Guest post from Camila Teixeira, Policy Specialist at UNICEF In recent years, more young people have been engaging in collective protest to advocate for causes that matter to them. From fighting racism to defending peace, from climate strikes to demands for better education or employment, these demonstrations are powerful expressions of youth agency over the issues shaping their lives, communities,

It felt right that my last public gig with an Oxfam hat was to chair a panel at last week’s conference on Faith and Development (F&D), co-organized by Christian Aid and Islamic Relief. It’s one of this issues I’ve banged on about over the years, with limited (zero?) impact on the determinedly secular world of aid. There was a live

As part of its preparations for the post-Dexit blog, Oxfam is asking readers to give us their thoughts via this survey. Here’s the blurb: ‘There are changes coming to the From Poverty to Power blog and Oxfam’s other channels for sharing ideas and evidence with those who work in, research, fund and have an interest in this sector. We would

To prepare for leaving a job I have loved, first as head of research, then as strategic adviser, I have been re-reading a work diary I kept from my arrival in 2004 until about 2010 (when it fizzled out). It helps bring back those early days, and prevents rewriting my experiences, whether for good or bad, with the benefits of

Hi Everyone, After 20 years at Oxfam (how did that happen?), it’s finally time to move on. I’m leaving at the end of this month. Dexit is dawning – had to happen some time, I guess. What’s next? As befits my advanced years, I’ll be doing a few consultancies like the one I’ve just got back from in Papua New

A few weeks ago, I was in Papua New Guinea, where I support a fascinating programme to build citizen engagement with the government. On the margins, we were discussing influencing (as ever) and in particular, focussed on how civil society deals with threats – bad ideas from government, unintended consequences from new laws etc. This was interesting because so much

In the latest of this series of podcasts with UN and other aid leaders making change happen on the frontline, I talked to Djanabou Mahonde, from UNICEF in Benin, about the power of ‘convening and brokering’ in tackling girls’ rights. Duncan: With me is Djanabou Mahonde from UNICEF Benin, who’s done some really impressive influencing work on girls’ rights there.

Guest post from Warren Krafchik and Peter Evans The ‘Open Movement’ is 20 years old. This reflection is written with love – one of us was deeply involved from the start, the other a fellow traveller looking from the sidelines. Tough love from firm friends, if you will. As we wrote, the think piece got bouncier and longer as it

In the latest of this series of podcasts with UN and other aid leaders making change happen on the frontline, I talked to Federico Dessi of Humanity & Inclusion, about a breakthrough in the treatment of national staff in humanitarian settings. Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa · GELI Stories – Federico Dessi on how INGO advocacy won better protection for

Andreas Ulfsax works for IM (www.imsweden.org/en). IM is a Swedish member-based development organization supporting civil society organizations in 10 countries. As a Change Developer, he focuses on getting everyone to experiment more. For contacts andreas.ulfsax@imsweden.org This blog post describes how IM experimented with Power Funding, a new funding modality, and the surprising results. Can we fund better than Core/Institutional funding?

Been having a series of conversations on the general theme of ‘backlash’. Some thoughts: Background: a lot of activist thinking is predicated on being on the front foot – this is a law, policy, spending commitment or social norm that we want to change. Lots of case studies, toolkits and experience on how to do that – problem and power

In the fifth of this series of podcasts with UN and other aid leaders making change happen on the frontline, I talked to Panos Moumtzis, who now leads the GELI programme, about some top influencing he did in a previous job as UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa · GELI Stories – Panos Moumtzis on how