fight inequality, beat poverty

fight inequality, beat poverty a quarterly newsletter from F.A.I.R. & Even It Up

Welcome to the 10th 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.

This time in addition to regular news on FAIR-EIU topics, we are sharing some content which tells us how our network members are adjusting their work on fiscal justice and inequality to these unprecedented times.

Happy reading!

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Coronavirus and inequality

This pandemic has huge implications for inequality across the world, and we are working hard to outline Oxfam’s thinking on the immediate and longer term impacts and choices the world faces, across several areas that the inequality campaign works on and beyond.

We already know that health spending in poor countries needs to double to address this crisis, and we recently published a briefing on the need for a global public health plan to confront this emergency, which exposes extreme inequalities, with a five point plan. We also launched the “Dignity not Destitution – An Economic Rescue plan for All” report, an analysis which shows that the economic crisis caused by Covid-19 could push over half a billion people into poverty unless urgent action is taken. The report was timed for release before this year’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group (WBG) Spring Meetings and stressed our concern that 500 million people could fall into poverty unless policy makers find $2.5 trillion in financing to support developing countries.

The report has garnered global media attention – about 2,500 media hits so far, with an initial sweep of international media hits hitting over 2,300 (which is Day 1 Davos standard!) – and it is shifting the global debate on the Covid-19 pandemic. Shout out to all our colleagues involved in drafting the paper and in leading on the public outreach!

Other Oxfam resources, on inequality and the pandemic, and influencing:

An op-ed looking at the impact of Coronavirus from an inequality lens by Tijani Ahmed Hamza, Oxfam in Ghana CD
Another op-ed, on equality and pandemic response, from Maria Lauranti, Oxfam in Indonesia CD
From Oxfam Canada on the need for a feminist response
For Spanish speakers, the Intermón brief on inequality and coronavirus (ES)
The WEE knowledge hub has put together a library of resources on gender & covid, which includes many angles on gender & inequality as impacted by the pandemic
In this library you can find external resources, including policy trackers, blogs and CSO statements, on fiscal justice, inequality and civic space:
Catch up on this call for a feminist covid-19 response, which Oxfam has officially signed on to, and which outlines many of the issues that are also key to fighting inequality, very clear overlap
Great guide to influencing during the crisis from Sagal Ali at Novib

#CancelTheDebt: prioritising public healthcare systems and workers during the coronavirus pandemic

There’s been strong traction on debt relief or cancellation during this pandemic. Last week was the IMF & World Bank Spring Meetings, and we kicked off the week strongly by releasing our curtain raiser press release, which had pick up from The Guardian, and showed that the IMF's gold holdings have gone up in value by $20bn since the start of the crisis and that there is no excuse not to #CancelTheDebt. We also put out our IFI statement which outlines Oxfam's priority positioning on the IMF/WB's response to the coronavirus (a hopefully useful resource/guide also for any of you engaging the institutions in country).

We reacted to IMF chief economist remarks saying this is worst economic situation since the Great Depression; reacted to the G7 statement on debt and later, in reaction to the big G20 finance ministerial we were all waiting for and where the G20 announced the suspension of debt payments for the 76 IDA countries, we reacted here that this is a good step but much more needs to be done! The IMF has announced it will ‘give’ debt relief to 25 poor countries – but please see this thread to understand why we think this is not quite the ideal way of providing debt relief. We have also reacted to the World Bank and its lack of commitment on debt relief.

These are all important steps BUT we need to keep on putting pressure on G20/IMF/WB to take more ambition on debt and call for the cancellation of 2020 debt payments owed by developing countries to bilateral, multilateral and private creditors.

Our colleagues have been working tirelessly to put pressure on the conversations from all angles through research, media, and advocacy.

What you can do: sign the petition and share it!

With this petition, we are calling on world leaders to act now to cancel the debts of developing countries before it is too late, to act now to make healthcare available free to all who need it.

You can sign the petition here:

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Sharing experiences: how are country offices and partner organizations adjusting their work to the changing situation

In many countries where Oxfam works on fiscal justice & inequality issues, the corona crisis led to a situation in which country offices and their partners have to postpone or suspend their work or find ways to adjust their programming and campaign work to the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. For many teams, this entails influencing and responding to government’s (fiscal) policy measures, moving things online, and adopting new angles in their advocacy work. This piece gathers some examples of how different countries across the FAIR-EIU network are adjusting their work in response to the corona crisis.

