Is Social Media a New Frontier for Marginalised Communities to Challenge Old Power? The Flint Water Tragedy, and the Power of Place-Based Digital Activism

February 3, 2022
In the second of their four-part blog series (first published on Global Policy), which seeks to spark new ways of thinking about digitally-mediated activism, Nina Newhouse and Charlie Batchelor (two of my LSE students from last year’s cohort), use Timms and Heimans’ New/Old Power framework to ask how activists can use the internet to achieve new forms of power and
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Deconstructing this year’s Oxfam Davos report – what makes it so good?

January 20, 2022
I know this is the week of Blue Monday, when we are all supposed to feel at our most miserable, but I’m not feeling it – this is the time of year when I am proudest of working for Oxfam, because of its annual Davos report. For several years now, this has focussed on inequality, and I honestly think (though
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Davos, Inequality and Covid: Oxfam on Beating back the Billionaire Variant

January 18, 2022
It’s Davos time again, and here’s Oxfam’s Anthony Kamande introducing its latest blockbuster report. In the informal settlement area of Kawangware in Nairobi, my good friend Joe is quarantining in his small room after contracting COVID-19, for the second time now. He is a nurse in one of the private hospitals in the city. The contact-intensive nature of his job
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9 Great lectures/panels for you to catch up on over Christmas (or any other time) – see you next year

December 16, 2021
We’ve had a cracking series of lectures and discussions on our Friday afternoon LSE ‘Cutting Edge Issues in Development Thinking and Practice’ series, so I thought I’d post some links to the youtube videos and podcasts for those who are looking for some escape from the family Christmas (or otherwise just need some good brainfood). Grouping a bit by subject
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How Getting Organized has helped Mitigate the Impact of COVID-19 on People with Disabilities

December 2, 2021
Ahead of tomorrow’s International Day of People With Disabilities, Jessie Meaney-Davis summarizes new research on the impact of the pandemic. People with disabilities have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and not only because of the risks associated with underlying health conditions. The Disability Inclusion Helpdesk’s new report explains how the exclusion of Organisations of People with Disabilities (OPDs)
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When Two Pandemics Collide. How the HIV community has shown resilience, innovation and agency in the time of COVID-19

December 1, 2021
On World AIDS day, Ian Hodgson and Marina Schkot introduce a new study by Frontline AIDS. For the estimated 38 million people living with HIV, COVID-19 has meant one pandemic overlaid on another. The interaction between the two pandemics, and how the HIV community has responded, provide important lessons for the future. Sex workers, people who use drugs, adolescent girls
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Can the COVID victims of child marriage get accountability?

November 30, 2021
With schools closed and families feeling the pinch of inflation and lost income, UNICEF estimates that the pandemic has put an additional 10 million girls at risk of early marriage. Shaheen Anam of the Manusher Jonno Foundation, a Bangladeshi organization that has supported over 200 human rights and civil society groups in the last 20 years, explains why COVID-19 has
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30 years and counting: 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence in our COVID-19 world

November 26, 2021
Amina Hersi, Charlotte Becker and Florence Ogola introduce Oxfam’s new paper on the ‘dual crises’ of Covid and GBV. First published on the Oxfam International blog. Women, girls, trans and non-binary people have always faced the horrific and sometimes lethal consequences of gender-based violence in our societies, throughout history, in all countries, and in all walks of life. Even before
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Making Change: What Works? Lessons from four successful movements

November 23, 2021
Making Change: What Works? is a smart new report from IPPR and the Runnymede Trust, drawing lessons from some of the most effective campaigns of recent years. Although it is UK focussed, there’s lots to chew on for activists everywhere. Here’s the exec sum, which mercifully, didn’t even need an edit. Movements change the world. Throughout history, loosely organised networks
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Do you want to get serious about the Care Economy? If so, read this (and if not, why not?)

October 27, 2021
Amber Parkes, Anam Parvez Butt, Marion Sharples and Vivian Schwarz-Blum talks us through an important new advocacy tool – the Care Policy Scorecard Everything gets a rating these days: apps, hotels, Uber journeys. And everyone wants that five-star rating. But what about government policies that affect people’s lives? What if we could rate them too, according to how impactful and
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Social protection and COVID-19 – the emerging story of what worked where… and what it all means for future crises

September 29, 2021
Throughout the pandemic, social protection practitioners have been drawing on past experience and established ‘mantras’ to support governments and emergency actors to respond to the crisis. Valentina Barca, the Team Lead for the FCDO-GIZ-DFAT-funded SPACE service shares reflections on whether and how these mantras have been taken up. COVID-19 caught us all by surprise. The social protection sector was no exception. Often
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India’s Schooling Crisis

September 21, 2021
Beyond excited to host a development hero, Jean Drèze, on the blog. He introduces some new research showing that in India, the prolonged closure of schools has taken a heavy toll. A sound strategy to deal with this crisis is nowhere in sight. Indian children have been “locked out” of school for almost a year and a half. This lockout,
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