Featured image for “Aid is often given for all the wrong reasons: but Trump’s aid cuts won’t solve the problem.”

Aid is often given for all the wrong reasons: but Trump’s aid cuts won’t solve the problem.

February 13, 2025
If you want to be rid of aid that advances US interests, don’t celebrate now: that aid isn’t going anywhere, says Terence Wood.
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Featured image for “Two lessons from Trump’s attack on Aid”

Two lessons from Trump’s attack on Aid

February 4, 2025
Whatever finally emerges from the Trump Administration’s assault on USAID (and other governments such as Switzerland jumping on the bandwagon), surely the status quo ante is unlikely to return. What to do? Yes we can keep making the case for aid, hoping that the political tide will turn, but the political consensus around aid had been under assault since long
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Featured image for “‘It feels like a more innocent time for Oxfam and for our belief in progress’: looking back on Make Poverty History ”

‘It feels like a more innocent time for Oxfam and for our belief in progress’: looking back on Make Poverty History 

February 3, 2025
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. 
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Why the campaign for reparations must put gender justice at its heart

January 30, 2025
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…
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Featured image for “Want to tackle inequality? Start with fair taxes and giving the Global South a real voice at the IMF and World Bank”

Want to tackle inequality? Start with fair taxes and giving the Global South a real voice at the IMF and World Bank

January 22, 2025
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.
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Featured image for “Who wants to be a trillionaire? How Oxfam worked out five men could win the ultimate wealth prize”

Who wants to be a trillionaire? How Oxfam worked out five men could win the ultimate wealth prize

January 21, 2025
Alex Maitland takes us through the number-crunching behind the headline prediction from this year’s Davos report: that there will be five trillionaires within a decade.
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Featured image for “Get ready for the new trillionaire class: whose wealth will be built not on merit but inheritance, monopoly – and the legacy of colonialism”

Get ready for the new trillionaire class: whose wealth will be built not on merit but inheritance, monopoly – and the legacy of colonialism

January 20, 2025
The world looks set to see five trillionaires within a decade — and more billionaires are now being created through inheritance than entrepreneurialism. Anjela Taneja and Harry Bignell introduce Oxfam’s 2025 Davos report, which reveals the scale of unearned wealth — and how those riches are built on a colonial legacy of exploitative global systems.
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As global water runs dry, how can we make sure billions don’t get cut off?

January 8, 2025
Over two billion people lack access to safe drinking water – and the situation is set to become bleaker still because of climate change, say Jo Trevor and Padmini Iyer. How do we build equitable and collective approaches to global water security that uphold everyone’s basic right to clean water?
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Featured image for “Global South feminists know how our fixation with GDP hurts people and planet: it’s time to listen to them”

Global South feminists know how our fixation with GDP hurts people and planet: it’s time to listen to them

December 20, 2024
The world needs to stop relying on a metric that ignores two thirds of the work done by women and which promotes harmful policies, says Oxfam GB CEO Halima Begum. A new collection of feminist think pieces offers a compelling and inspirational tour of the arguments and pathways for moving Beyond GDP.
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How Can Activists Get Better at Driving Change?

December 19, 2024
Gave a lecture at York University recently on how activists can sharpen up their act. Nothing much new here, but the sound quality is good, and the Q&A was fun, so thought I’d repost here. Feel free to nick/copy/download etc. Best new line, IMO was towards the end: ‘Effective activism = analysis + anger + empathy, but in practice people find
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Featured image for “Searching for my voice, in fear and silence”

Searching for my voice, in fear and silence

December 17, 2024
Next up from my amazing LSE activism students, Fatima Aysha, a Syrian student with over five years of experience working with INGOs in Syria, including Action Against Hunger and the Aga Khan Foundation.  I wrote this blog on 23 October 2024 and decided not to publish it because of the phrase “walls have ears”, thinking that it might cause problems
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The Sounds of Resistance

December 12, 2024
This year’s students on the LSE course on activism, which I teach with Tom Kirk, are amazing. Recently ran a blogging workshop, and quite a few of them went on to produce lovely posts. Will stick my favourites up here over the next few weeks. First up, Salma Saleh  on music and politics, first published on the LSE International Development
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