Power in the Pandemic

This episode hosts a conversation recorded last September 2020 during a virtual encounter around Creating Feminist Futures. María Faciolince, our host and moderator, is joined by three visionary feminists from around the world: Crystal Simeoni (Director at Nawi: Afrifem Macroeconomics Collective), Meera Ghani (Policy coordinator at Ecolise, Co-founder of Moxie Consultancy Collective) and Maria José Moreno (Global Gender Justice Director at Oxfam International).One of the shared solutions, or antidotes to systems of violence at the root of intersecting inequalities, is to center care. As we ask ourselves how to disrupt this paradigm of carelessness and promote the actions necessary in defence of our collective futures, this exploration engages with some of the following questions: What can care look like in practice? Which principles should underly the narrative of 'building back better' in re-building a post-pandemic feminist future? How can care as a right be articulated in contexts where basic human rights are violated? How do we visibilize care work within organizations? Tune in to hear what care-centered, justice-oriented feminist futures (and realities) can look like, the potential of the present moment, and how we can develop a vision for a caring future, what it might look like and how we might achieve it.Stay tuned, subscribe to Power in the Pandemic podcast and follow Power Shifts project on Instagram!LINKS:Feminist Futures: Caring for people, caring for justice and rights (paper)Check out these Power Shifts resource compilations useful for creating feminist futures:Power Shifts Resources: Well-being and DevelopmentPower Shifts Resources: Care in a Time of CoronaHost and script: María Faciolince Production and audio editing: Bethany Donkin

"If we want to move away from systems of violence, we have to reimagine a world that centres care." - Meera GhaniIn this final episode of the Climate, Covid and Care series, we hear from Meera Ghani, a climate justice activist, anti-racist and anti-capitalist feminist, and abolitionist from Pakistan. Meera works to support community initiatives with Ecolise and co-founded the Moxie Consultancy Collective to help organisations create transformative change through building a culture of care.The moment we find ourselves in amid intersecting crises - Covid 19 pandemic, climate breakdown and gender injustice, to name some - is a prime opportunity to think about what care looks like in practice. In this episode, Meera invites us to do just that. She zooms in on the violent systems at the root of these overlapping violences and offers some pointers towards rethinking and re-building systems to create kinder futures, starting from our intimate spaces of action. Taking some examples of the climate crisis in Pakistan, as well as examples of community-led solutions she's encountered through her work, Meera opens a rich discussion highlighting the need to place equity at the centre of work on global climate justice.Stay tuned, subscribe to Power in the Pandemic and follow Power Shifts project on Instagram!LINKS:Read this recent interview with MeeraFollow the Moxie Consultancy Collective on InstagramCheck out these Power Shifts resource compilations to follow up on these topics:Power Shifts Resources: Well-being and DevelopmentPower Shifts Resources: Care in a Time of CoronaHost and narration: Maria Faciolince Production and audio editing: Bethany DonkinPortrait of Meera by Maanya SharThis series was done in collaboration with the Climate, Covid, and Care: Feminist Journeys zine, a collection of journeys, stories, and ideas from five feminist activists working at the intersection of gender and climate justice.

"From an ecofeminist perspective, we understand that the sustainability of life should be at the front and centre of our economic system, instead of profit and competition. That means valuing care work. It means valuing low-carbon jobs. It means valuing the sustainability of all life." - Majandra Rodríguez AchaThis is the fourth episode of a  mini series, in collaboration with the Climate, Covid, and Care: Feminist Journey's zine which launched on the 24th of August, 2020. This publication is a collection of journeys, stories, and ideas from five feminist activists working at the intersection of gender and climate justice.In this episode, we hear from Majandra Rodríguez Acha, climate justice and queer feminist activist from Lima, Peru. Majandra’s activism focuses on gender, intersectionality, youth activism and the environment. In this episode, you'll hear Majandra share insights from her work at TierrActiva Perú and FRIDA on building transnational feminist solidarity and helping create new narratives to the ecological crisis geared towards feminist solutions and community-based organising. Listen to her delve into questions around navigating power and privilege, and reflect on the systemic crisis to highlight intersections between different forms of oppression, allowing us to see the direct relation between violence against women's bodies and the environment.Stay tuned and follow Power Shifts project on Instagram!Links and resources:- I am Generation Equality: Majandra Rodriguez Acha, youth leader, climate justice believer (UNWomen)- Majandra Rodriguez Acha on the Power of Youth and Women in Achieving a Sustainable Future (Global Greengrants)- In Peru, this young activist is sparking a movement for climate justice (Grist)- Majandra Rodríguez Acha: the Norms Shifter (On Think Tanks)- Women's Environment and  Development Organization (WEDO)Host and narration: Maria Faciolince Production and audio editing: Beth Donkin 

