavirus pandemic. This collision of crises has …