The lack of consistent attention to gender was concerning, as was the failure to tackle the Global South debt crisis – and the blinkered expansion of private finance, despite evidence of its harms. But, says Rachel Noble, as the world turns to implementation of the Financing for Development commitments, there are valuable opportunities to seize and build on, including for the women who do most of the world’s care work.
Women in the Global South know exactly how to support their own communities – so why don’t we get behind them?
What does it mean for international NGOs to truly shift power? At Oxfam, we think our fund for grassroots women’s rights organisations, which is founded on the principle that our partners should decide what to spend money on, holds some of the answers. Oxfam GB CEO Dr Halima Begum writes here about a project that has just won two 2025 Charity Awards.
Let’s build a collective movement to win economic justice for carers
Too many unpaid carers in the UK are struggling by on their own, unseen by policy makers. Taking inspiration from the union movement, says Hannah Webster of Care Full, it’s time to build the collective solidarity that can amplify our demands for an economy that values and supports us – and lifts carers out of poverty.
‘I have two jobs: one that keeps someone alive – and one that I get paid for.’
Unpaid carers like me save the NHS £119 billion a year, says Laura Barnes of the We Care Campaign – yet our rewards include burnout, poverty, never seeing friends and being pushed out of jobs. In the second blog in our series for Carers Week in the UK, she says it’s time to value what the millions of carers do: and that starts with tailored services, financial support, flexible work and access to respite.
This Carers Week, we need to talk about racial justice
While the needs of all unpaid carers in Scotland are often overlooked, people from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds are being especially failed. Margaret Chiwanza introduces new research that reveals how they are being pushed into poverty and struggling in silence. Addressing that, she says, demands measures co-created with communities from targeted support payments to respite breaks to health checks.
Five ways to back enterprises that drive climate and gender justice
Women are already leading innovations in clean energy, sustainable agriculture, and climate adaptation. Here’s how to support their enterprises and ensure that climate-friendly businesses also boost gender justice. By Keisha Gani, Anais Mangin, Windy Massabni, San Sar and Diana Tjoeng.
Land is at the heart of women’s rights in the Global South: so why no mention of it in this year’s UN political declaration?
While the landmark Beijing declaration 30 years ago on women’s rights mentioned land rights 30 times, this year’s UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) declaration fails to mention them at all. Naomi Shadrack explains why we need to put land firmly back on the global feminist agenda.
Austerity is creating fertile ground for the far-right: instead the UK must invest to fix its social infrastructure
The UK government needs to listen to Iceland’s progressive prime minister when she says robust welfare policies are the antidote to far-right extremism. And what’s more, investing in social infrastructure – in care, in health, in schools – is essential to driving the growth the government wants, says Amy Brooker of the Women’s Budget Group.
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.