Three decades after the landmark Beijing declaration to advance women’s rights, right-wing, religious, and conservative actors are reversing and obstructing hard-won progress. This International Women’s Day, our new Oxfam campaign calls on governments across the globe to reassert their commitment to gender justice, bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights, say Lata Narayanaswamy and Amina Hersi.
Leadership in a global aid meltdown – top tips from 25 people who know
Duncan Green shares some advice from humanitarian leaders in this bleak time for the sector – including talk more often to staff and partners, “watch the fog closely” and “don’t blabber” – and offers a couple of thoughts of his own. This post is taken from his new blog about activism, influencing and change, hosted by the LSE, which we’ll sharing highlights from here.
How the surge in land seizures and violence by Israel in the West Bank adds up to a brutal new level of oppression
The incursion of Israeli tanks into the West Bank this week is just the latest step in an intensifying and systematic crackdown. Bushra Khalidi on five repressive tactics the Israeli government has been using, including new laws that will accelerate annexation. The strategy, she says, is now clear: make Palestinian life unlivable.
Whose streets are these? Exploring gender and public spaces
Anandita Ghosh and Shivani Satija on Gender and Development journal’s special issue on public space, which explores the many ways in which women and other marginalised groups inhabit and experience physical and digital spaces – reclaiming spaces and resisting even as they face erasure and exclusion.
Too many UK workers can’t afford to get ill – but new reforms to sick pay don’t go far enough
The Employment Rights Bill passing through the UK parliament is a once-in-a-generation chance to end the scandal of people being pushed into poverty simply because they get sick. But though it contains some welcome reforms, says Sylvie Pope at The Centre for Progressive Change, it risks leaving many people worse off or still facing hardship.
‘We speak the language of refugees: people trust us’
Twelve years after he fled conflict in South Sudan, John Jal Dak is winning international recognition for the work of the refugee-led organisation he founded in Uganda – including being named one of the Obama Foundation’s Leaders in Africa.
‘It feels like a more innocent time for Oxfam and for our belief in progress’: looking back on Make Poverty History
Twenty years after he watched Nelson Mandela’s rousing launch speech in Trafalgar Square, Dominic Vickers reflects on the impact of the landmark Make Poverty History campaign for trade justice, debt relief and better aid – and wonders if a new generation can take up the cause again.
Why the campaign for reparations must put gender justice at its heart
Millions of women in the Global South earn a pittance, own no wealth or land and do far more unpaid care than men – and much of their condition today can be traced back to the economic devastation caused by both colonialism and the extractive economic system it created. That’s why any plan for redress must include justice for women. In the latest blog in our World Economic Forum series, Lurit Yugusuk and Hazel Birungi set out five ways to do that…
Want to tackle inequality? Start with fair taxes and giving the Global South a real voice at the IMF and World Bank
Global inequality will continue to spiral in a skewed system of international finance and governance that heavily favours the Global North, says Anthony Kamande in the latest blog in our Davos series.
Who wants to be a trillionaire? How Oxfam worked out five men could win the ultimate wealth prize.
Alex Maitland takes us through the number-crunching behind the headline prediction from our Davos report: that there will be five trillionaires within a decade.