"Just because the entire world was on lockdown, doesn’t mean that climate change or the patriarchy was on lockdown. The patriarchy is not on lockdown. Climate change cannot be contained" - Betty BarkhaThis is the third episode of a mini-series, in collaboration with the Climate, Covid, and Care: Feminist Journey's zine which launched on the 24th of August, 2020. This publication is a collection of journeys, stories, and ideas from five feminist activists working at the intersection of gender and climate justice.In this episode, we hear from Betty Barkha, a climate activist from Latouka in the Fiji Islands.  The Pacific Islands are experiencing the life altering effects of the climate crisis as we speak. Sea levels are rising, increasing intensity of tropical cyclones, saltwater intrusions, coastal erosion, submersion of islands and much more...Betty offers insight into Pacific Island life and how answers can be found in the leaders and activists in the community. She also discusses the climate justice eco-system, the role of gender in the climate crisis and how Covid has heightened the visibility of issues of climate and gender inequality.Stay tuned and follow Power Shifts project on Instagram!Links and resources:The Civicus AllianceThe Association of Women in Development (AWID)FRIDA's Young Feminist FundThe Global Resilience Fund for Young Women and GirlsListen to the Equals PodcastHost and narration: Maria Faciolince Production and audio editing: Bethany DonkinPortrait of Betty by Maanya Shar

"The climate crisis is real for so many communities. Sometimes we don't have the language for it, we can't explain it. But we can feel it in our bodies. We feel it in our land. We see it in the water" - Maggie MaponderaThis is the second episode of a new mini-series, in collaboration with the Climate, Covid, and Care: Feminist Journeys zine which launched on the 24th of August, 2020. This publication is a collection of journeys, stories, and ideas from five feminist activists working at the intersection of gender and climate justice.In this second episode we hear from Maggie Mapondera, an activist-communicator-facilitator from Zimbabwe, who currently works with WOMIN, an organisation supporting and allying with women impacted by extractivism. Tune in to hear Maggie reflecting on difficult questions around systemic violence and race, climate change and COVID. Listen to how she's working to break down the silos separating these issues, and the importance of grappling with histories of violence to do justice to visions of feminist and climate justice activists today.Stay tuned and follow Power Shifts project on Instagram!Links and resources:Womin - the organisation Maggie works forAn interview with Maggie on Gender ITPower Shifts ProjectHost and narration: Maria Faciolince Production and audio editing: Bethany Donkin

"You can't speak about us, without us" -  Hindou Oumarou IbrahimThis is the first episode of a new mini-series, in collaboration with the Climate, Covid, and Care: Feminist Journeys zine which launched on the 24th of August, 2020. This publication is a collection of journeys, stories, and ideas from five feminist activists working at the intersection of gender and climate justice.In this episode, we hear from Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, an activist from the Indigenous Mbororo community in Chad.Hindou shares feminist and indigenous approaches to tackle the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. In a world of multiple crises, she explains the need to integrate both scientific knowledge with what she calls 'Indigenous intelligence' in order to create more sustainable societies. Hindou discusses her approach to climate justice, why indigenous knowledge is constantly evolving with a changing environment, and the opportunities she sees emerging during the pandemic. Stay tuned and follow Power Shifts project on Instagram!Links and resources:Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT)International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC)Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC)Indigenous knowledge meets science to solve climate change (Hindou on TEDWomen 2019)Power Shifts ProjectHost and narration: Maria Faciolince Production and audio editing: Beth Donkin 

