
May 8, 2025
Duncan Green reviews a new book by a giant in the field of community organising and explores the differences between that approach to driving change and the policy-focused advocacy typically used by NGOs.
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Cities besieged, bakeries bombed, fields set alight: it’s time to end the use of starvation as a weapon of war
May 6, 2025
The blockade of food, water and relief that has brought so much hunger and suffering to Gaza is the latest example of the growing use of starvation as a weapon of war, say Lawrence Robinson and Désirée Ketabchi. That’s why Oxfam has become a founding member of the Coalition Against Conflict and Hunger – a group of civil society organizations set up last year to end the deliberate use of starvation tactics in conflict and promote the protection of civilians and humanitarian space.
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No logframe, no indicators and no workplan: what can we learn from a malnutrition project that is truly community-led?
April 25, 2025
What happens when you support communities unconditionally to act as they see fit to tackle malnutrition? You get initiatives that seem, on the face of it, a long way from typical malnutrition interventions, whether that’s making soap, refurbishing a health centre or starting a poultry farm. Stephanie Buell of Action Contre la Faim on the “Boolo Xeex Xibon” project in Senegal – and how it actually put the community at the centre of the fight against malnutrition.
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Peru banned child marriage: here are three ways longitudinal research helped to make that happen
April 24, 2025
What does it take to persuade policy makers to make real progressive change? Kath Ford explains how Oxford University’s Young Lives study found success with a combination of robust longitudinal data, translating research into policy influencing and, crucially, relationships built painstakingly over many years.
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To influence those ‘out there’, change how you work ‘in here’: how a complex network worked to shape a UN treaty
April 23, 2025
Ajoy Datta draws five lessons from an analysis of how an international membership organisation influenced the 2023 High Seas Treaty.
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How does research for advocacy work ? A useful new guide
April 18, 2025
Our Blogger Emeritus Duncan Green on a new guide that draws on work in the US to influence policy on tobacco and health to identify five roles for research in policy change.
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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?
April 10, 2025
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.
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Imposter syndrome: do you have it? And is it always a bad thing?
April 3, 2025
‘One male former government minister said he felt like an imposter a lot of the time… a government minister!’ Duncan Green reflects on how a recent conversation with LSE leadership students revealed widespread feelings of imposter syndrome.
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Why water security is everybody’s problem – and nobody’s problem
March 31, 2025
The growing water crisis for billions threatens global progress on everything from poverty to hunger to green growth. Yet no one is stepping up to deliver and coordinate the funding needed to avoid a catastrophic future. Jo Trevor sets out the urgent need for smart water financing – which is the focus of an Oxfam event at this week’s Marmalade Festival in Oxford.
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Austerity is creating fertile ground for the far-right: instead the UK must invest to fix its social infrastructure
March 25, 2025
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.
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Santosh, a new film about modern India that you should not miss
March 24, 2025
FP2P’s blogger emeritus Duncan Green recommends Santosh, a film that anyone interested in India or social justice should not miss.
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Why the UK must take a bold stance against global attacks on women’s rights
March 19, 2025
Amid a worldwide backlash against women’s rights, and after its own aid cuts that further threaten those rights, it has never been more urgent for the UK government to speak up loudly for global gender equality, says the Gender and Development Network.
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