PROGRAMMING ON THE

RIGHT TO BE HEARD

A learning companion

1
REVISED EDITION

CONTENTS
Contents ........................................................................................................ 2
Introduction to the Learning Companion .................................................... 3
The Right to Be Heard: A Glossary.............................................................. 4
1. Introduction to the Right to Be Heard...................................................... 6
Why Oxfam works on the Right to Be Heard............................................... 6
Change Goal Objectives...8
How the five approaches interact................................................................ 9
A note on power and politics....................................................................... 9
Our aim ................................................................. 10
Underpinning Oxfams work...................................................................... 13
2. Analysing your programme context ...................................................... 15
Why is power analysis so important?.........................................................15
What is a power analysis?..........................................................................16
Enhancing your analysis18
Gender analysis..18
Context/situational analysis..18
How politics and the economy intersect.19
Using your analysis
3. Approaches to Right to Be Heard Programming .................................. 28
Cross-cutting themes:
Gender, Governance and Poor Womens Rights ...................................... 30
Build and Protect Spaces and Alliances for Dialogue and Change ........... 39
Strategies and approaches
1. Organising civil society43
2. Access to information and technology..59
3. Public decision- and policy-making spaces.64
4. Access to justice...77
5. Global citizenship.80
4. Strengthening Oxfams Ways of Working ............................................. 89
MEL through the Right to be Heard lens85
Promoting accountability and participation89
Annex Case study: the Indonesia LISTEN programme ....................... 102

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INTRODUCTION TO THE
LEARNING COMPANION
Oxfams vision is a just world without poverty. We envisage a society in which
people can influence decisions that affect their lives, enjoy their rights and
assume their responsibilities as full citizens of a world in which all human
beings are valued and treated equally. The Right to Be Heard is a critical part
of this vision and underpins the development of all our programmes and our
relationships with partners and allies.
Effective Right to Be Heard work is necessarily complex and multi-
dimensional, and requires action across different levels and domains, employ-
ing a range of strategies. This Learning Companion aims to guide our work
and strengthen our focus in this important area. It reflects the Oxfam Interna-
tional change goal on the Right to Be Heard, and is designed to help you think
through that complexity and make decisions about the combination of ap-
proaches to use to achieve your goals. It is aimed primarily at programme
staff, but will also be useful across all areas of Oxfams work, including hu-
manitarian operations and campaigning.
The Learning Companion is made up of four sections:

Section 1 provides an introduction to the Right to Be Heard.

Section 2 outlines the different types of analysis that can help you better un-
derstand the context you are dealing with, and make choices about where to
focus your work.

Section 3 gives an overview of the different approaches to Right to Be Heard

programming described in the OI Strategic Plan. It provides numerous tools
and resources that you can use to support programme implementation.

Section 4 looks at how we can strengthen our own ways of working to improve
the effectiveness of our Right to Be Heard programmes. This includes Moni-
toring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), and some sample indicators for Right
to Be Heard programmes.

Each section includes case studies to illustrate key points and provides links
to additional tools and resources. Offline users can find a full bibliography at
the end of the document.

The Companion is not a step-by-step instruction manual, but has been

designed so that you can choose the level of information that you need,
depending on your experience, context and stage of programming. It can be
read as a whole, or you can move directly to the sections that interest you.

3
THE RIGHT TO BE HEARD: A
GLOSSARY
Right to Be Heard: Poor and marginalised people can gain control over their
own lives by exercising their right to political participation, freedom of
expression and information, freedom of assembly and access to justice.
Oxfam International Strategic Plan, 2013-19

Governance: The rules of the game that govern political, economic and
social life plus how the game is played, i.e. who gets to engage in which
aspects, and on what terms, including through formal and informal or
traditional structures and processes.

Participatory governance: Approaches to governance that actively include

ordinary citizens and, particularly, marginalised and excluded groups in
shaping what happens and how it happens through governance processes.

Civil society: The range of non-government actors in a society, including

faith-based organisations and trade unions, in addition to the more familiar
NGOs and community-based organisations. Technically it should include the
business sector, but is not often used in this way. Civil society organisations
(CSOs) do not necessarily share objectives with Oxfam.

Accountability: The process through which an organisation balances the

needs of stakeholders in its decision-making and activities, and delivers
against this commitment. This can be upwards (towards donors) and
downwards (towards beneficiaries). Accountability is based on four
dimensions: transparency, participation, learning and evaluation, and
feedback mechanisms that allow the organisation to give account to, take
account of, and be held to account by stakeholders.

