Welcome to the 9th FAIR-EIU Newsletter
This is a tool for sharing our work on inequality (both programmes and campaigns). FAIR enables us to scale up our influencing and programming on fiscal justice at the national level whilst aligning closely with the Even It Up Campaign, in order to have a significant impact on reducing inequality globally. Simply put, FAIR is the programme side of the inequality equation, whilst Even It Up represents the campaign side. Both work together to enable us help reduce inequality as one Oxfam. You can also read it in French or Spanish.
- LAC Evaluation of Fiscal Justice Influencing work
- Education campaign update
- Strike, strike, strike! Reflections on unpaid care work
- Movements fighting inequality
- Timor-Leste win for rights of people with disabilities
- Education in Zimbabwe – history, issues, lessons
- GALS methodology in Oxfam in Laos
- Improving Uganda’s tax treaty with the Netherlands
- Right2Health launches in OPTI
- Evaluation of the Sida FFF/Fair Tax Monitor program
- Call for ideas for more inclusive governance
- How to share your work in the newsletter
Happy reading!
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Evaluation of fiscal justice influencing work: Bolivia, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, and Peru
Bolivia, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Peru together ran an exciting learning initiative to reflect about their experiences on fiscal justice influencing in the past years. The learning report reflects on their country influencing strategies, their contribution to the “Even it Up” campaign in Oxfam, and more importantly on their work with local organizations in responding to social demands that governments should take into account to foster more equitable and fair fiscal systems.
This learning exercise and reflective moment has enriched the work in these four countries and encouraged them to take on board some of the lessons into their current program implementation.
Curious to read what it is that has been learned? You can find 4 cool and insightful infographics on the fiscal justice work of each country:
Look at Peru’s lessons from reflection on their strategy for a fair fiscal system
Find here Bolivia’s insights on their strategy for a fair fiscal system
Check out Dominican Republic’s lessons from their campaign strategy to “change priorities” and demand quality in spending
Dive into El Salvador’s insights from their strategy to position extreme inequality and its causes into the national discussion
Paola Cecilia Miranda Oliver (paola.miranda@oxfam.org), MEL Advisor for Oxfam in Bolivia and leading on this evaluation project said how valuable this joint reflection process was:
“it gave us the opportunity to really take the time to know each other’s work, to share and exchange, and most importantly to listen to other colleagues in the region to hear about their experiences and identify a common interest for learning which goes beyond just one country’s influencing strategy.”
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Education & inequality – a campaign update
It’s been an exciting few months for the education and inequality campaign (which forms the key focus of our Even It Up work on fiscal justice for women & girls). Building on great global wins earlier this year, including the Global Partnership for Education’s commitment not to use GPE funds for for-profit education provision, we’re riding a growing wave of momentum and still getting coverage following our autumn spike.
In September, we published 'The power of education to fight inequality: How increasing educational equality and quality is crucial to fighting economic and gender inequality', which we launched in several spaces, including in New York around UNGA with the UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Education and other allies, and at the IFI Annual Meetings in October. The report also launched in various countries, at dates suitable to their plans. The most recent is Mozambique, where it got great media attention, and the team are working to integrate their education and inequality work into their emergency response, making sure that even after a crisis, inequality-fighting education is truly for all kids.
In more news from national campaigns, this summer the Ghanaian government pulled back from a primary education PPP agreement, following civil society pressure. Oxfam and partners recently held a ‘Political parties dialogue on PPPs', at which they got all major political parties, including the ruling one, to say publicly and on camera that they commit to promote free quality public education and that they take a position against for-profit and commercial providers in public education. We’re pleased, and so are our allies in the teachers’ unions, but we’ll continue to monitor the implementation of these promises. We’re pleased, and so are our allies in the teachers’ unions, but we’ll continue to monitor the implementation of these promises. You can see the video of the event here.