How are young people responding to the coronavirus crisis?What's it like to manage a soap factory during the pandemic?How are young people using the internet to build bridges between generations during lockdowns?How does this virus exacerbate the ongoing economic crisis and rates of youth unemployment?Young people's voices are often the last to be heard during a crisis. Young people are rarely deemed the experts and they don't usually hold positions of power in their communities. In this episode, we flip the spotlight. We'll hear the experiences of young people during the coronavirus pandemic and learn how they are harnessing their power to take localised action in their communities in a way that big organisations and governments can't. We'll hear from young people running a blood bank in Pakistan, a Community Conversation Facilitator tackling fake news in Ethiopia and young people volunteering in Bangladesh, Canada, Quebec and Italy.Find out more about:The Empower Youth for Work Project https://www.empoweryouthforwork.org/Apathy is Boringhttps://www.apathyisboring.com/ Power shifts projecthttps://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/category/power-shifts/Citoyenneté Jeunesse https://citoyennetejeunesse.org/International Falcon Movement - Socialist Education International http://ifm-sei.org/Oxfam Italy https://www.oxfamitalia.org/Oxfam Québec https://oxfam.qc.ca/Youth Policy Labs https://www.youthpolicy.org/

How do we imagine a fairer, kinder post-COVID world for refugees and asylum seekers?It's Refugee Week! To celebrate, we bring you an episode which cuts across borders and hands the mic to two refugee activists who discuss the impact COVID-19 has had on the communities they work with.We hear from Obai Kurdali who works on peacebuilding and is based in Gaziantep in Turkey, and Loraine Mponela the Chairperson for Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group in the UK. Speaking with Shahd Mousalli, Obai and Loraine discuss life as an asylum seeker and refugee in the UK and Turkey, feelings of anxiety and fear amongst refugees which have been exacerbated during the pandemic, INGOs role in the war economy and how a fairer world could be imagined for refugees and asylum seekers post-COVID. More about our speakers:Obai Kurdali is a Syrian activist based in Gaziantep Turkey since 2015. Obai has started working in the field of building peace bridges since 2013. He joined the Peace Ambassadors Team of Mobaderoon association and co-founded the Non-violent behaviours initiative, which supports youth in developing Non-violent mechanisms. Currently, Obai is leading the network of My Home Is Your Home, which seeks to maintain and enhance solidarity and synergy among different refugee communities during COVID19. Loraine Mponela is from Malawi and has lived in the UK for 12 years. She is the current Chairperson for Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group (CARAG). Lorraine’s educational background is in Public Health and she co-founded Malawi Public Health Forum (MPHF), a platform that seeks to engage politicians and advocate for people's rights in relation to health.Links and resourcesRead Loraine's recent article>> The Impact of COVID-19 Government Measures on Asylum SeekersCheck out >> My Home is your Home Facebook networkCoventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group (CARAG)Join the (hashtag) StatusNow Campaign and sign the petition to put pressure on the government to give leave to remain to undocumented migrants and asylum seekers that have been failed by the system.

Let’s talk about racism and development.Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey is a Liberian academic, activist and author.In this conversation, Maria and Robtel talk about development as a racist construct. They discuss the 'decolonial turn', systems of power and decision-making that uphold racism, and Robtel asks us: how complicit are we all in upholding the notion that whiteness (often geographically equalled to 'northerness') is our only reference of progress?Recorded last year at the Development Studies Association Conference, where Robtel gave her keynote Speech on Decentering the 'White Gaze' of Development. This discussion is as relevant as ever in the current climate of Black Lives Matter and the anti-racism protests seen all over the world. However, racism in development is not a new issue, so why has it been overlooked? In this blog you can read some key take-aways from the episode: Does development have a problem with racism?Other links:Robtel's websiteRobtel's article: Decentering the 'White Gaze' of Development Keynote speech from the Development Studies Association Annual Conference 2019

