fight inequality, beat poverty

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

Welcome to the 11th 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.

Happy reading!

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OZA launches #Care4Carers

On Tuesday 30 June, Oxfam South Africa launched a new report & campaign, Care4Carers. In collaboration with the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union, OZA have released new research The Right to Dignified Healthcare Work, a Right to Dignified Health Care for All, which finds that unfair labour practices and the poor treatment of healthcare workers have compromised the quality of health care. This has resulted in a healthcare system ill-prepared for shocks such as COVID-19. To find out more & see our recommendations in Oxfam South Africa’s new report.

What is Care4Carers?

It is a joint campaign from Oxfam South Africa (OZA), Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU), Nation Union of Public Service & Allied Workers (NUPSAW), National Union of Care Workers of South Africa (NOCWOSA), Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU). Working to achieve a quality, universal, people centred, resilient healthcare system that is responsive to the needs of communities, society and healthcare workers that is free at the point of use. The #Caring4Carers campaign recognises that healthcare workers, nurses and community healthcare workers are the life support of households, society and the economy. Key to achieving this goal is to ensure that healthcare workers, are fairly treated in recognition of their human rights and to enable them to provide a better healthcare for all.

To join in and support the launch, see https://www.oxfam.org.za/care4carers/ for how you can participate! Use the hashtag #Care4Carers, and watch this great video too. On Twitter, see more from @OxfamSA, @Nursesindaba, @Saftu_media, @NupsawHQ, @TAC and Nucwosa.

Here’s a sample tweet from OZA: Nurses and Community Healthcare Workers are at the frontline of South Africa’s health crisis, battling to protect and ensure the health of their fellow South Africans. Do you agree? Find out why they must be protected: https://oxfam.org.za/research-report/… #Care4Carers #NUCWOSA #COVID19inSA

For more information get in touch with Basani Baloyi.

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Influencing International Financial Institutions in Malawi & El Salvador

Oxfam in El Salvador and Oxfam in Malawi are two of the six teams that submitted successful proposals to the Flexible Grants Program. This program is part of the People, Power and International Financial Institutions Project, which works to leverage the worldwide influencing network of the Oxfam confederation to effect lasting change in the power dynamics, policies and practices of International Financial Institutions (IFIs). The Flexible Grants Program funds initiatives that support the project’s overall mission, with this round of proposals focusing on addressing inequality, gender justice, and civic space issues related to IFIs’ COVID-19 responses, given the important role these institutions are playing in the response globally.

Accountable spending on health in Malawi

Oxfam in Malawi is partnering with Economics Association of Malawi and Integrity Platform to mobilize and strengthen civil society and citizen voice to ensure that IFIs policy advice and conditions reduce inequality and support the government to provide quality, equitable and affordable healthcare for all during and after COVID19, and to improve social accountability of government spending during the response to the crisis. Recently, the number of confirmed coronavirus infections has been rising quickly. Health facilities in Malawi are free at the point of use, however, a shortage of resources invested in the health sector results in persistent shortages of medicines and staff. This often leads to poor-quality health service. Financial support from various IFIs has been provided for the pandemic response. The project, which runs from August until December 2020, will support the development of a COVID-19 response tracker to monitor IFI-supported public spending on health and will also produce analysis on the impact of funds on the quality of health care provision for local communities.

Healthy taxes to face COVID-19 in El Salvador

In El Salvador, the nine-month project will be implemented from August 2020 to April 2021. The government has taken on high levels of public debt to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, which could lead to a severe fiscal crisis. In this context, it is essential that the government measures taken protect formal and informal employment, and do not end up deepening inequality. Together with partners think tank FUDECEN, women’s rights organizations IMU and Rural Women Alliance, and online platform AltavozES, the team in El Salvador will drive an advocacy process from Salvadoran civil society toward IFIs (IMF, IDB, WB) and the central government to push for specific conditions of transparency, citizen participation, gender justice and tax justice as a part of the measures put in place to respond to the pandemic.

For more information on the work in Malawi, get in touch with Chisomo Manthalu & Mathias Kafunda. For more information on El Salvador, you can reach out to Victor Aguilar. If you’d like to learn more about the People, Power and IFI project, send a message to Charlotte Friar

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Citizen-to-citizen learning exchange: Uganda & Kenya

In February 2020, for a three-day learning event, nine community members who are part of budget monitoring groups in Teso and Acholi in Uganda traveled to Lodwar (Kenya) to meet and share experiences with eight budget monitoring group members from Kakuma and Lokichar in Kenya, along with some of the organizations that support them in this work. The exchange was organized in response to interest from community budget monitoring groups to explore challenges and successes with peers and get inspiration from others.

In both Kenya and in Uganda, Oxfam works with multiple partner organizations to engage with budget monitoring groups at district and village level. These groups – that may also be known as neighborhood assemblies, participatory budget clubs, or social auditor groups - consist of 20 to 50 citizens who volunteer their time to understanding and analyzing the local budget to see whether it reflects the needs and interests of the communities that they are part of. Budget monitoring groups provide comments on budget planning, but also keep track of actual allocation and expenditure, as well as the impact of the budget allocation and expenditure on the community and local development plans.

The budget monitoring group members discussed the different contexts they are working in, the role of gender, and what their work had in common and how it differed. For partner organizations, it was an opportunity to hear from their counterparts in Kenya and Uganda and to connect with citizens on budget monitoring.

‘’This learning workshop has been unlike any other we have had before, as we have been able to share cross-learning among peers as well as get feedback and input from the community social-audit groups. I hope this is something Oxfam seeks to carry out more often’’ - Naomi Majale, National Taxpayers Association, Kenya

Some key observations and lessons learned that became evident during the learning exchange have been captured in a learning brief. For more information on the budget monitoring work in Kenya and Uganda, get in touch with Andrew Gogo and Joseph Olwenyi respectively.