We recently had an inspiring and fruitful campaign strategy development workshop for 4 countries (Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana), to further develop their campaigns. We were joined by partners from teachers’ unions, national CSO coalitions, Education International and the All-Africa Students Union. The context in each country is unique, but the chance to learn from each other and plan together was invaluable, and we’re very excited for the coming work in these contexts.
Back at the global level, we’ve been pushing hard on the World Bank and donor governments to follow the examples of GPE, the European Parliament, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights and others, and commit public aid money to fighting inequality through supporting public, not privatized, education. We have had excellent engagement with donor governments in the run-up to the IDA19 replenishment meetings (Oct and Dec) and contributed our positions (on education and more) in the consultation phases of the IDA commitment documents.
We used the IFI Annual meetings in October to highlight the key role of education in fighting inequality, particularly for girls, and the evidence that demonstrates that for-profit and commercialised education undoes the important redistributive effect that free, quality public education has, including through supporting an IDA19 replenishment that delivers on these priorities.
In addition to our latest report, we also delivered an open letter to David Malpass, the President of the World Bank, during his Town Hall meeting with civil society. A whopping 173 organisations from 63 countries signed the letter with us, covering national, regional and global civil society bodies, and really showing the breadth and depth of concern that civil society feels over the issue of privatisation and inequality in education. You can read more about our letter in this article covering the Annual meetings which highlights the letter hand-in at the Town Hall or see some of the tweets about it.
We’ve had feedback from high level individuals in governments and multilateral bodies that our advocacy is vital in these spaces. We have had many fruitful conversations with various donor governments.
Recently the head of OI’s Washington DC office was asked to testify to the US House Committee on Financial Services, about the IFC’s investments (IFC is a part of the World Bank Group). We used this opportunity to raise our concerns about the IFC’s investment in private, for-profit education corporations. You can see the testimony here, read our full testimony document, or find social media-friendly shorter clips here.
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Strike, strike, strike! Society cannot afford it.
Blog by Robert Maganga
The value of domestic and unpaid care work lies in its recognition and appreciation as a valuable contributor to everyday life but often it is discounted through the patriarchal lens of value and work. In fact, its very definition as work that is not regarded as such is an unveiled and perhaps a bold attempt at reclaiming its status from its peripheral status. Reading through "A Utopia for Realists", a passage in the book described the crucial role that was played by garbage collectors who downed their tools and brought an entire city to its knees forcing the administration to the proverbial table to negotiate on the working conditions of this indispensable working force. Before you throw out this blog mid-read allow me to juxtapose the effect of the drastic, yet unavoidable, course of action taken by the garbage collectors with that of primary care-givers and domestic workers, women.
Recent research in Kenya's capital Nairobi, primarily in the informal settlements, revealed the disproportionate distribution of time share between men and women in unpaid care and domestic work. As a man, my mind went immediately into calculating the average incomes of men and women: men spend way less time than women in unpaid care and therefore get more time for paid work, consequently earning on average more than women. This creates inequality - not just in the distribution of income within the household but also in the power dynamic therein. So again, it made sense to make the economic argument that begins to position women in their rightful place as integral economic persons in the machination and very well survival of the household. Once the numbers are crunched the argument can be made at the National Treasury where we can make two arguments confidently. The first, women make a significant contribution through unpaid care and domestic work to the economy. Secondly, and consequently, because of this economic contribution a tax credit should be awarded to all women, especially the poor, to increase the threshold for taxes relative to their income band.
Fundamentally, I was flawed in my thinking because other parameters of the study indicate that there was a wholesome value derived from the unpaid care and domestic work. The value was one that spoke to an intrinsic worth in the nature of the work, as well as a derived core value for the woman doing the work. The idea is not necessarily to quantify the work and justify it within the male patriarchal system. Instead, how do we recognize the value and importance of the work? How does government invest in social services that enable unpaid care and domestic work and that lessen the burden of the women who have to go out in search of water for tens of kilometers with a baby on their back and ferry the water back to the household? What spaces exist for these women to participate in governance and revenue management decisions (women have proved to be better managers of resources) within the structures of society?