Nigeria: Monitoring the transparency of funds donated for the corona response

Oxfam staff and their partners have been working from home since the last week of March. The number of corona cases has been increasing since the first case was reported in February. The Tax Justice and Governance Platform, of which Oxfam Nigeria is a member, jointly launched a position paper on COVID-19 in Nigeria. The paper offers suggestions to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their socio-economic status, will benefit from the palliative measure that the government announced and to improve accountability measures.

With regards to the accountability measures: Oxfam Nigeria is supporting Connected Development (CODE) and the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), two of its partners, to monitor and track the funds that are coming in for the corona response at government level, to ensure these are spent in an accountable and transparent manner. CISLAC published a statement demanding accountability on all donated funds, which you can find here. If you are curious about this and want to know more about what Oxfam in Nigeria and the partners are doing, get in touch with Henry Ushie.

Tunisia: Monitoring the parliament digitally

The city of Tunis is in lockdown and all Oxfam staff have been working from home since mid-March. Oxfam in Tunisia works closely together with Al Bawsala, who have been quick to adjust to the lockdown situation that was issued in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Al Bawsala is actively monitoring parliamentary meetings and discussions online. They adapted their monitoring techniques in response to the restrictions imposed in the context of the sanitary crisis. Their Marsad Majles platform (in French and Arabic) is still updated regularly according to the parliamentary activity. This platform is the continuation of the platform that monitored the first elected parliament in Tunisia (2014-2019) and the Marsad ANC platform that followed the works of National Constituent Assembly from its beginnings until the adoption of the constitution in 2014. The websites include biographical information of all MPs, proposal and outcomes of votes in the three elected parliaments, as well as interventions made by MPS and attendance records. You can also find an agenda for upcoming meetings and a range of documents, including committee reports, laws and proposals. Aside from updating the platform, Al Bawsala is also actively reporting on parliamentary voting and discussions ‘live’ on their Twitter page since 2012.

Screenshot of the Marsad Majles platform

Dorra Chaouachi can tell you more about their partner’s work or listen to Nesrine Jelalia, executive director of Al Bawsala, explaining how they are currently working in this FAIR Forum call

Morocco: Sharing their views on the crisis through news articles

The first cases of COVID-19 in Morocco were reported early March. Everyone who can has been working from home since mid-March. Oxfam in Morocco has focused on influencing the public debate on COVID-19 and the response to the corona crisis and aims to inform people about their position on the impact of COVID-19 on the health system. The country team is working on a series of articles. The first article has been published in Le Desk, addressing the connection between the corona crisis and inequality. Another article has appeared in the same online newspaper, discussing how containment measures contribute to an increase in domestic violence against women and girls. Upcoming articles will also highlight how the pandemic affects the situation of migrants and the impact on the informal sector which is overrepresented by women.

If you want to know more about this, you can get in touch with Asmae Bouslamti.

South Africa: Digital campaigning & a virtual strike for domestic workers and informal workers

South Africa is in lockdown and Oxfam staff has been working from home since mid-March. Oxfam in South Africa is advocating to ensure that social benefit packages that the government is providing are also benefiting informal workers and domestic workers. In collaboration with different civil society organizations organised within the feminist Shayisfuba platform and Fight Inequality Alliance, the team has been collecting signatures for a digital petition. The petition calls for a corona relief fund for the informal sector and domestic workers. Compensation is needed for domestic workers and informal workers as it is more difficult for these workers to afford self-quarantine and they do not receive an income in times of lockdown. The digital petition is accompanied by a digital campaign, which involved multiple social media actions, such as encouraging people to post selfies with a message of solidarity for domestic & informal workers and tagging the president in these pictures. A virtual strike was held on April 6th 2020 to protest the lack of the response from the government regarding the asks from the digital petition.

Oxfam in South Africa has collaborated with economists and academics across the country to send an open letter to the government, raising concerns about the lack of economic measures that support the most vulnerable. The letter is a part of many initiatives that are being taken within civil society to shift government action towards a more progressive agenda.

Basani Baloyi and Rukia Cornelius can tell you more about this work.

Myanmar: Ensuring that COVID-19 response & recovery measures are pro-poor and gender-sensitive

The first Covid-19 infection in Myanmar was confirmed towards the end of March and since then, there have been a range of measures taken to further prevent the spread of the virus, including partial lockdowns of major cities and mandatory quarantine for all those arriving in Myanmar, including the thousands of migrant workers returning from Thailand. There are particular concerns about the spread of the virus in light of existing deep inequalities in the country, including with respect to highly vulnerable urban poor populations living in slums and internally displaced people (IDPs) living in overcrowded camps.