Coronavirus has brought up new challenges locally and globally, how do these challenges affect refugees and internally displaced people living on resettlement camps?How has the Coronavirus made a difficult and precarious living situation more complicated for internally displaced people and refugees? What is it like to live through this pandemic in a camp setting? And what are community members, organizations and governments doing to build community’s resilience and preparedness in camps? We hear from YPSA in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh and a resident of Sittwe Camp in Myanmar. How is information being disseminated about Coronavirus and how are people adapting to social distancing? We also hear from Jordan's Za'atari Refugee Camp hearing how waste collectors are keeping the camp clean during the lockdown.Links and resources:Life Under Lockdown: Keeping Za'atari Refugee Camp clean despite COVID-19The plight of the Rohingya - Resource from the United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumFind out more about YPSA- Young Power in Social Action who work out of Cox's BazarThe ISCG's recent report on COVID-19: Preparedness and response for the Rohingya refugee camps and host communities in Cox’s Bazar DistrictRead more blogs and resources from Power Shifts and Views and Voices 

Duoi takes us out to visit farmers on the Midpulo Unified Agriculture Cooperative to explore how the coronavirus pandemic has affected food systems and farming in the Philippines.Power in the Pandemic brings you this week's featured voice: Duoi Ampilan, from Mindanao island in the Philippines.Duoi has been focusing his efforts on changing up food systems to ensure food security at the local level. This is done through the promotion of organic agriculture among small scale farmer. How has the coronavirus pandemic affected these efforts?In this episode, you'll hear from Duoi, Amiruddin Gani, Ramla Gani and Pabi Gani. They share some of the issues they're facing as coronavirus has hit during the middle of their dry season, making it much more difficult to sell their produce. We'll also hear about the benefits of organic farming, especially during this critical time.Find out more about Midpulo Unified Agriculture Cooperative on their facebook page.Explore more blogs and podcasts from Power Shifts and Views and Voices.

You’re listening to the first episode of Power in the Pandemic. Before we share the voices we are capturing from across the world about their experiences of the coronavirus, we explore the role power plays during this crisis. In this introductory episode, we consider how the coronavirus has made us rethink power structures. We hear from David Mwambari about a Post-Corona, Pan-African vision and why now is the time to decolonise. We also consider the effects of the virus on social movements and narratives. Stay tuned to hear powerful stories amid this pandemic. Check out the full articles below and visit the Power Shifts page and Views and Voices.   

      Something that threatens to separate us, is highlighting our deep interconnection.    Welcome to Power in the Pandemic podcast. Right now, the world is going through massive shifts, triggered by the rapid spread of the Coronavirus. In this series, we're bringing together the unheard and often forgotten voices living through the pandemic, in order to get a glimpse into the world that’s being created in the cracks of this crisis.In each episode, we will hear from a range of individuals and social leaders, from migrant labourers to trans youth mobilizing in their communities, to humanitarian workers. We'll learn about responses to the virus from those already facing a range of inequalities and injustices daily.What are the guiding principles of communities and groups of people most vulnerable to the effects of this pandemic? What works in different regions? How is local leadership being reimagined, and what new sorts of arrangements are emerging?Join us to hear the emerging voices and stories as Power Shifts and the Oxfam In-Depth podcast collaborate to bring you Power in the Pandemic.  Listen and subscribe on your favourite podcast platform.Explore more from Power ShiftsMusic: "The DoxScott Experiment" by Loveshadow, 2017  Licensed under Creative Commons

