The first thing you need for a decent education in the DRC? Clean water

Katie Edmondson Education, Private sector, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

In a country where too many girls still don’t get a basic education, textiles firm Romo has been working with Oxfam to provide support that goes well beyond textbooks or new classrooms. In a blog for International Youth Day, Katie Edmondson looks back on 17 years of an evolving partnership.

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

Feminist solutions to man-made economic inequality

Anam Parvez Economics, Education, Gender, Health, In the news, Inequality, Tax, Women's Economic Empowerment

Francesca Rhodes, Gender Policy Advisor, Man-Kwun Chan, Influencing Advisor, Women’s Economic Empowerment and Care, and Anam Parvez Butt, Gender Justice Research Lead at Oxfam GB outline some of the key ways public spending and taxation could reduce gender inequality. In the words of feminist activist, Paula Varela: ‘Women… have the majority of the precarious jobs, and we perform the overwhelming …

Solar study lamps in Sierra Leone

Kevin Johnstone Education, Gender, Innovation, Natural Resources, Private sector, Youth

Renewable Energy Policy Advisor, Kevin Johnstone, outlines some of the educational benefits of solar study lamp campaigns, and their potential to achieve much more. The cost of night studies Sometimes Bintu’s family couldn’t afford batteries for home lighting, and on those nights, she couldn’t complete her school work. Bintu’s mother explained that if “you don’t have batteries, your children will …

Making international development campaigns work for girls

Rosie Walters Education, Gender & Development Journal, Participation and Leadership, Youth

Rosie Walters discovers how girls can take a much more creative approach to feminist activism than campaigns would give them credit for. In the past decade, countless campaigns have emerged with the aim of empowering girls in the Global South.  Many of them cite statistics about the returns of investing in girls’ education, including increased economic output, delayed maternity and …