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Depatriarchalisation and Bolivian women leadership: transforming politics across international, local, and everyday
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This article explores the significant role of Bolivian women’s social movements in shaping political alternatives to foreign policy and domestic governance through the lens of depatriarchalisation. The early 21st century has seen women’s movements as pivotal actors in a critical transformation in Bolivia’s political landscape, challenging entrenched patriarchal norms and advocating for gender justice within the plurinational state. By employing a qualitative methodology grounded in political sociology, this research analyses key policy documents – such as National Decree No. 4650, and speeches by President Luis Arce at the United Nations and María Nela Prada at the Organisation of American States – as well as interviews with two activists. The findings reveal a complex interplay between women’s movements and state mechanisms, characterised by both collaboration and contention. The research indicates that depatriarchalisation efforts enhanced by Bolivian women extend beyond traditional political engagement, influencing both domestic and international policy frameworks, such as everyday life. Despite notable advancements in women’s representation, where Bolivia ranks among the highest globally for women’s participation in national legislatures, significant barriers remain, particularly for marginalised groups. Therefore, this paper also highlights the challenges and contradictions faced by women in navigating these landscapes as they weave political alternatives. Drawing attention to the transformative practices of women leaders that extend beyond traditional political engagement, this study underscores the broader implications of Bolivian women’s movements in advancing gender equality and transformative change on multiple scales, from local communities to international platforms.
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Synthesis Report for Female Food Heroes (FFH) Engagement Strategy in Nigeria & Ethiopia
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This synthesis report consolidates findings from two external evaluations of Oxfam’s Female Food Heroes (FFH) initiative in Nigeria and Ethiopia, conducted in 2024–2025. Since its launch in 2012, the program has celebrated and empowered women smallholder farmers, enhancing their leadership, visibility, and contributions to food security, gender justice, and rural livelihoods. The evaluations found that FFH has positively impacted awardees by improving self-confidence, economic opportunities, and policy engagement, while also challenging stereotypes about women in agriculture.
However, the report highlights persistent gaps that undermine the long-term sustainability and collective impact of the initiative. These include weak alumni engagement structures, limited staffing and financial resources, underdeveloped monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) systems, and entrenched cultural and structural barriers that restrict women’s leadership in agriculture. The program’s reliance on spotlighting individual champions has not been sufficient to overcome systemic inequalities without stronger collective action and gender-transformative approaches.
The report calls for a revitalized FFH model that invests in formal alumni networks, dedicated staffing, flexible funding, gender-transformative strategies, and robust MEL systems. Scaling up media engagement and linking alumni voices to national and regional policy dialogues are also key to sustaining impact. By embedding these recommendations, FFH can evolve into a more resilient, scalable, and transformative platform that empowers women farmers, strengthens inclusive food systems, and advances gender equality across Africa.
You can find case study on Nigeria here and the case study on Ethiopia here. 
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UNEQUAL: The rise of a new American oligarchy and the agenda we need
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This past year has been indelibly shaped by concentrated wealth and power. The 10 richest U.S. billionaires got $698 billion wealthier, and the arrival of the world’s first trillionaire grew more imminent. The Trump administration—largely with the support of the Republican-controlled Congress—has moved with staggering speed and scale to carry out a relentless attack on working-class families, while enriching the wealthy and well-connected.
How did the country get here? The story does not begin in 2025. Oxfam’s UNEQUAL provides a snapshot of U.S. economic inequality today, and looks at the trends in recent decades that have culminated in contemporary extremes that are corroding U.S. democracy and causing hardship for many millions of people. The report examines the influence of concentrated wealth over politics, and how policymakers’ choices on tax, labor, social protection and other issues contributed to the growing divide between the very wealthiest and much of the country. It sounds the highest alarm about what comes next and sets out an agenda to turn the tide and reverse harmful inequality, calling on policymakers to back the demands of workers, movements, and communities to deliver for ordinary people.