Back to the story of garbage collectors, what if all women downed their tools and decided not to do any form of unpaid care or domestic work? The world is not ready for such devastation!
It is imperative that we challenge the system of patriarchy that exists in a manner that reconfigures our mind maps and assumptions about how things ought to ‘work’.
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How are movements fighting inequality?
The Fight Inequality Alliance, a group comprised of different civil society organizations, recently published new research: The Growing State of the Movement Fighting Inequality. As Duncan Green also notes in his blog, there is a lot of existing research on inequality and its causes, systems and policy solutions, but there is very little analyzing the movements working on fighting inequality – until now.
The report reveals some important trends in understanding and better supporting ongoing struggles to achieve transformative change. The findings of the research are the starting point for further discussions - they are designed to be a tool for social movements to use in movement building and organising together. There are questions for reflection in the main report for movements to use within their organizations as prompts for discussion.
The report and an executive summary can be found here.
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Timor-Leste Passes Historically Unprecedented Resolution to Promote and Protect Rights of People with Disabilities
The National Parliament of Timor-Leste has taken unprecedented steps towards building a more equal society by unanimously passing the ‘Resolution to Promote and Protect Rights of People with Disabilities’ on 1 October 2019. The resolution specifically refers to Oxfam’s co-hosted national seminar on inclusive budgeting for people with disabilities held earlier this year that Parliament representatives attended.
The Resolution urges the Government to adopt a wide variety of measures designed to protect people with disabilities, such as:
- Commence legal procedures for ratification for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in all public life
- Conduct awareness-raising activities to prevent the exclusion of children and youth with disabilities from access to schooling and vocational training
- Ensure public buildings and facilities are accessible to people with disabilities
- Ensure adequate training for health professionals and teachers to improve healthcare care and education for people with disabilities
Disability inclusion has traditionally been neglected in Timor-Leste, but the resolution demonstrates the growing awareness and momentum for disability inclusion and government commitment to focus on these efforts within the country. How did we get here?
Oxfam’s advocacy in disability inclusion: Oxfam in Timor-Leste’s accountability and transparency project, Open The Books, works with local partners to advocate for inclusive budgeting and social accountability in Timor-Leste. People with disabilities in Timor-Leste were, prior to this project, missing from debates about the state budget.
Earlier this year, Oxfam worked with local partners to bring people with disabilities at the forefront of national attention. For the first time ever, Timor-Leste’s disability stakeholders held press conferences, TV talk shows, seminars and written submissions on the state budget. The national seminar, hosted in June 2019 by Oxfam and local partners, also pushed the agenda to consider disability inclusion in next year’s state budget. In preparation to the national seminar, Oxfam worked with local partners to support people with disabilities’ understanding of state budget processes, what it meant to them, and how they could influence decision makers to support a more inclusive future for Timor-Leste.
“This is something new for us, we have just started learning about it… we need to do more advocacy, but to do that we need to know how much (budget) should go to each issue. We don’t have this information.” – Cesario da Silva, Director of Assosiasaun Defisiensia Timor-Leste (ADTL)
Disability in cross-cutting issues: In Timor-Leste, awareness has been low among key local and national decision-makers. This has not just been in the social accountability space but also in other areas, such as in the Disaster READY program which focuses on building communities’, including persons with disabilities, resilience to natural disasters and unpredictable climate.
During a local disaster management committee training on disability inclusion earlier this year, Mr Laurentino De Jesus, who serves as the Sub-District Administrator of Suai Villa, spoke on the value of disability inclusion training conducted by Oxfam and local partners:
“From this training, I realised the importance of involvement of persons with disability in all development processes, considering we do not leave someone or any vulnerable groups behind because we are in the same space.”
As Southeast Asia’s youngest nation continues to take steps towards building an equal society, Oxfam and its local partners look forward to advocating for and demonstrating good practice on disability inclusion in all aspects of the nation’s development.
