Climate change advocacy in the Pacific: The role of information and communication technologies (Pacific Journalism Review 23 (1) 2017 133)
This article explores the phenomenon of the use of ICT for climate change activism in the Pacific. Climate change activism in the Pacific is characterised by the use of ICT tools such as social media. The article draws on semi-structured interviews and an analysis of social media sites to examine the use of social media in Pacific climate change campaigns. While other campaigns such as relating to West Papua have also been facilitated by social media, it has been generally NGO, citizen-led and varied in Pacific government support. In contrast, climate change campaigns in the Pacific are fully supported at the NGO, citizen, and state levels. Furthermore, while early Pacific ICT-based climate change campaigns used iconic images of Pacific Islanders leaving their homelands, more recent campaigns have leveraged social media to depict Pacific Islanders not as victims but as ‘warriors’. This new imagery aims to empower Pacific Islanders and engender a regional Pacific identity that shows strength and solidarity on the Pacific’s stance towards climate change. Click here for full article ...
Critical Choices: Assessing the Effects of Education and Civic Engagement on Somali Youths’ Propensity Towards Violence (Mercy Corps, 2016)
Understanding what works to reduce violence, including violent extremism, is a key priority for many policymakers. Despite this need, to date there is very little research evaluating the effects of development programs on violence reduction. To address this knowledge gap, Mercy Corps undertook a rigorous impact evaluation of a 5-year stability-focused youth program in Somalia known as the Somali Youth Leaders Initiative (SYLI). The research compared the impact of two components of the SYLI program on youth propensity towards political violence: formal secondary education and civic engagement activities. Using survey data from Somaliland--where the program has been implemented the longest—the authors compared attitudes and reported violent behaviors among youth in the program and outside of it. In addition, they conducted in-depth interviews with teachers, community leaders, government officials and youth. The study found that although the provision of secondary education through the SYLI program reduced the likelihood of youth participating in violence by 16%, it increased support for political violence by 11%. However, the combination of both secondary formal education and civic engagement through the SYLI program reduced the likelihood of youth both participating in (by 13%) and supporting (by 20%) political violence. Click here for full study ...
Space to be Heard: Mobilizing the power of people to reshape civic space (Oxfam briefing note, 2018)
The space for people to speak out, organize and take action against poverty, inequality and injustice is shrinking on a global scale. People in many countries around the world face serious restrictions and repression when exercising their basic rights. This includes citizens who raise their voices against corruption and political dysfunction, organizations that save lives and provide basic services to people in need, communities that defend their sustainable livelihoods and demand a fair share of natural resources, and activists who fight for gender justice. Defending civic space is not the responsibility of only one part of civil society – such as human rights organizations or activists. It is the diversity, breadth and vibrancy of civil society that has the potential to successfully reclaim and create civic space. Committed and coordinated actions from activists, academics, journalists, civil society organizations, progressive policy makers and other allies are needed to reverse the trend of shrinking civic space. This paper outlines the analysis and strategic focus which inform Oxfam’s contribution to the global defence of civic space. Click here for full paper ...
Nigeria Strengthening Advocacy and Civic Engagement (USAID, 2019)
The Strengthening Advocacy and Civic Engagement (SACE) project was a five-year program funded by USAID and Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND). Implemented by Chemonics International with partner Root Change, SACE strengthened civil society’s ability to work with the government to influence the development and implementation of democratic reforms that improve transparency, accountability, and good governance at the national, state, and local levels in Nigeria. This report provides a project introduction and an an overview of SACE’s Approach and Tools. Click here for full report ...
From national laws and policies to local programmes: obstacles and opportunities in communications for adolescent girls’ empowerment in Uganda (Routledge, 2018, Chapter 5)
This chapter examines action for gender norm change within the broader institutional context in Uganda, which has relatively strong national legislative frameworks and policies to support gender equality and adolescent girls. Despite this, change on the ground is slow and in some places appears non-existent. To examine action for change in this context, the chapter considers selected communications initiatives that aim to shift discriminatory norms around adolescent girls in rural communities. The analysis is set against the backdrop of the country’s national legal, policy and programme environment for gender empowerment and adolescent girls, highlighting both the enabling aspects of progressive laws and policies along with some of the ambiguities around adolescent sexual and reproductive health rights and the reform of marriage legislation, as well as significant gaps between policy promises at national level and action on the ground. Click here for full chapter ...