Social accountability: An approach towards building accountability that relies

on ordinary citizens and/or civil society organisations participating directly or
indirectly in managing public resources and in exacting accountability from
governments and institutions. Mechanisms include participatory budgeting,
public expenditure tracking, citizen monitoring of public service delivery,
citizen advisory boards, lobbying and advocacy campaigns.

State capture: When a small number of powerful self-interested economic

actors (or the military) is able to shape the rules of the game and laws, policies
and regulations to its own advantage through illicit and non-transparent
provision of private benefits to officials and politicians. This form of corruption
is increasingly being recognised as the most damaging challenge in political
and economic reform.

Institutions: Any structure or mechanism of social order and co-operation

governing the behaviour of a set of individuals within a given human
community. The term institution is commonly applied to customs and

4
behaviour patterns important to a society, as well as to particular formal
organisations of government and public service.

Visible power: observable decision-making mechanisms.

Hidden power: shaping or influencing the political agenda behind the scenes.

Invisible power: norms and beliefs, socialisation, ideology, culture.

Power over: power that controls others, directly or indirectly, whether they
wish it or not.

Power to: the capability to decide actions and carry them out (skills, tools,
knowledge).

Power with: collective power, through organisation, solidarity and joint action.

Power within: personal self-confidence, self-belief and sense of agency,

(often linked to culture, religion or other aspects of identity).

5
1. INTRODUCTION TO THE
RIGHT TO BE HEARD
This section:
Explains the reason for and importance of Oxfams work on the Right to
Be Heard
Gives an overview of the Right to Be Heard Learning Companion
Illustrates how the different elements of the Companion interact
Explains how you can use the Companion to inform all aspects of
Oxfams work, whether or not you are working directly on the Right to
Be Heard.

WHY OXFAM WORKS ON THE

RIGHT TO BE HEARD
The Right to be Heard is about people claiming their right to a better life. Poor
and marginalised people can gain control over their own lives by exercising
their rights to political participation, freedom of expression and information,
freedom of assembly and access to justice. This is the foundation of all that
Oxfam believes and does.
Oxfam recognises that poverty is not just about obvious things like inadequate
access to food, shelter and education. It is also about vulnerability, isolation,
powerlessness, lack of information and restricted access to goods, services
and knowledge. Our work is based on the belief that:
All human lives are of equal value, and that everyone has fundamental
rights that must be recognised and upheld at all times.
People living in poverty should be agents of their own development and,
with the right resources, support and training, can solve their own prob-
lems.
Development work needs to go beyond issues of material resources to
consider and address the capacity, choices and power required for people
living in poverty to enjoy all human rights.
Oxfams rights-based approach to development means that all of our work
should strengthen the ability of men, women and youth living in poverty to de-
mand and protect their rights, and ensure that governments and institutions
fulfil their obligations to respect and promote the rights of poor people.

6
 Taking a rights-based approach to development

Recognises that imbalances in power relations contribute to

marginalisation and prevent poor people from exercising their rights
Is participatory, recognising that all people, including those living in
poverty, have a right to be involved in processes that impact on their
lives
Recognises that all development actors and all stakeholders are
accountable to one another
Promotes equality and non-discrimination, with a particular focus on
vulnerable or marginalised people(s)
Is holistic, recognising that economic poverty has deeply-felt social,
cultural and political causes and effects, and that the spectrum of
human rights must be understood together to constitute the basic
necessities for a life of dignity and freedom
Recognises that rights also involve corresponding responsibilities
the fact that we all have human rights means we are also all duty
bearers
Makes use of existing legal systems, and, depending on the context,
builds links between development goals and international human
rights laws.

The Right to Be Heard has very close links to this rights-based approach to
development. At its core, it aims to ensure that poor and marginalised women
and men are able to influence decisions that affect their lives, claim and enjoy
their rights and challenge inequality. There are many recent examples of peo-
ple asserting their rights in many forms often through youth-led or womens
movements. They are driving positive societal change in the face of economic
volatility, social inequality, poor corporate governance and weak political insti-
tutions. Yet these rights are threatened in many parts of the world, for exam-
ple, by conflict or political repression. This makes women and youth especially
vulnerable to repression and poverty.