Interested to know more? Reach out to Reginald Ramos (reginaldr@oxfam.org.au)!
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Zimbabwean culture places a high premium on education
Eleanor, OI Development Finance Campaigner based in Harare, Zimbabwe, tells us about the history of education and inequality in Zimbabwe and the system’s current struggles with fees, inequality and a focus on exam performance:
The continuous causes of instability in Zimbabwe are many. Land reforms and elections are highly controversial and almost always accompanied by violence against citizens. Decades of human rights abuses and impunity have diminished political participation by civil society and shaped a risk-averse and fearful citizenry. Socioeconomic challenges include long-term economic stagnation, unemployment, inflation, food insecurity, poverty, HIV/AIDs prevalence, limited provision of basic services, power outages, droughts, lack of clean water, etc. An estimated three million Zimbabwe migrants were pushed out to live and work elsewhere in the world.
Despite all the gloom and doom, there is one thing that Zimbabweans treasure and are fiercely proud of: the education system. With one of the highest literacy rates and a radical education policy dating from the 1980s that guarantees free primary education for all citizens, the country’s education system was that bright gem that could not be dimmed by anything. Parents in Zimbabwe try by all means to ensure that their children receive education and it has become the norm and culture despite all challenges.
At independence (1980), Zimbabwe inherited an education system that favoured mainly white students. Before 1980, very few black children had access to education. Those who did found themselves in poorly-funded schools, with very few educational resources and a different curriculum from that offered in all-white schools. Education for black students was provided mainly by missionaries rather than the government; two school systems existed prior to independence. The first major reform unified these education systems. The government made basic education accessible through policies of free education, compulsory education and upholding children’s right to education. The government adopted a socialist principle, ‘growth with equity’, to redress inequalities in access to education and other essentials like health services. There remain, however, significant discrepancies between educational opportunities for Zimbabwe's rural majority and for those who live in the main urban centres. The apartheid legacy left its mark on Zimbabwe's education system with formerly white, private "Group A" schools far superior in resources and trained teachers compared to their mission- and government-sponsored counterparts.
Education access: The government policies successfully increased enrolment, and achieved racial and gender equity in education, increasing the supply of educated manpower, and improving the country’s literacy rate. Literacy levels in Zimbabwe are believed to be at 90%, the highest in Africa (Zimstat even says it’s 97%).
These aggressive education policies led to a whirlwind crusade to build schools with enrolment rising every year. The country produces professionals to work in the private sector and government. The country became a major source of educated manpower in Southern Africa and today Zimbabwe has thousands of teachers, engineers, doctors, nurses, and other professionals working in neighbouring countries and overseas. Unfortunately for this success story, poor economic policies resulted in massive ‘brain drain’ of the country’s professionals.
Quantity versus quality: While Zimbabwe made tremendous progress in education since 1980, achieving one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, the standards of education are now continuously collapsing and institutions are now producing mediocrity. According to a report by The Commonwealth and the State of Education in Zimbabwe, by ex-former Education Minister of Zimbabwe David Coltart, the continuous political crisis and precipitous economic decline induced shocks and pressures that leave many sectors, including education, on the verge of collapse.
The government, supported by development partners and key stakeholders, invested heavily in the sector over the 25 years following independence. But decreasing government expenditure on education is forcing schools to rely on tuition fees and levies to supplement salaries and retain teachers. The consequent rise in fees and levies has been a serious obstacle to educational access and completion for many children. This disproportionately affects the marginalised, especially girls.
The prevalence of high-fee private schools for the elite has meant that while pupils in all schools might be following the same curriculum, children from affluent families who attend these resource-rich schools stand a better chance of passing their examinations than those from poor families attending poorly-resourced schools. Children from poor backgrounds are rarely able to break out of the poverty trap. Problems in access, equity and quality of education provision persist.