Social media has the potential to profoundly influence the way society works. Social media has been used for understanding crowd sizes from Instagram posts and to analyse hate speech and to understand presidential elections. Or more recently to improve our understanding of the lived realities of women and girls. So, how can we gather data from social media platforms and use it to understand our current reality? Join the REAL Geek team, Simone Lombardini and Alexia Pretari as they interview Nicole Schwitter, author of the latest paper of our Going Digital series: Going digital: web data collection using twitter as an example. In this episode, recorded at the end of March 2020, they will consider how twitter can be used to understand how society is reacting to coronavirus. How has the use of “#COVID” changed in its use over time in different countries? They will also provide practical guidance around how to gather data from social media platform, Twitter specifically, as Nicole talks through the recently published guidelines. And whilst social media data can be useful, what are its limitations and the ethical considerations around collecting online data? Nicole Schwitter is a PhD candidate and research assistant at the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Alexia Pretari is an Impact Evaluation Adviser at Oxfam GB and Simone Lombardini is the Global Impact Evaluation Lead at Oxfam. Links for publication and further readingGoing Digital: Web data collection using Twitter as an example. By Nicole Schwitter & Ulf Active Citizenship in Tanzania: Impact Evaluation of the 'Governance and Accountability through Digitalization' project. By Alexia PretariCovid-19 Outbreak: Tweet Analysis on Face Masks  By Yanqing ShenHow did Twitter react to the Coronavirus pandemic? By Feng LiImage credit: Abdiaziz Adani - Oxfam

"It’s easy to see that water is an issue the world over. Either too much, too little or unsafe”How can we effectively measure sustainable water? How can we understand the impact and effectiveness of our work in relation to water insecurity? For World Water Day 2020, The Real Geek Series discusses how research, measurement and evaluation are essential tools in improving the impact of our work in water insecure areas. Jola Miziniak, Strategic Lead for Sustainable Water, interviews Jaynie Vonk, Global Advisor for Impact Evaluations, along with Sera Young, Associate Professor of Anthropology & Global Health at Northwestern University, who led the development of the Household Water InSecurity Experiences (HWISE) Scale.The episode will explore how the HWISE scale came about and how it’s being used to track vulnerability to water insecurity. The team will consider how Oxfam’s impact evaluations and Sustainable Water and Sanitation index are incorporating HWISE to measure programme effectiveness. And, we'll share insights into what the emerging data tells us about water insecurity.  Resources:Visit the HWISE websiteRead the recent publication by Jaynie Vonk and Sera Young, Is household water insecurity a link between water governance and well-being? A multi-site analysisVisit the HWISE Research Coordination NetworkAccess the HWISE User ManualVisit Oxfam’s Effectiveness Reviews home page and read the papersFind out more about how Oxfam’s Impact Evaluations relate to GDPR in our paper, blog and podcast,  And, you can also hear how resilience capacities are being measured by the impact evaluation team.Photo: Oxfam/Bekki FrostHygiene Promotion in Chawama

In honour of International Women’s Day (March 8th) and World Water Day (March 22nd), we explore how water systems and water governance are deeply intertwined with women’s lives in riverine communities in Bangladesh and Nepal. We learn about women’s rarely discussed roles in fisheries and how River Camps in Bangladesh offer supportive environments for women to meet with leaders and share local water governance issues. In Nepal, we hear about Women’s Empowerment Centres and how women receive technical training to become Citizen Scientists and advocates that report their findings to policymakers. Suman Gupta (Oxfam in Nepal) and Nuzhat Nearey (Oxfam in Bangladesh) share their experience with the TROSA project (Transboundary Rivers of South Asia) with Oxfam in Nepal and in Bangladesh.In this episode, we ask critical questions. How are women involved in water governance in their communities? What are the impacts on their livelihoods, emergency preparedness, unpaid care and their households? Join us for an engaging discussion that links SDG 5 and 6 and speaks to the power of women as community-centred, localised knowledge holders on water in Nepal and Bangladesh.Resources:Read the latest paper on how Oxfam are Achieving Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 6: The case for gender-transformative water programmesFind out more about The TROSA Project: https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/handle/10546/620967Read TROSA’s report on how they are Strengthening communities’ collective action for inclusive water governance through River Meetings.  Find out more about Oxfam in Nepal Find out more about Oxfam in Bangladesh Find out more about the Women's Economic Empowerment Knowledge Hub and Subscribe to their newsletter to be connected with 600+ WEE Practitioners.Photo credit: Fabeha Monir/OxfamFishing after the cyclone. Abdul and his wife fish near Sundarban after returning from the flood shelter. Shamnagar, Bangladesh