The exact issues vary according to context, but they include governance that
is non-participatory, unresponsive to civil society voices, curtails civil and po-
litical freedoms, and lacks accountability. It may also be corrupt, characterised
by impunity and ruled by patronage, with a precarious and ineffective rule of
law. This affects the daily lives of people worldwide, from rural small-holder
farmers to urban slum dwellers. Regardless of the forms they take, weak gov-
ernance and a lack of voice are fundamental issues underlying poverty and
inequality.
A number of Oxfams programmes recognise this and already have a strong
focus on voice and active citizenship, participation and accountability, and
gender and governance. Others have built in governance components as
mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability in the delivery of qual-
ity essential services, including monitoring of budget decisions and spending
by governments and communities.

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The Right to Be Heard encompasses many elements, including voice, partici-
pation, rights, governance, accountability and transparency 1. The Oxfam In-
ternational Strategic Plan underlines its centrality to Oxfams mission. It
reaffirms the organisational commitment to this area of work one which is
relevant and will be pursued in all programmes 2 and contexts. However, Ox-
fam will focus in particular on supporting women and youth as social change
leaders, because deep-rooted power inequalities are often gender- and gen-
eration-based.

The Right to Be Heard will be key to our work on urban poverty, building the
ability of marginalised urban poor people to organise and demand effective
and responsive governance and recognition of their entitlement to critical ser-
vices, social protection and livelihood opportunities. It is an area of work that
also involves Oxfams public and supporters, encouraging them to recognise
the consequences of their personal economic, political and social choices.
They can purchase Fair Trade products, take actions of solidarity with poor
and marginalised people or engage with governments and businesses over
issues that affect poor peoples lives.

Ultimately, fulfilling the Right to Be Heard means giving the people most vul-
nerable to poverty and inequality the greatest say in planning their own lives
and future.

CHANGE GOAL OBJECTIVES

Oxfam Internationals Strategic Plan outlines four strategic objectives for the
Right to Be Heard change goal. More poor and marginalised people will:

Increase their voice by understanding and being better able to exercise

their rights to organise, to information, to public participation and
to equal justice

See more responsiveness from governments and the private sector to

their interests; and increase their influence and benefit from the poli-
cies and legislation of governments on resource allocation, and the
policies and practices of the private sector

Benefit from increasingly accountable and transparent governments

and private sector because they are better able to demand transpar-
ency, fulfilment of pro-poor promises and respect for citizens rights
and the rule of law.

And:

More citizens will contribute to overcoming poverty and injustice

through personal choices as consumers (through, for example, pur-
chasing Fair Trade products), taking action in solidarity with poor and
marginalised people and influencing governments and business as ac-
tive global citizens.

1
See the glossary on page 4 for an explanation of these and other terms related to the Right to Be Heard
2
The word programme is used assuming a one-programme approach, and refers to development, cam-
paigning and humanitarian work

8
The Strategic Plan outlines five approaches that can be used to deliver these
objectives:

1. Organising civil society

2. Access to information and technology
3. Public decision- and policy-making spaces
4. Access to justice
5. Global citizenship (this is a stand-alone approach, as well as a cross-
cutting theme woven throughout the four previous approaches).

These approaches are covered in detail in Chapter 3, along with two other
cross-cutting themes common to all:

Gender, governance and poor womens rights achieving sustained,

widespread changes in attitudes and beliefs about gender power rela-
tions, in order to further womens rights and gender justice

Building and protecting spaces and alliances for dialogue and change
it is critical to Oxfams work to keep civil society space open.

How the five approaches interact

All too often development programmes focus on demand side (people) or

supply side (power holders) approaches in isolation, which fails to reflect the
reality of power dynamics and how change happens on the ground. We view
the five approaches as being intrinsically interlinked, representing the
relationships between the different institutions or centres of power.

Our work is most effective when all five strategic approaches are addressed,
so that gains made in any one area arent undermined by a lack of progress in
the others. For example, if our work were focused solely on lobbying
government officials at different levels, it could successfully achieve its
outcomes but still have little impact on womens lives, if women themselves
were unaware of their rights and that they could play a part in making
decisions about issues that affect them.

However, work in all five areas doesnt necessarily have to happen

simultaneously: for example, improving the transparency of government actors
might be the first phase of a programme, with attention to influencing attitudes
and behaviours at grassroots level coming later on. The important thing is to
be aware of how these approaches interact, to have considered what the
impact of your work might be on the other strategic areas and to look for
opportunities to join up work that reinforces the overall goal at all levels. This
can then be made clear in your theory of change.

A NOTE ON POWER AND POLITICS

Power is a key concept that emerges throughout the Right to Be Heard and is
inescapably linked with all areas of Oxfams work. In particular, we believe that
unequal power relations contribute to marginalisation and prevent poor men,
women and youth from exercising their rights. We explore what we mean by
power further in Section 2.