Oxfam in Myanmar has already been responding to the Covid-19 crisis in a number of ways, including through scaled up public health promotion, distribution of soap and the construction of handwashing stations in IDP camps across the country. The team is also finalizing an influencing strategy in response to the crisis, with new and ongoing work with media partners, women’s rights organizations and other civil society partners to support a public information campaign that will disseminate information about the coronavirus and preventative measures. Influencing efforts also aim to engage in rapid research to better understand the gendered and economic impact of the crisis on diverse groups and develop policy-focused recommendations for both the short and long term. Ultimately, this influencing work aims to support a response and recovery that is grounded in feminist and pro-poor policies that support a more equitable future for all.

You can read more about Covid-19 in Myanmar in this blog prepared by Yee Mon Oo, or reach out to Yee Mon directly

Guatemala: Influencing on social protection

In Guatemala, a lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus has been issued late March. In light of the health and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, social protection and the guaranteed basic income have moved from the margins to the center of political discussion in the country. The Guatemalan government approved significant funds to alleviate the impact of the crisis on the most vulnerable populations, with the program “Bono Familia”.

In 2017, Oxfam in Guatemala debated a technical proposal for Universal Basic Income for Guatemala with the intention of fueling the discussions on taxation, distributive policies and social protection. The team has since emphasized the need for social protection and a basic income in their advocacy work. The “Bono Familia” program represents an interesting experience of implementing a guaranteed basic income as a measure of social protection in the country. However, the mechanism used in the program for selecting beneficiaries is deficient, thus opening a space to propose more effective institutional designs.

Oxfam in Guatemala, together with the alliance Paraiso Desigual, are using the critical moment the country is going through to raise and keep alive the issue of social protection in the public debate, raise awareness of social protection as a human right and influence the operation of the program “Bono Familia”.

A set of recommendations on how the Bono Familia program can better reach its target group was launched on April 21st. This launch is part of the “#CambiarElFoco” campaign to influence the government to improve the design and execution of the “Bono Familia” program, and to contribute to laying the foundation for a discussion on the need to build a long-term social protection system in the country. The development of a proposal by Oxfam and Paraíso Desigual for long-term social protection policies, focusing on a guaranteed basic income, is in the pipeline.

If you’re curious to learn more about actions that are taken as part of the campaign and what lies ahead, reach out to Susanne Gauster

Peru: Analysing the implications of COVID-19 on the fairness of the future fiscal system

The first case of corona in Peru was reported on March 6th. A week later, President Martín Vizcarra announced a country-wide lockdown. Except for essential workers, people are working from home and non-essential businesses are closed. The current crisis took place while Oxfam Peru was developing its national Fair Tax Monitor (FTM) report. Aware that the demand on public services and that the overall fiscal situation in the country would be fundamentally different afterwards, efforts were made to adapt the FTM methodology to focus on the unprecedented context and the challenges Peru will face over the upcoming period. The FTM usually focuses on the fairness of the current fiscal system, but the analysis that the Peru team is working on will also include how the upcoming changes to the tax system are going to impact fiscal and economic inequality and identifying what feasible options are to get out of the current situation with a tax system that is more equal and transparent.

A strong emphasis will be put on how Peru’s weak tax system translated into insufficient revenues and consequently into underfunded public services. The national health system has been underfunded for decades and that is showing in the context of the Coronavirus pandemic. A case will be made for improved taxation as the only viable way to fund a decent national health service.

The Peru team will also highlight the risk of relying on short-term solutions to meet the rising demands for stronger public services and the required funding, such as increasing public debt or expanding public-private partnerships. Those short-term “solutions” are politically attractive for the current government because those measure would get full support from big businesses and multilateral agencies while the negative consequences wouldn’t be fully felt for some years.

Get in touch with Armando Mendoza if you want to know more

Timor-Leste: Keep on Influencing during COVID-19

The COVID-19 crisis has turned everything upside down, including influencing work. Oxfam in Timor-Leste and partners have had to pivot strategies, engage in new ways and jump on new opportunities as they have arisen.

Partners under the Open the Books project, an Australian government funded project that influences and monitors the State Budget, have created a COVID-19 taskforce to monitor human rights and government actions and expenditure during the COVID-19 state of emergency. Already taskforce members have put out important statements asking the government to take into account those most vulnerable in social and economic response measures.