There is another quality issue: the education system focuses on outputs instead of outcomes. Schools compete to score the highest number of best students and highest exam pass rates. Schools and parents boast of number of ‘A’s at Ordinary and Advanced Level exams, celebrating these as major achievements. This focus on outputs drives students to rehearse for exams instead of focussing on understanding the material, as they are pushed for those excellent results. In some schools, sports and cultural activities are prohibited to keep the focus on outputs.
The 1999 Presidential Commission of inquiry into Education in Zimbabwe recommended holistic education, but this was never implemented. A highly-educated population shouldn’t have an unemployment rate over 95%. There is need for education system overhaul. Zimbabwe does not want job seekers; it needs job creators.
For further information, please contact Eleanor (eleanor.maeresera@oxfam.org).
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GALS in project activity - the experience of Oxfam in Laos
Gender Action Learning System (GALS) is a methodology combining tools from popular education and action learning, to spark significant and sustainable changes in favor of women rights, gender justice and empowerment at individual, organizational and community level. The first step of GALS assists participants to develop individual and household pictorial visions and diagnosing their current situation. In a next step, participants identify the opportunities and constraints that will affect the realization of their vision. Participants are asked to set activities on the road towards the achievement of their overall vision.
Laos experience: In 2009, representatives from Oxfam in Laos and its local partner organizations MHP, CAMKID, Sisterhood and GDA attended the first GALS training in Laos. It was an opportunity to exchange experience. Based on lessons learned, Oxfam in Laos and partners integrated GALS into its livelihood activities in target villages.
One of these villages, where MHP works, was Donchan. Doncan currently has more than ten local GALS champions in the village and one of these champions is Mr. Norkham Senphivanh. Mr. Norkham and his wife and daughter participated in a GALS training back in 2015 and used the GALS approach to resolve problems - related to local gender norms - within their own household. In 2019, Mr Norkham, his wife and daughter were elected to be GALS facilitators in their village. In these roles they can continue to exchange experiences with others and stimulate positive behavior change in their community.
GALS is a useful methodology to address social norms, including in areas where illiteracy rate is high due to its use of visuals. It can be an interesting methodology to consider in our fiscal justice work.
If you want to learn more about GALS and Mr. Norkham’s story, get in touch with Chaipasird Phunphouvanna (Chaipasird.Phunphouvanna@oxfam.org).
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Improving the Uganda-Netherlands Double Taxation Agreement
Joseph Olwenyi (Oxfam in Uganda), Henrique Alencar and Stefan Verwer (Oxfam Novib) wrote a blog on how Oxfam Uganda, SEATINI and Tax Justice Alliance Uganda (TJAU) together with Oxfam Novib identified an opportunity to influence the improvement of Uganda’s tax treaty with the Netherlands.
Tax and inequality in Uganda: Uganda has experienced a rise in economic inequality over the past twenty years, and Uganda’s tax regime has been identified as one of the key drivers of inequality. A published national Fair Tax Monitor report (2018) illustrated that multinational companies and wealthy individuals systematically avoid paying their fair share of taxes – a main reason for Uganda’s low revenue collections and investment into public services. The Uganda government recognized the need to improve the tax treaties Uganda has signed with other countries. These bilateral arrangements have a direct impact on the activities of multinational corporations and determine the amount of tax revenues Uganda can collect from these companies.
Curious to know more about the renegotiation on the Uganda-Netherlands treaty? Read the full blog here, and reach out the Henrique Alencar (henrique.alencar@oxfamnovib.nl) or Joseph Olwenyi (joseph.olwenyi@oxfam.org) for more information.
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Right2Health campaign launched in OPTI
Last November, the OPTI team and their partners (The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ) and The Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN)) launched their Right2Health campaign (الصحة حق وين ما كان).
