I joined Oxfam in Myanmar in 2017 as a research coordinator to lead overall project management and coordination between researchers in Myanmar and researchers in the UK for the innovative Action for Empowerment and Accountability (A4EA) project. A4EA is an international research programme, implemented by a consortium which Oxfam is part of, led by The Institute of Development Studies (IDS). …
A fairer tax system is essential to ‘building back better’
Tax Justice UK shares Oxfam’s commitment to tackling inequality, eradicating poverty and standing up for those who typically struggle to get their voices heard. The need to address these issues has only become more urgent in light of the covid-19 pandemic, which in the UK as elsewhere has had a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable in society, including ethnic …
Change is all about the narrative
It’s always useful when someone puts together a summary and synthesis of a larger piece of work. Thanks to Caroline Cassidy who put this blog together, inspired by Narrative Power and Collective Action Volumes 1 and 2. Isabel Crabtree-Condor 2020 feels like an intense novel – you’re desperate to get to the end of the story and hope it will …
Transformative impact at scale in Senegal
The Inspiring Better Futures case studies series shares insights from people who are successfully creating better futures even against the odds in some of the world’s toughest contexts in lower-income countries. All have achieved transformative impact at scale by tackling underlying structural causes of the converging economic, gender or environmental crises. Here we delve deeper into the series to interview some of the people helping make change happen. Tostan’s Community Engagement Programme has fostered inspiring change at scale …
Inspiring Radically Better Futures
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 …
Their land, their voices
Their land, their voices – About the importance of meaningful community engagement with local communities Land rights of local communities are often threatened in the context of increased demand for land and natural resources. A community’s choice to give, or withhold, their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) to a project or activity planned to take place on their land …
Women’s land rights on paper are not enough
Land is critical to our daily lives. It is intrinsically linked with our identity, dignity, livelihoods, food, housing, education and health. Secure land rights are essential to sustainable and equitable economic development as well as to social and political development. This holds true, especially for women. For women to have secure land rights, the legal and policy framework must recognise …
A Long Way to Go: Influencing Social Norms to Combat Gender-Based Violence in Iraq
There are many social, political, religious, tribal and economic reasons that contribute to defining gender roles throughout the ages, and yet there appears to be a common thread of gender inequality across different times and territories. Iraq is no exception to this: with a long history of colonial rule, foreign intervention, successive conflicts and a volatile socio-economic context, there are …
Ready to adapt: resilient women entrepreneurs in the pandemic
UN Women estimates that during the first month of the pandemic, informal workers lost an average of 60 percent of their income: with losses as high as 81% in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. In low-income countries pre-pandemic, just one in four businesses were owned by women, and their access to financial products and services was often limited – even though …