Women’s rights in South Sudan: how do you empower women in a country in conflict?
[buzzsprout episode=’2559229′ player=’true’] How do you help empower women in a conflict zone? In South Sudan, Oxfam is pushing to help women make money through agriculture and small businesses, with the aim of boosting their ability to claim their rights in the household and community. In this podcast Anne Daniel Ali, Director-General of the Ministry of Gender and Social Welfare …
Questioning the use of biometric technology in humanitarian response
Anna Kondakhchyan shares the findings of new research, Biometrics in the Humanitarian Sector, which looks into the benefits and risks of using biometric technology to register people to receive humanitarian aid. How would you feel if refusal to submit your biometric data meant you were excluded from the provision of humanitarian assistance? Biometrics, the measurement of human characteristics through technology such …
How improving access to water can help reduce care work
Changes to infrastructure and equipment can make a real difference to time spent on care work . Lucia Rost and the WE-Care team share research from the Philippines, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Everyone needs care, but in many countries, it is mostly women who are responsible for providing it. Heavy care work responsibilities can restrict women’s opportunities for education, employment, political …
Gender, development, and the challenge of intersectionality
On International Women’s Day Marion Sharples from the Gender and Development Network reflects on the importance of understanding intersecting oppressions. In the field of gender and development, intersectionality has emerged as a new framework for understanding oppression and building inclusion—but it has proven a difficult concept to put into practice. The Gender & Development Network (GADN), a London-based network with …
Follow the money: calculating net aid flows
What percentage of aid reaches the intended recipient country? Our methodology tool can be used to calculate this, but more aid data transparency is needed. Aid data transparency just got a major boost from the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Its new policy document, ‘Open aid, open societies: A vision for a transparent world’ reaffirms the agency’s requirement that …
Taking emergency water, sanitation and hygiene to market
Esther Shaylor explains how Oxfam is working with other NGOs to share learning about providing emergency water, sanitation and hygiene using local markets. In recent years there has been a change in how we deliver humanitarian aid. The humanitarian sector as a whole is moving away from distributing food and other items, and, through research and practice, is working out …
Government budgets that work for women and girls
What could putting females, and other genders, at the heart of government budgets look like? Clare Coffey and Nguyen Thu Huong introduce a new tool to help. We all know that money matters and how governments collect and spend their budgets is a case in point. We need governments budgets because they fund schools and teachers, hospitals and staff. But …
The power of radio
For World Radio Day Shivanee Harshey explains how Oxfam India was able to take their message about gender based violence to new audiences through a popular radio show. Radio is a powerful means of communicating at scale. You can make good radio, interesting radio, compelling radio even, without an urgent question or a burning issue. In the development sector our …