Care work is real work: how can we make people and policy makers see that?

Daniela OliveiraGender, Inequality, Women's Economic Empowerment

Daniela Oliveira pays tribute to the caring work of her own mother, “the minister for home affairs”, and sets out three ways to shift how the public and governments recognise and value the labour of care.

Violent pushbacks, a no-go zone and hostility: the triple threat for refugees at the EU’s ‘green border’

Dominika OżyńskaHumanitarian, Refugees and IDPs, Rights

In the forests that divide Poland from Belarus, those fleeing war-torn countries face a harsh crackdown. Dominika Ożyńska of Polish organisation Egala describes how many are being forced back into Belarus and cut off from humanitarian assistance, as NGOs are banned from certain border areas. All of this is taking place amid growing public and political hostility and anti-migrant rhetoric.

Across Britain, paid and unpaid care work remains undervalued and ignored: here are six ways governments can change that

Silvia GalandiniPoverty in the UK, Research, Women's Economic Empowerment

Being a parent, unpaid carer or paid care worker in Wales, Scotland or England too often means being forced into hardship. Silvia Galandini and Claire Spoors introduce Oxfam’s new paper, which sets out how to break the link between care and poverty.

Don’t see the value of care, carers and informal workers? We have some messages that might just change your mind…

Sanika SawantInfluencing, Research, Women's Economic Empowerment

Tired old narratives such as care is not ‘real’ work need to be challenged. Sanika Sawant, Alex Bush, Anam Parvez Butt, Blandina Bobson, Silvia Galandini and Regis Mtutu on new Oxfam research from Kenya, Zimbabwe and the UK that tested new narratives with exciting potential to build government and public support for care, carers and informal workers.

How can we tell a new story that boosts support for all care and carers?

Silvia GalandiniInfluencing, Poverty in the UK, Research

The millions of paid and unpaid carers across the UK – including parents and guardians of children, social care and childcare workers, and unpaid carers for disabled, ill and elderly people – desperately need a new deal. Silvia Galandini, Anam Parvez (both Oxfam GB) and Nick Gadsby (The Answer) introduce a new toolkit that can help build public pressure for change, by constructing a fresh and compelling narrative about the value of all care.

Decolonising development narratives

Shaz ElaheeGeneral

Narratives around “development”  On January 6th 2021, white supremacists stormed the US capitol after months of lies and misinformation about election fraud was spread by Donald Trump and his allies. Several reporters and prominent politicians called the violent insurrection “unamerican,” likening the scenes to a “banana republic” and saying “those are the sorts of things that happen in third-world nations.” Reporting live on …

Change is all about the narrative

Caroline CassidyInfluencing

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 …