Civic space Archives - Oxfam Policy & Practice

Briefing paper

Resisting the Rule of the Rich

19/01/2026

9 documents

69 pages long

Languages: Arabic, English, French, Spanish

Keywords

Overview

Extreme inequality is reaching new heights. In 2025, billionaire wealth increased three times faster than the average annual rate over the previous five years. Meanwhile, one in four people don’t regularly have enough to eat and nearly half the world’s population live in poverty. The super-rich are becoming a new oligarchy, using their extreme wealth […]

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Research report

Promoting and Defending Civic Space: Strategic learnings from the FAIR for ALL programme

03/11/2025

2 documents

38 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

This research report on civic space had been developed as part of the FAIR for ALL programme (2021-2025) implemented to strengthen global civil society in their work for more inclusive, just and sustainable trade and value chains. The program has been funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is led by a consortium […]

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Research report

Beyond Rhetoric: Feminist leadership for a transformative Women, Peace and Security agenda at 25- Case studies from Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and South Sudan

16/10/2025

1 documents

86 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

Twenty-five years after the United Nations adopted Resolution 1325, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is both a landmark in diplomacy and a study in unfulfilled promise. Its most profound achievement has been to force open a conversation about the gendered power structures that fuel conflict. But that opening is narrowing. Escalating wars, a […]

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Briefing note

Civic Space: The missing element in the World Bank’s Country Engagement Approach

22/09/2022

1 documents

33 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

The World Bank has publicly committed to mainstreaming engagement with project stakeholders and civil society to achieve more inclusive development results. Yet typically Bank projects forge ahead to achieve these objectives without comprehensively understanding the dynamics of a country’s ‘civic space’, the actual environment in which communities will be engaging. This paper makes the case […]

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Research report

Analyzing Voter Turnout in Lebanon: Political Change in Times of Crisis

26/04/2022

2 documents

25 pages long

Languages: Arabic, English

Keywords

Overview

In May 2022, Lebanon is hosting its first parliamentary elections since the popular uprising of October 2019, when massive protests took place to denounce the current ruling elites. This research looks at voter turnout and behavior on the eve of the elections and examines the will for political change. It argues that in the current […]

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Research report

The Magic Potion of Austerity and Poverty Alleviation: Narratives of political capture and inequality in the Middle East and North Africa

22/11/2021

4 documents

46 pages long

Languages: Arabic, English, French

Keywords

Overview

Dominant narratives promoting economic growth at the expense of state institutions and basic social services have long underpinned a neoliberal model of spiralling debt and austerity in the MENA region. This exacerbates political capture and inequality and takes shape in an environment of media concentration and shrinking civic space. It is important for change movements […]

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Book

What Happens If We Meet? A learning journey on how youth experience civic space and how INGOs can support them

01/06/2021

1 documents

37 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

What Happens If We Meet? explores how young people experience shrinking civic space and the role INGOs can play as their partners. The ‘Playbook’ reflects on the realities of youth civic space and invites the reader to join the reflection through a series of exercises. The Playbook brings together the findings generated throughout a four-month Learning […]

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Discussion paper

Claiming and Reclaiming the Digital World as a Public Space: Experiences and insights from feminists in the Middle East and North Africa

25/11/2020

1 documents

26 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

This paper seeks to highlight the experiences and aspirations of young women and feminist activists in the MENA region around digital spaces, safety and rights. It explores individual women’s experiences engaging with the digital world, the opportunities and challenges that women’s rights and feminist organizations find in these platforms, and the digital world as a […]

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Book

Narrative Power and Collective Action: Conversations with people working to change narratives for social good – Part 2

21/10/2020

3 documents

64 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

Deeply held 'truths' are coming undone at the seams. As movements across the globe are challenging 'normal', more and more people are looking for new narratives. Narratives are a form a power, made up of many, many, stories, not always written, made up of online content, offline conversations. They are not something that happens over there, they […]

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Discussion paper

COVID-19 and Key Human Rights Principles in Practice: State obligations and business’ responsibilities in responding to the pandemic

07/08/2020

2 documents

48 pages long

Languages: English, Spanish

Keywords

Overview

The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating existing human rights violations, and enabling others. However, it is also stimulating opportunities to further the human rights agenda. A robust framing is needed to hold duty bearers to account, and to help governments and communities to build back better. This paper provides an overview of the issues through the […]

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