As part of Oxfam’s Breaking New Ground Series, we host a  panel of inspiring female leaders from the world of politics and civil society. The panel discuss their perspectives on what feminist leadership means to them and the importance of women’s participation in peace building and political life. The event took place in London on the 3rd of February 2020.The event was introduced by Dr Fenella Porter Co-Director of Women’s Rights and Gender Justice at Oxfam GB. The Panel was chaired by Annie Kelly, a Human Rights Journalist for The Guardian. About our panel:Hala Al-Karib is the regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, a network of women’s rights organisation.Rasha Obaid is the Director of the Gender Justice and Peace Programme at the Peace Track Initiative, an NGO founded and ran by Yemeni Women.Preet Kaur Gill is the MP for Birmingham Edgbaston since 2017. She was the first female Sikh elected as an MP in the UK. She was appointed shadow Minister for International Development in 2018.Riya William Yuyada is a 28-year-old South Sudanese Activist and peace builder.  To hear more podcasts and blogs like this, visit Oxfam’s Views and Voices website. Photo credit: Bekky Lonsdale/OxfamPanel members at Thought Leadership event 2020 - 'Breaking New Ground'. (Annie Kelly, with Hala Al Karib, Rasha Obaid, Preet Kaur Gill MP and Riya William Yuyada)

For people living in the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan there are few legally accessible work opportunities in and outside the camp. The Cash for Work activities currently being carried out in Za'atari provides income, increases household wealth, teaches skills and improves well-being.But how effective is the intervention?As part of our Real Geek Series, Franziska and Simone speak to Nour and Teshome at Oxfam Jordan. They discuss and share the evidence and learning from the impact evaluation of the Cash for Work interventions, and consider how the findings can influence change.This episode will delve into how the project was implemented, how it was evaluated, the evaluation findings and what recommendations came out of it. Read the full evaluation here: Livelihoods in the Za'atari Camp: Impact evaluation of Oxfam's Cash for Work activities in the Za'atari camp (Jordan) Image: Oxfam works in Za'atari Camp in Districts 6, 7 and 8, providing safe drinking water and sanitation, such as toilets, showers, solid waste management and hygiene promotion. Credit: Adeline Guerra/Oxfam

What is GDPR and Oxfam's Responsible Data Policy? How does GDPR affect the way we collect data when carrying out monitoring and evaluations?Following the recent publication of the Going Digital report on GDPR, two of our regular "Real Geekers", Jaynie Vonk, Global Advisor on Impact Evaluations and Simone Lombardini, Impact and Evaluation lead, discuss the implementation, challenges and dilemmas of integrating GDPR and Oxfam's Responsible Data Policy into our monitoring and evaluation processes.Read the full report here:Going Digital: Privacy and data security under GDPR for quantitative impact evaluation. Image credit: Kalpesh Lathigra/OxfamOxfam’s Mobile Unit team interview migrants to establish whether or not they have fallen outside of the official Italian ‘hotspot’ system. If migrants are not currently aware of their rights and are not receiving support, Oxfam provide assistance, informing them of their rights, and directing them to structures that can host them. 

Oxfam defines resilience as ‘the ability of women and men to realize their rights and improve their well-being despite shocks, stresses and uncertainty’. So… Can resilience be “measured”?! As part of our Real Geek series, Ania Gaboune and Alexia Pretari from Oxfam, share learning from our impact evaluations. For more details and a full list of references made in the podcast, visit this blog >> https://views-voices.oxfam.org.uk/2019/12/podcast-how-to-measure-resilience-experience-from-oxfams-impact-evaluations/Photo credit: Aurélie Marrier d'Unienville/OxfamOXFAM See For Yourself donor Jacqui stands in Sandhikharka municipality, Arghakhanchi district, Nepal where OXFAM is building economic resilience of migrant families