Oxfam’s broader influencing work around economic diversification, agriculture and extractive industry investment has moved to looking at these issues in light of COVID-19. The country team recently made national media with the launch of an important piece of research on agriculture – highlighting diverse women and men’s farmers’ needs for agriculture development and government investment in the agriculture sector. Bringing in narratives around COVID-19 was key in ensuring media and public interest in the research. Such as highlighting how COVID-19 has shown the need for export dependent economies like Timor-Leste to diversify and increase food security so that they are more resilient during times of crisis. Additionally the drop in the price of oil and world stock markets, causing the Timor-Leste petroleum fund (which 84% of the 2019 state budget came from) to loose USD1.8 billion has highlighted influencing message opportunities, such as the need for Timor-Leste to diversify away from extractive industry income reliance.

With social distancing and a state of emergency in place, influencing approaches have moved to a greater focus on mainstream and social media – particularly utilising Oxfam in Timor-Leste’s 98,000 Facebook followers, 20% of all social media users in Timor-Leste and one of the most popular social media pages in the country. Posts are reaching new levels of engagement – with some posts reach as high as +70,000 and 480 shares and page like numbers growing rapidly, the threshold of 100,000 followers is expected to be reached any day now. Increasing great opportunities to influence further among a broader audience.

Get in touch with Annie Sloman to learn more.

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Davos 2020 global roundup

Every year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos is a “global moment” of influencing and public engagement for Oxfam to change the narrative about inequality. This is an annual moment which brings the entire confederation together to speak in a single voice along with allies.

The WEF is one of the biggest annual gathering of global business and political leaders with high media interest. Oxfam wants to capture the global attention this moment provides to focus on the crisis of extreme inequality, how it is harming the poorest, the solutions that exist, and how Oxfam is working to tackle it. Inequality can only be addressed through both tackling what is wrong at the top and supporting those at the bottom.

This year (2020) the core messages for Davos were around unpaid and underpaid care work & the global inequality crisis, and the key figures come from Oxfam’s report ‘Time to Care’

The world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60 percent of the planet’s population. At the same time, almost half of the world lives on less than $5.50 a day, and the rate of poverty reduction has slowed by half since 2013. The extreme gap between rich and poor is hurting us all. This great divide is based on a flawed and sexist economic system that values the wealth of the privileged few, mostly men, more than the billions of hours of the most essential work – the unpaid and underpaid care work done primarily by women and girls around the world.

While those few at the top thrive, girls and women clock up billions of hours of unpaid and underpaid care work, cooking and cleaning and caring for children and the elderly. This amounts to 12.5 billion hours every day of care work for free, and they do countless more for poverty wages. Unpaid care work alone adds value to the economy of at least $10.8 trillion every year – three times the size of the tech industry!

Several affiliate and country teams fed back that the unpaid/underpaid care angle of our work this year, specifically, really gained additional excellent traction in coverage of our messages. Check your own level of care work with our handy Care Calculator. Read the report HERE and the interactive summary HERE.

The Oxfam confederation came together to speak with one voice, and we made a big splash! In all, at least 61 affiliates, countries and regional platforms took part in Davos actions, ranging from media and online action to offline events and mobilisation.

Offline popular mobilisation

Offline public mobilistaion is a powerful tool to demonstrate peoples’ collective power and anger against rising levels of economic inequality. Oxfam and partners in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Italy, Indonesia, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, OPTI, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Sri Lanka and India organized various offline activities which included theatres, public discussions/report launch events, art work on canvas, street walk, human chains and distribution of pamphlets/stickers. Two affiliates and 14 countries participated in offline actions, half of them in Asia.

Report launch events, Media briefings, Public discussions

Several countries had report launch events with large number of people to communicate the key messages in the Davos 2020 report, while few other countries organized a face to face dialogue on report with media groups.

Online engagement

The majority of affiliates and countries engaged in online campaigning and made wide use of the digital campaign materials and tools (sharegraphics, videos, the care calculator, stories, pictures). Oxfam shared the story of workers like Rowena and so many other women. Rowena is a childcare worker in the Philippines. She knows the impact of care work, and the difference it makes when it is more fairly distributed.

‘We could never catch up with the men in our community… with the amount of money they earned, with the education they got or with the time they could spend on things outside the house.’

Rowena’s husband now helps with the housework, and she has seen a shift in her own life and opportunities, including being able to participate in community work and groups that help send their children to school.

