Power in the Pandemic

Let’s talk about racism and development.
Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey is a Liberian academic, activist and author.In this conversation, Maria and Robtel talk about development as a racist construct. They discuss the 'decolonial turn', systems of power and decision-making that uphold racism, and Robtel asks us: how complicit are we all in upholding the notion that whiteness (often geographically equalled to 'northerness') is our only reference of progress?
Recorded last year at the Development Studies Association Conference, where Robtel gave her keynote Speech on Decentering the 'White Gaze' of Development. This discussion is as relevant as ever in the current climate of Black Lives Matter and the anti-racism protests seen all over the world. However, racism in development is not a new issue, so why has it been overlooked?
In this blog you can read some key take-aways from the episode: Does development have a problem with racism?

Other links:
Robtel's websiteRobtel's article: Decentering the 'White Gaze' of Development Keynote speech from the Development Studies Association Annual Conference 2019

In honour of International Women’s Day (March 8th) and World Water Day (March 22nd), we explore how water systems and water governance are deeply intertwined with women’s lives in riverine communities in Bangladesh and Nepal.
We learn about women’s rarely discussed roles in fisheries and how River Camps in Bangladesh offer supportive environments for women to meet with leaders and share local water governance issues. In Nepal, we hear about Women’s Empowerment Centres and how women receive technical training to become Citizen Scientists and advocates that report their findings to policymakers.
Suman Gupta (Oxfam in Nepal) and Nuzhat Nearey (Oxfam in Bangladesh) share their experience with the TROSA project (Transboundary Rivers of South Asia) with Oxfam in Nepal and in Bangladesh.

In this episode, we ask critical questions. How are women involved in water governance in their communities? What are the impacts on their livelihoods, emergency preparedness, unpaid care and their households? Join us for an engaging discussion that links SDG 5 and 6 and speaks to the power of women as community-centred, localised knowledge holders on water in Nepal and Bangladesh.
Resources:
Read the latest paper on how Oxfam are Achieving Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 6: The case for gender-transformative water programmes

Find out more about The TROSA Project: https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/handle/10546/620967

Read TROSA’s report on how they are Strengthening communities’ collective action for inclusive water governance through River Meetings.

Find out more about Oxfam in Nepal

Find out more about Oxfam in Bangladesh
Find out more about the Women's Economic Empowerment Knowledge Hub and Subscribe to their newsletter to be connected with 600+ WEE Practitioners.
Photo credit: Fabeha Monir/Oxfam
Fishing after the cyclone.
Abdul and his wife fish near Sundarban after returning from the flood shelter. Shamnagar, Bangladesh

Franziska Mager and Deborah Hardoon from Oxfam take to the air waves share their thoughts on two books that deal with the economy, wealth and inequality. 'The Great Escape', by Angus Deaton, and Africa: Why Economists Get It Wrong by Morten Jerven.

Something that threatens to separate us, is highlighting our deep interconnection.
Welcome to Power in the Pandemic podcast. Right now, the world is going through massive shifts, triggered by the rapid spread of the Coronavirus. In this series, we're bringing together the unheard and often forgotten voices living through the pandemic, in order to get a glimpse into the world that’s being created in the cracks of this crisis.
In each episode, we will hear from a range of individuals and social leaders, from migrant labourers to trans youth mobilizing in their communities, to humanitarian workers. We'll learn about responses to the virus from those already facing a range of inequalities and injustices daily.
What are the guiding principles of communities and groups of people most vulnerable to the effects of this pandemic? What works in different regions? How is local leadership being reimagined, and what new sorts of arrangements are emerging?

Join us to hear the emerging voices and stories as Power Shifts and the Oxfam In-Depth podcast collaborate to bring you Power in the Pandemic. Listen and subscribe on your favourite podcast platform.

Explore more from Power Shifts
Music: "The DoxScott Experiment" by Loveshadow, 2017
Licensed under Creative Commons

This episode hosts a conversation recorded last September 2020 during a virtual encounter around Creating Feminist Futures. María Faciolince, our host and moderator, is joined by three visionary feminists from around the world: Crystal Simeoni (Director at Nawi: Afrifem Macroeconomics Collective), Meera Ghani (Policy coordinator at Ecolise, Co-founder of Moxie Consultancy Collective) and Maria José Moreno (Global Gender Justice Director at Oxfam International).

One of the shared solutions, or antidotes to systems of violence at the root of intersecting inequalities, is to center care. As we ask ourselves how to disrupt this paradigm of carelessness and promote the actions necessary in defence of our collective futures, this exploration engages with some of the following questions: What can care look like in practice? Which principles should underly the narrative of 'building back better' in re-building a post-pandemic feminist future? How can care as a right be articulated in contexts where basic human rights are violated? How do we visibilize care work within organizations?

Tune in to hear what care-centered, justice-oriented feminist futures (and realities) can look like, the potential of the present moment, and how we can develop a vision for a caring future, what it might look like and how we might achieve it.

Stay tuned, subscribe to Power in the Pandemic podcast and follow Power Shifts project on Instagram!

LINKS:

Feminist Futures: Caring for people, caring for justice and rights (paper)

Check out these Power Shifts resource compilations useful for creating feminist futures:

• Power Shifts Resources: Well-being and Development
• Power Shifts Resources: Care in a Time of Corona

Host and script: María Faciolince
Production and audio editing: Bethany Donkin