Featured image for “What can Oxfam’s new Davos Report teach us about Killer Graphics?”

What can Oxfam’s new Davos Report teach us about Killer Graphics?

January 19, 2023
Ever since Matt Griffiths and I came up with the ‘cowfact’ in the early 2000s, I’ve been struck by the power of ‘killer facts’ in NGO communications (heck, even Fidel Castro used Oxfam ones). But things have moved on, and now we live in a more visual, tweetable age of ‘killer graphics’. So if killer facts reveal an injustice through
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Featured image for “Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies: the politics of saving the planet”

Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies: the politics of saving the planet

January 17, 2023
Neil McCulloch introduces his new book Hands up if you would like petrol prices to go up?  I’m guessing not too many hands.  The cripplingly high costs of energy (whether petrol, diesel, gas or coal as well as electricity) have posed a huge challenge for households and firms all around the world.  Massive increases in these costs, driven by the
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Featured image for “Is Extinction Rebellion really quitting? Analysis of their New Year’s Day statement”

Is Extinction Rebellion really quitting? Analysis of their New Year’s Day statement

January 4, 2023
As well as the headlines, First Edition, the Guardian’s excellent daily news summary (free subscription here), includes an in-depth conversation between the editor and one of its specialist journalists. Yesterday’s, with environment correspondent Damien Gayle, was on ‘Extinction Rebellion’s New Year’s Day statement, which led with the headline-grabbing phrase “we quit”’. Not true, apparently. Here’s the Guardian’s analysis: ‘This is
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Featured image for “The Clean Energy Transition needs to be Fast – but it must also be Fair”

The Clean Energy Transition needs to be Fast – but it must also be Fair

December 8, 2022
Dante Dalabajan and Ruth Mayne introduce a new Oxfam research report – produced by staff and partners from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, US and Europe. The paper investigates the implications of the clean energy transition for lower-income countries and communities and asks how the world can achieve a truly just, as well as fast, transition. As acknowledged at the recent
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Featured image for “Africa’s newest oil pipeline. When Two Elephants fight, the people get trampled”

Africa’s newest oil pipeline. When Two Elephants fight, the people get trampled

November 30, 2022
My former student Christopher Liberty got in touch and asked to post this piece. Debates about the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and the EU’s move to halt the project dominated headlines in the lead-up to COP 27. Most discussions have focused on the future macroeconomic and environmental effects of the project, in addition to the EU’s meddling in
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Featured image for “Loss and Damage fund established at COP27: what happens next?”

Loss and Damage fund established at COP27: what happens next?

November 29, 2022
Saleemul Huq, one of the most persistent long-term advocates of a ‘loss and damage’ fund on climate change, explores the origins and potential of the breakthrough at the recent COP. For thirty years the vulnerable developing countries led by the small island states had been demanding under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) the creation of a fund
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Featured image for “Aid v Global Public Goods; the fear in the system and multi-dimensional poverty: A conversation with Norway’s Development Agency”

Aid v Global Public Goods; the fear in the system and multi-dimensional poverty: A conversation with Norway’s Development Agency

November 11, 2022
Spent a fascinating hour this week shooting the breeze with Nikolai Hegertun and Petter Skjæveland from Norad, the Norwegian aid agency. They’d got in touch to discuss some of the obstacles and challenges they face, look for ideas from elsewhere that might work for them etc etc – I love this kind of conversation. Some highlights: Aid v Global Public
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Featured image for “Words v Deeds: Rishi Sunak at the Egypt Climate Summit”

Words v Deeds: Rishi Sunak at the Egypt Climate Summit

November 9, 2022
Oxfam GB’s Danny Sriskandarajah  assesses words v deeds in Rishi Sunak’s performance on the climate crisis After initially dithering on whether to attend the COP27 climate summit this week, Prime Minister Sunak seems to have packed his Climate Superhero costume for his trip to Sharm-El-Sheikh. His speech was not short of promises – to turn the UK into a ‘clean energy
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5 ways to build more inclusive cities

September 13, 2022
Nicola Nixon (right) and Tamara Failor (centre) from The Asia Foundation and Rebecca Calder (left), from Kore Global, introduce some ideas for making cities more inclusive in Southeast Asia. In the shadow of Covid-19, rapid urbanization is exacerbating existing inequalities and creating new ones that dramatically reduce the quality of life of people who are marginalized.  Three examples: Persons with
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Featured image for “Summer Student blog and campaign: Protecting the protectors”

Summer Student blog and campaign: Protecting the protectors

August 16, 2022
Next up on this series of posts from my indomitable LSE students, Ximena Altamirano. Here’s the full campaign strategy on which this post was based. The world is going through a climate crisis; temperatures are rising, icecaps melting and forests depleting – that is not exactly news. While we are all doing our part in protecting the planet, Latin American
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Featured image for “Who are ‘we’? Seeking African solutions to crises and funding gaps”

Who are ‘we’? Seeking African solutions to crises and funding gaps

August 2, 2022
Guest post by Eyokia Donna Juliet  At the recent AU Humanitarian Summit, finding African solutions to African problems was an important theme. What will it take to walk the talk? In Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia now, it’s likely that a person is dying of hunger every 48 seconds. How many years of neglect, denial, and short-sighted decisions by policy makers
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Featured image for “Africa is so rich in farmland – so why is it still hungry?”

Africa is so rich in farmland – so why is it still hungry?

July 13, 2022
Guest post from Oxfam’s Anthony Kamande and Dailes Judge, ahead of this week’s African Union meeting It’s been more than two months since it rained in Nakuru County, Kenya, and Jane’s bean crop is long gone. Her only hope on her small plot of 0.8 hectares is the maize crop – but it will also be gone if it doesn’t
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