‘Not being responsible for all the work alone and having to walk long hours to get the water we need, changes who I am.’

The fact that those at the top continue to collect enormous amounts of wealth, while the care work that Rowena and billions of other women and girls are doing isn’t counted, even though it makes all other work possible, is shameful.

Media engagement

Every year Davos gives us a chance to spread our research and messages about inequality through the high degree of media attention we receive. At the end of Davos week itself we had 10,580 hits globally. Our final media evaluation showed 11,489 media hits, and an additional 780 media hits linked to the Patriotic Millionaires’ letter to Davos (which while not branded as Oxfam was part of the media package for Davos). Combining these, we have a total of 12,269 media hits, which is roughly on a par with 2019, where we had 12,491 media hits (this 2019 figure includes 106 media hits linked to the viral Rutger/Winnie tax clip).

Among the many, many exciting pieces of coverage, here are just a few of the many highlights:

a radio interview from Kenya on the fact that the 22 richest men have more wealth than all the women in Africa put together, and more radio coverage on Irish radio station Olltoghchán
coverage in the New York Times about the unpaid work angle
coverage from the Guardian, South Korea’s Seoul Shinmun, and Granma (official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party)
Live tv from Québec, Canada, and in South Korea (see below)
Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin called for governments and companies to do more to ensure women were treated fairly, saying equality would not happen by itself. And mentioned our report!
The President of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, tweeted about our report
Simon Pegg’s face led the way to a lot of the coverage on the Patriotic Millionaires Letter, which also got Guardian coverage signed by millionaire Chuck Collins

Live tv coverage in South Korea

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EQUALS podcast

Looking for inspiration and new ideas on inequality?

EQUALS is an Oxfam podcast that’s all about hope in the fight against inequality. On the podcast, activists, politicians, thinkers and interesting people from all walks of life share the story of how inequality is being fought around the world.

This second season started off last January with an interview with Anand Giridharadas – asking him what to do about billionaires. About the revolution stolen in our time. About Davos, dungeons and biryani. Tune in here. Featured next is the rebel economist Jayati Ghosh from India – about the “radical case for care”, feminism, and the future of work. Here it is.

Upcoming guests on the podcast are Naomi Klein and other activists around the world, and it will cover issues from Empire to radical ideas for the future of business.

If you missed it, you can also listen back to Season 1, which included some great interviews - Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Devaki Jain, Abigail Disney, Rutger Bregman and Beth Mukami (human rights activist from the Dandora slum in Nairobi) as guests among others.

EQUALS is available on different podcast platforms –Apple, Google, Overcast, Spotify etc. Soon there will also be an EQUALS blog to match the podcast.

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Influencing on care and fiscal justice in Bolivia

Since 2016, as part of the FAIR program, Oxfam in Bolivia is fighting economic and gender inequality through their fiscal justice work which includes a strategic focus on unpaid and underpaid care work. The three key objectives for this Care & Fiscal Justice work are:

Raising public awareness in Bolivia on the state of unpaid care work – who is taking care of care and who is benefiting from it?
Influencing decision makers at the national and local levels to collect unpaid care work data and discuss policies and actions to recognize and redistribute Unpaid Care and Domestic Work.
Putting care on the national political agenda in Bolivia.

TIME TO CARE

In Bolivia, 4.5 million people are in need of care. In general, there is a sense of injustice about the distribution of care work within Bolivian households. Compared to men, women spend twice as much time on care and household work. This means they have less time to spend on either paid work or education. 42% of women see care work as the largest obstacle to their political participation.

Find more results from the survey here in the infographic (English), or read the full Time to Care report here (Spanish)

In October 2019, the Time to Care report was launched, which formed the foundation of the care and fiscal justice influencing work in Bolivia. A short case study captures how the connection between care and fiscal justice started in Bolivia, how the Time to Care report came into being, and how civil society worked together in alliances to put care on the political agenda.

The case study captures the challenges, the lessons learned and delves further into what the next steps will be for Oxfam in Bolivia and its partner organizations, especially in the context the current political climate and the upcoming elections.

Read all about it here

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BIG WIN on education & inequality!

On 9 April the private investment arm of the World Bank Group (the IFC) has announced it will freeze its investments (direct & indirect) in private for-profit schools (for K-12 levels).

This is massive. Civil society has been pushing for the World Bank Group and other donors to stop fueling inequality by giving money to for-profit education. Last year at the Annuals we presented the Bank’s President with an open letter from civil society organisations across the world asking for this, so it’s a big civil society win and a big win for kids and their families.