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Inclusive and equitable social protection for marginalized workers in South East Asia

Since 2017, Oxfam teams in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are part of a regional project on social protection. The project aims to promote social protection for marginalised workers in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Focus is put on increased effectiveness of national advocacy for more inclusive social protection frameworks, with a strong active citizenship component. Marginalised workers, in particular women, are supported to exert their rights and influence the relevant decision-makers to expand, finance and deliver social protection more effectively and equitably.

Impact of COVID-19

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, the project has seen dramatic changes in the ways of working to best respond to the pandemic. Using social media, such as Facebook, WhatsApp and regular phone communication, was essential to stay engaged with the groups that are part of the program (local leaders, activists, workers groups members). Additionally, minimum level support was provided, including cash and personal protective equipment. Covid-19 also impacted the way that influencing work is done, so Oxfam and partners have adopted new advocacy methods such as online awareness raising campaigns, online petitions, etc.

In Vietnam, a policy brief on ‘Leaving No One Behind’ reiterated the need to ensure social security for migrant workers in informal sector affected by Covid-19 crisis. The policy brief was sent together with a lobby letter to different government institutions to design the VND 62-billion relief package (US$2.66 billion) in support of vulnerable groups impacted by Covid-19, including the migrants workers in the informal sector.

In Laos, the program team has collected stories of marginalized workers that are impacted by the pandemic, facing shortage of food and loss of income. The stories highlight the importance of social protection for informal workers, who are currently not eligible to receive compensation under the national social welfare system.

Oxfam in Cambodia is working with partners to lessen the impact of covid-19 crisis on Cambodia’s most vulnerable people, through awareness raising, immediate and appropriate support, sustained social dialogues and meaningful participation of CSO partners and other stakeholders. Together with others civil society organizations Oxfam is advocating for the specific needs of the most vulnerable people to be included and prioritized in the government’s social protection response.

Inequalities that already existed prior to the crisis, such as unprotected and low paid jobs, gender discrimination, unequal access to markets and customers, resulted in an unequal impact of the crisis. Strong social protection systems are key to addressing unequal impact and to support the most vulnerable.

For more information on the project in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, reach out to Mariana Anton, Nguyen Thu Huong and Khamphy Khammavong respectively.

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Narrative work to influence on civic space & fiscal justice in Peru

A set of learning materials on narratives and civic space was launched in May. Narratives are a form of power that can mobilize and connect, as well as divide and isolate. Social, public or dominant narratives help to legitimize existing power relationships, prop them up or make them seem natural.

Understanding dominant narratives help us to see how deep power is used to justify who gets a seat at the decision-making table, who gets to access healthcare, whose voice is heard and who is silenced. Working on narratives is one of the ways that we can understand and influence civic space and dominant power structures.

Oxfam in Peru’s work on narratives & fiscal justice

Oxfam in Peru started working from a ‘hidden power’ perspective three years ago. Over the last few months, this perspective has been applied to the Covid-19 crisis. Peru has been called the ‘Peruvian Miracle’ because it is doing great macroeconomically. However, investment in public services has been lacking. When the crisis started, only less than 300 ventilators were available in a country of 30 million people.

Together with alliance partners, the team in Peru has decided to move away from typical fiscal justice interventions and took the chance to work on the narratives around the health and economical problem. To do so, they did not just track government measures and policies, but they have been telling the story of the hidden power behind these decisions: who is taking risks, who is winning, who is paying the bill?

To do the narrative work, there is a need to respond, build narratives, use alternative data, and work on counter-narratives. Proposals for progressive national tax reform have been developed, a “Tax health to address the crisis of covid-19” brief was launched, webinars were organized, and various initiatives were taken through the Actúa.pe platform. This platform put forward multiple ‘memes’ connected to the national debate, highlighting inequalities, problems and voicing criticisms. These combined efforts contribute to making hidden powers visible and shifting the narrative on fiscal justice in the context of covid-19.

If you want to know more about what’s happening in Peru, get in touch with Alejandra Alayza. For more information on narrative work, reach out to Isabel Crabtree-Condor. You can also hear more from Isabel and Alejandra about their narrative work in this FAIR Forum call.

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Recent Oxfam reports on inequality

The last couple of months saw quick adjustments in the focus of our programming and influencing work in order to respond to the global COVID-19 situation. This swift response was accompanied with launches of many new Oxfam reports. These reports, with a national, regional or international focus, provided recommendations and observations on different themes, many of them strongly impacted by COVID-19. As it can be hard to keep track of the amazing work captured in all these different reports, we have included the majority of recent reports in the overview below:

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Oxfam Covid-19 Influencing work

Over the last few months, a key and growing aspect of Oxfam's global Coronavirus Influencing work has been developing five Workstreams, whose goal is to support and amplify country and regional Covid-19 work and feed into the global priority agenda. To support greater transparency around these efforts, a monthly newsletter is shared to provide an overview of key updates, progress, and requests from each workstream, along with an ongoing invitation for you to connect directly with Workstream leads to contribute ideas, content, and/or learn more. Get in touch with Raina Fox to receive the newsletter.

Workstream 1 focuses on financing, including debt, aid, tax, social protection and special drawing rights. Priorities for workstream 1 in the upcoming months will, at the global level, focus on cancelling the debts of those impacted by coronavirus. At the national level, debt cancellation is linked to campaigning and advocacy for increased spending on health and social protection to mitigate of the hunger crisis that is hitting many countries. For more information about this workstream and to get in touch, visit this Compass page.

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FAIR-EIU Support Mechanism: Become an advisor!

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.

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