Access to primary health care is a fundamental right, included in the Palestinian National Policy Agenda 2017-2022: “Quality Health Care for All,” which commits the Palestinian Authority (PA) to improve equitable access and quality health services including in infrastructure, equipment, drugs and training of health care workers. However, the Palestinian healthcare system needs improvement:
- The Palestinian health sector faces a shortage of nurses and midwives: staffing levels are 33% below WHO recommendations;
- Palestinians in rural areas lack fair access: 720,000 people are served by just 4% of the total medical staff;
- The Ministry of Health is drastically underfunded and currently around 800 million Shekels in debt;
- Doctors, nurses and midwives have to use public transport to reach marginalized areas because Ministry of Health does not have enough Mobile Clinics to reach some of the most vulnerable Palestinians in Area C.
The campaign was launched online via Twitter, Facebook and the campaign website http://www.right2health.ps/. The website includes a petition that Palestinians can sign to demand the Ministry of Finance to increase the Ministry of Health budget to pay for more medical staff, equipment and medicine – especially in rural areas that are currently drastically underserved. The aim of the petition is to collect 100,000 signatures to pressure the Ministry of Finance to abolish a big Corporate Tax exemption in OPT and to cancel the Hospitality Tax deduction to free up more resources for the Ministry of Health to provide quality service.
Particularly in the context of OPT, it is important for campaigns to be supported by evidence and research. Effort is invested in factual research on health services and tax exemptions. No logos are used in the campaign, to ensure that the campaign is driven by citizens: ‘people to the people’. The online launch is being followed up by offline interventions done by a number of volunteers to interact with the public during public events and at the city centres to collect up to 100,000 signatures.
The campaign is ongoing until March 2020. For more information about the Right2Health campaign, contact Majd Al-Khoury (majd.al-khoury@oxfam.org).
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Evaluation of the Sida FFF/Fair Tax Monitor program: the most important lessons learned
From 2017-2019, Sida funded FAIR program work in Bolivia, Kenya, Myanmar, and Zambia and Fair Tax Monitor work in Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia and Uganda, which was recently evaluated by a team from ODS (Organisation Development Support).
The evaluation was positive regarding FTM’s & FAIR’s relevance and effectiveness. It noted that the FAIR and FTM work was relevant in the context of the countries by bringing new perspective to discussions about fiscal and social justice. Despite limited funding in some of the countries, both FAIR and the FTM have contributed to important outcomes. Not only capacity of country offices and partner staff was strengthened, fiscal justice was put on the agenda in all countries, with some policy-level results happening already.
The evaluation pointed out that there is a strong interest among the FAIR countries in gender-responsive budgeting (GRB). The report recommended to strengthen Oxfam’s approach to GRB and reflect on what it takes to do advocacy on GRB. For the future of the FTM, the evaluation team recommended it would benefit from additional resources to focus on a stronger analysis of gender, conflict and the environment.
The full evaluation is available upon request. The executive summary can be found here. For more information, contact Ilse Balstra (ilse.balstra@oxfamnovib.nl)
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Call for Ideas is open for applications
Fighting for better access to public services? Ensuring that data concerning your group is either included or excluded? Protecting your community’s rights to land and resources? Searching for ways to bring your voice into decision–making?
Together with the Transparency & Accountability Initiative (TAI), VOICE (a program from Oxfam Novib and Hivos) has launched a Call for Ideas to move closer from open to more inclusive governance. Voice and its partners are looking to support those excluded to take advantage of more than a decade of transparency, accountability and participation practice and research. This is a chance to test and adapt tools and approaches in support of better outcomes for groups too often excluded from decision–making around the use of public resources. Submit your idea under this exciting starting fund totalling Euro 1 million for projects in 6 countries in East and West Africa.
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Newsletter stories: we want YOU!
Do you want to share about your work in the next edition of the FAIR-EIU newsletter? Please get in touch with Judith (judith.vanneck@oxfamnovib.nl) or Rebecca (rebecca.shadwick@oxfam.org). We’d love to hear from you!
Credits:
photos: Oxfam & credited individuals with Oxfam