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Building a locally driven humanitarian future in Somalia
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This research report examines the progress, challenges, and emerging opportunities in advancing humanitarian localization and local leadership in Somalia since 2020. Building on Oxfam’s earlier Breaking the Localization Deadlock study, it provides an in-depth assessment of how local and national NGOs (LNNGOs) are strengthening institutional capacity, accessing direct funding, and exercising leadership within coordination and decision-making spaces. Drawing on key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and the Humanitarian Country Capacity Assessment (HUCOCA) tool, the study explores evolving power dynamics, gender-transformative leadership, and state-led coordination mechanisms. It highlights evidence of progress in funding access and partnership equity, while underscoring persistent barriers in power sharing and sustainability. The report concludes with strategic recommendations for donors, INGOs, LNNGOs, and government actors to advance a genuinely locally led humanitarian system in Somalia.
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Building Community Resilience: Strategies of Women and Nonbinary-led Grassroots Organisations in New York City
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The impacts of climate change are not distributed equally around the globe, but in both the global North and South, they disproportionately affect poor and marginalised communities, exacerbating pre-existing intersectional inequalities. Women and marginalised groups have always been active in resilience-building efforts for the survival of their communities, and often at the forefront of place-based social and environmental justice struggles. Yet in the United States, grassroots women’s central role in community development and organising has often been invisible and taken for granted as an extension of their unpaid care work at home. Since the 1980s, neoliberal policies have diminished the political capacity of nonprofit organisations and depoliticised participatory processes. This paper provides an overview of how nine women and nonbinary-led community-based organisations in New York City have resisted these dominant trends in the community development field. It explores the range of strategies and tools they use to challenge and reimagine community development policy and practice in this context. The examples are drawn from an online archive and teaching tool for community development education that highlights the role of grassroots women in community organising and resilience building (https://www.womenbuildcommunity.org/). I was one of the three city planning faculty from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn New York, who created this website and co-authored the cases with the leaders, based on in-depth interviews with the leaders, as well as some background research on the organisation and neighbourhood.
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Storm in a Water Pot
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This deals with water rights and the water rights movement in rural India. 
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Resources: Transforming land and water rights, improving rural livelihoods, and carving just responses to the climate crisis
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This is the Resources section of the special issue on 'Transforming land and water rights, improving rural livelihoods, and carving just responses to the climate crisis'.
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Emerging Good Practices on Embedding Human Rights into Seafood Procurement
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As seafood demand rises, it has been accompanied by a growing understanding of persistent human rights abuses. Recent reports have highlighted how poor procurement practices can contribute to abuses, while stronger practices can reduce them. This report reviews the current landscape and how buyers are enhancing their procurement practices to align with their human rights commitments. It provides examples in areas such as embedding human rights personnel within procurement teams, sustainable costing in price negotiations and preferential sourcing from suppliers that respect human rights. The briefing sets out actions for businesses to ensure alignment of procurement and human rights commitments.
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Unjust Transition: Reclaiming the energy future from climate colonialism
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The global energy transition stands at a pivotal moment: it can either dismantle the inequalities driving the climate crisis or deepen them. Today, the transition risks reproducing patterns of extractivism and exploitation, with the most marginalized paying the highest price while elites profit. From transition mineral mining to debt burdens and unequal energy access, the current trajectory mirrors centuries of colonial injustice. A just transition must redistribute power and resources, curb overconsumption, and prioritize dignity and rights for all. This report outlines pathways to build an energy system grounded in equality, justice, care and collective wellbeing —where energy serves life, not profit. 
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Mentorship and inter-generational learning as catalysts for feminist leadership in Zambia
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This article examines the vital role that women have played in Zambia’s politics and governance and how preserving these legacies through mentorship, inter-generational learning, and knowledge sharing can foster transformative feminist leadership in Zambia. Numerous women in politics and governance have played pivotal roles in advancing gender equality and influenced legal, social, and political reforms. However, their contributions have remained largely unrecognised, which can be attributed to limited documentation of their work. Using Zambia as a case study, this article argues that promoting mentorship and knowledge-sharing about the contributions of women in politics and governance is crucial for the preservation of their legacies and ensuring the sustainability of feminist leadership. It proposes that inter-generational learning must be included in mentorship programmes to foster feminist change, to empower future generations with historical insights and strategic approaches to challenge prevailing narratives that perpetuate inequality for women.
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