We need to continue to celebrate this – the bigger the noise civil society makes, the more likely we can keep the momentum and hold them to account for this commitment. Please do share, as Oxfam and to networks you think might be interested. Here is a package of things you can use to share some great news in troubled times:

Social media graphics (unbranded), for facebook/insta and twitter
Shareable video clips of OI DC Head of Office Nadia Daar, testifying to the US House Committee on the issue
Oxfam’s reaction to this news

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Using extractive industry data to fight inequality & improve accountability

Thanks to a decades long struggle for tax, oil, gas, and mining disclosures through global initiatives like the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (“EITI”), national law reform, and corporate policy change, there is more extractive industry data available than ever before. Civil society and other accountability actors are using the data to assess how oil, gas, and mining revenues are delivered or plundered, and how spending decisions are made.

After organizing a two-day peer-learning event in October 2019, where attendees from fifteen countries reflected on how extractive industry data is used to influence decision-makers, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative, alongside Oxfam, the Natural Resource Governance Institute, and Publish What You Pay, co-hosted a two-panel public event “Using extractive industry data to fight inequality & strengthen accountability: Victories, lessons, future directions for Africa" to showcase victories and lessons learned in utilizing extractive industry data for the wider sustainable development and economic growth agenda.

The two-panel public event. Left to right: Isabel Munilla (Oxfam America), Don Hubert (Resources for Development Consulting), Elyvin Nkhonjera (Oxfam Malawi), Maryati Abdullah (PWYP) and Barnaby Pace (Global Witness)

The panel event built upon previous lessons learned from different resources, that were summarized here. Key themes emerged during the discussions in the public event. Starting with a strong political and political economy analysis was one of the key lessons that was identified. Understanding the local political contexts greatly aids stakeholders in leveraging and maximizing effectiveness. Several case examples illustrated how important it was to identify and cultivate allies in government, recognizing that different government departments may hold different stances on a given issue or may even have individual members with a wide range of views.

Beyond political analysis and acknowledging the role of political economy, overarching issues like climate change and commodity price fluctuations may change dynamics, providing potential openings for exploiting opportunities. In particular, knowing how corruption affects the landscape can reveal both obstacles, in the form of state capture, as well as opportunities, such as exposing public scandals, that may provide opportunities for a campaign to apply pressure.

Many of the lessons learned are also relevant for other influencing work. Curious? Take a look at the ‘Using EI data – communique’ that captures the best approaches and some of the questions that remain. For more information, reach out to Scott Sellwood.

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Visually explaining what gender-responsive budgeting entails in Myanmar

Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) is a crucial tool in tackling poverty and inequality through efficient public services for all. Oxfam in Myanmar has started work around GRB advocacy with support from SIDA FAIR project since 2016. OiM’s GRB work focuses advocacy towards the government and member of parliaments to ensure everyone’s needs are reflected in the country’s budget from township to the national level.

As part of GRB workshops for members of parliaments at the state and regional level, the OiM team developed a GRB animation that visually explains in a short and concise way what gender-responsive is. The animation built on Oxfam in Myanmar’s published report “A case for gender responsive budgeting”. This animation helps to understand what gender responsive budgeting is, why it is important, how it can benefit citizens, and why the government’s revenue is important in order to provide public services. Reach out to Yee Mon Oo if you want to know more!

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FAIR-EIU Support Mechanism: source your support from the network

Do you have any requests related to your work on fiscal justice and inequality? Are you looking for specific support? Don’t forget we have the FAIR-EIU Support Mechanism (FESM)!

FESM is a global online platform where people working in FAIR-Even it Up program can connect to work together on projects based on their needs and expertise. A team of advisors is available to volunteer their time to help out colleagues around the world who are facing challenges in their work. It is a way for everyone working on FAIR-EiU to connect, work as One Oxfam, improve and increase our impact. The FESM is built by us and for us and together we have the potential to make it as useful and complete as we want it to be.

You can now also find policy asks on different topics (e.g. aid, health and inequality) to make sure that your campaign or report is in line with what the rest of Oxfam is saying.

To find out how the FESM works and to connect with Advisors, visit the website. If you would like to volunteer your time to share your expertise, please watch this video and if you like what you see apply to be part of the Advisor team!

For more information, reach out to Valentina Montanaro

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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!

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Credits:

photos: Oxfam & credited individuals with Oxfam