IOM X free online resources designed to engage audiences about human trafficking and exploitation and build a C4D Campaign (2019)
IOM X is the International Organization for Migration (IOM)'s campaign to encourage safe migration and public action to stop exploitation and human trafficking. Their website provides a number of free resources designed to to engage audiences about human trafficking and exploitation, as well as the tools to build a Communication for Development campaign. The first part of the website is a library of downloadable IOM X materials. This includes videos, factsheets, presentations, research and training guides that you can use to support communication campaigns. These are mostly editable files. The second part of the website guides readers through the process of creating a C4D campaign. Along with detailed instructions for every step, and tools you may need, such as facilitation guides and examples from past campaigns. Note that C4D approaches are relevant across IOM activities, not just counter-trafficking. Click here to visit the website ...
Underneath the Autocrats (IFJ South East Asia Media Report, 2018)
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the South East Asia Journalist Unions (SEAJU) launched the first ever IFJ Media Freedom Report for South East Asia. Underneath the Autocrats: A Report into Impunity, Journalist Safety and Working Conditions is the first major collaboration by IFJ and SEAJU in the region. The report, supported by UNESCO, is intended to be an annual advocacy tool that holds governments and media to account on efforts to protect journalists. The IFJ’s major research into South East Asia’s media canvassed the views of nearly 1000 journalists and media workers across the region in 2018 and included extensive research into legislative controls hampering independent journalism, as well as asking questions of governments, media owners and other key players on journalist safety and working conditions. Click here to find out more and download the report ...
Community Protocols in Africa: Lessons learned for ABS implementation (Natural Justice, 2018)
“Community Protocols in Africa” explores the lessons that Natural Justice has learned while working with communities to implement Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) through the use of a legal empowerment tool: Community Protocols. Community Protocols respond to many of the challenges that communities face when protecting their traditional knowledge and natural resources. Before embarking on a protocol process, communities may not have full knowledge of their rights, for example. They may not be clear as to who can give consent to the use of resources and knowledge, or they may not have clarified how to share benefits within the community. While community protocols are not a cure-all, they can contribute to meeting some of the challenges faced by communities when it comes to the protection and valorisation of their land and natural resources. Case studies from Benin, Kenya, Madagascar, South Africa and Namibia show not only the importance of Community Protocols, but how the process of developing one can bring clarity, improve governance and improve recognition of the communities’ roles in conversation and custodianship. Click here for full report ...
Gendered voices for climate action, a theory of change for the meaningful inclusion of local experiences in decision-making (IIED Working Paper, 2018)
Bringing the perspectives of local women and men who have experienced climate impacts into relevant policy arenas is seen as key to just decision-making and meeting the Paris Agreement commitment to a country-driven gender-responsive approach. But there is a lack of robust evidence on how these experiences can increase the ambition, urgency and quality of climate responses at different levels. This paper reviews existing evidence and proposes a theory of change for how the systematic inclusion of women and men with lived experiences of climate change could strengthen climate action. Click here for full paper ...
I know. I want. I dream. Girls’ insights for building a better world (ICRW report, 2013)
In 2009, ICRW published Girls Speak: A New Voice in Global Development as the fourth report of the Girls Count report series. Four years later, researchers supported by the Nike Foundation asked more than 500 girls from 14 countries to share their insights and perspectives with global decision-makers. This report synthesizes girls’ voices from around the world and argues that girls’ insights are crucial to designing effective global development policies. Click here for full report ...
Guide to Girl-Centered Advocacy (Let Girls Lead, 2016)
This guide is an intensive curriculum aimed at engaging girls and their allies in strategic advocacy to improve girls’ lives around the world. The approach is an integrated emphasis on social justice values, a human rights framework, and a gender-focused perspective. The guide offers an introduction to advocacy; advocacy for and with girls, and self-Care and Safety for Advocates, amongst other topics. Click here for full guide ...
Adolescent Girls Creating Safer Cities: Harnessing the Potential of Communication for Development (UN-Habitat, 2012)
Safer cities strive to create public spaces that are open and accessible to everyone, without exception. Most cities, however, are not totally safe for adolescent girls. What’s more, they are run and developed predominantly without their needs being taken into account. Each week 1 million people move from the countryside to city slums, of which a growing number of migrants are girls, and there is growing pressure to find ways to address the myriad of dangers girls face, from violence and exploitation to discrimination and access to schooling and safe housing. Communication for Development (C4D) has emerged as an important addition to those promoting the rights of girls in the city. Programmes based on C4D take into account the fact that, as experts in their own safety and use of the city, girls are best positioned to identify the issues and priorities that affect them today and in the future, in order to make cities safer and more inclusive. In short, C4D gives adolescent girls a voice with which to take an active role in the development of safe urban environments. Click here for full report ...