Hey FP2P readers, can you please help us choose the title for a MOOC on How Change Happens?

January 31, 2018
We’re in the middle of writing an Oxfam MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) aimed at activists around the world. It brings together some of the themes of How Change Happens (Power and Systems) with some of Oxfam’s more practical internal training materials for campaigners. More on the content to follow, but right now we have to decide on a title
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My (current) default suggestions when asked about almost anything to do with ‘strategy’

January 31, 2018
I realised recently that I have a fairly standard playlist of topics I bang on about to people during the frequent ‘blue sky’ (well, the initials are BS, anyway) sessions after someone phones up and says something like ‘can I pick your brains as part of our strategy refresh?’ So I thought, if I am going to give the same
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When is eradicating a major disease a disaster for healthcare?

January 30, 2018
Guest post from Laura Kerr, Senior Policy Advocacy Officer (Child Health), RESULTS UK The world is on the brink of a historic breakthrough – the eradication of polio. Cause for celebration, right? Well yes, in terms of getting rid of a killer disease, but because of the way the aid business has distorted health systems around the developing world, the
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Links I Liked

January 29, 2018
So much for stereotypes: Mexicans work the longest hours in the OECD, Germans the least. (click to expand) Freedom of Information requests reveal that the UK Government (Foreign Office and Department for International Trade) are still championing the interests of British American Tobacco. Reminder. Smoking kills 6m people a year, mostly in poor countries (WHO figures). A genuine scandal. Charles
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Book Review: ‘I’ve got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle’ Charles M Payne

January 26, 2018
I’ve given my kids a lot of improving books over the years, and now they’re exacting revenge. Parental devotion means I read anything they give me, which at least gets me out of the aid and development ghetto. My Christmas present this year from son Calum was Charles Payne’s wonderful book on the US civil rights movement, which also kept
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Tackling poverty and injustice by influencing behaviours and practices: what works?

January 25, 2018
Ruth Mayne, Oxfam’s senior researcher on influencing, introduces a new discussion paper on behaviour and practice change, written with Melanie Kesmaecker-Wissing, Lucy Knight and Jola Miziniak. This was first posted on Oxfam’s Views and Voices site. Behaviour change strategies can play a vital role in combating poverty, injustice and environmental problems, whether by helping end gender-based violence, improving health and hygiene behaviours,
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From Dandora to Davos – organising from the grassroots and puncturing the elite

January 24, 2018
With the inequality crisis in focus as the world’s elite gathers in Davos, the Fight Inequality Alliance’s Global Convenor, Jenny Ricks (@jenny_ricks ), examines where real change is likely to come from Inequality, and sage words about needing to tackle it, are once again ringing through the halls of Davos. As a counterpoint to this, we in the Fight Inequality Alliance
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Links I Liked

January 23, 2018
I’m with the cats 10 years on from the start of the financial crisis, macroeconomics still hasn’t come up with a big new idea in response to the last decade of crisis. Robert Skidelsky brilliantly takes issue with Paul Krugman, arguing that meant Neo-Keynesianism only lasted 6 months after the 2008 crash, and then it was back to austerity-as-usual. Tunisia
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Davos is here again, so it’s time for Oxfam’s new report on prosperity and poverty, wealth and work.

January 22, 2018
As the masters of the universe (or at least planet earth) gather in Davos, here’s a curtain-raiser from Deborah Hardoon, Oxfam’s Deputy Head of Research, introducing its new report. Gotta love a data release. Every year I look forward to the release of the Credit Suisse Global Wealth databook. An immense piece of work, developed over a decade and led by
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Survey Results: Who reads FP2P? What jobs do you do? How would you like to improve it?

January 19, 2018
Late last year, 350 or so of you were kind enough to fill in an FP2P reader survey, so it’s time to feed back the results (big thanks to Amy Moran for doing the leg work). As well as being a useful snapshot, it’s also interesting to compare it to the previous reader survey from 2012 (I know how many
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Coalitions and Compliance: The Political Economy of Pharmaceutical Patents in Latin America. Book Review.

January 18, 2018
Back in the early noughties, I was an NGO trade wonk, prowling the corridors of the WTO and having a fun time at a series of highly theatrical biannual ‘ministerials’ (Seattle 1999 (collapse), Doha 2001 (trade talks launched), Cancún 2003 (another collapse)). Over the course of those campaigns, we grew increasingly vociferous about the need for developing countries to retain
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What’s your link to bereaved Kenyan mother, Judith Amoit?

January 17, 2018
Guest post from Matthew Spencer, Oxfam’s Director of Campaigns, Policy and Influencing (@spencerthink)  Judith Amoit, a 27 year-old policewoman hit the Kenyan news last year when she lost her twins shortly after giving birth prematurely in the Nairobi West hospital. She was prevented from leaving the hospital to bury her children because she couldn’t pay the £20,000 bill.  Judith was
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