9
Work on power is also intrinsically linked to politics. The question of who holds
power and how power is exercised is, by nature, political. Any programme that
aims to redress imbalances of power and unequal power relations is,
therefore, also political. It will be political in taking positions that aim to
improve governance through active citizenship, vertical accountability, and
improved effectiveness of government and other institutions. It will seek to
eradicate poverty and inequality through engaging with the power dynamics
and decision-making structures at hand. This work is political in aspiration, in
implementation and in outcome. Our programmes seek to analyse who holds
power and aim to change power structures for the benefit of the most
vulnerable and marginalised people in society.

We shouldnt be afraid of being political: it is essential for achieving our goals.

However, we do need to be careful not to be partisan. This means that while
we may engage with political actors, such as members of parliament or
government ministries, and support political processes, we do so regardless of
their political affiliations and not to further the aims of any particular political
party. Rather, our goal is to support political actors and processes to uphold
the rights and meet the needs of poor men, women and youth.

OUR AIM
The aim of our Right to Be Heard programming is to address unequal power
relations and to ensure that the poorest and most marginalised men, women
and youth are able to:

Gain confidence in their right and ability to influence decisions that af-
fect their lives

Understand their rights and responsibilities and increase their capacity

to negotiate with people in positions of power, to claim their rights and
entitlements and demand accountability

Resist the concentration of power in the hands of the elite through col-
lective action, and exposure of corruption and state capture.

Our work is based on the understanding that unequal power relations

(between individuals, between men and women, and between different groups
in society) underpin and perpetuate poverty. These need to be addressed both
at the institutional level and within the complex norms and customs of each
society.

We believe that all men, women and youth have the right and the capacity to
participate fully in decision-making and development processes. However, the
more marginalised people in society women and girls in particular are
often excluded. We believe that when their contribution is effectively achieved,
power relations shift and poverty and inequality can be reduced.

The changes we want to see

Poor men, women and youth:

Identify their own needs, problems and possible solutions, and develop

10
 the confidence and skills to be able to articulate these.
Have access to accurate, relevant and timely information to feed their
ideas and actions
Have knowledge of the rights to which they are entitled, and the ability
and spaces to exercise and practise these rights
Recognise and challenge those customs, beliefs and behaviours that
prevent them from raising their voice and/or from being heard
Have the opportunity and support to become leaders of, and advocates
for, their own communities
Are increasingly active participants in coalitions, alliances and
movements through which their voices can be heard
Have access to justice services and have recourse to legal mechanisms
to exercise their rights.

Power holders, governments and institutions:

Have their own mechanisms to demand accountability from those in
higher positions of power, using rules and regulations, complaints,
grievance mechanisms and other internal decision-making spaces that
they have access to
Become more accountable and responsive to the needs of poor and
marginalised citizens
Increasingly deliver basic civil, social, economic and political rights to all
citizens
Develop the capacity and the will to engage meaningfully with, and listen
to, citizens
Be more transparent, share information related to public finances and
decision-making processes proactively and accurately; ensure this
information reaches everyone and is appropriately translated (into
local languages, or from written to oral form)
Deepen their democratic principles, thereby limiting the concentration of
power in the hands of the elite, and allowing the voices of poor and
marginalised people to be heard
Ensure formal power structures function effectively, with citizens
engaging constructively with power holders through policy and
legislative frameworks
Open up spaces for citizen engagement, responding to influencing and
lobbying using sensitive negotiation skills and understanding of local
customs.

Businesses and their regulators:

Change their business models to integrate social and environmental
responsibilities into their core operations and planning including
providing meaningful and accessible opportunities for poor and
marginalised men, women and youth to express their opinions on
decisions that affect them
Work in the interests of the poorest people in society as well as
shareholders and investors, by establishing mechanisms that ensure
transparency, accountability and participation (including access to
information)
Establish legal and sector regulations that enable people to see what
companies are doing, forces them to answer for their actions, and
enable them to hear and take into account the voices and opinions of
everyone in society not just their investors.

11
Oxfam has an important role to play in helping shift power relations and
reducing poverty and inequality. Our expertise lies in:

Supporting groups to organise and ensuring communities participation

in diagnosing problems and finding their own solutions
Developing leaders, especially women and young people, to work with
their communities to claim their rights
Supporting the organisation of coalitions, movements and groups so
that they become vibrant, independent and legitimate actors in deci-
sion-making processes; helping activists and leaders of movements to
ensure that the collective voices they represent are heard in the right
forums
Playing a connector role and helping citizen leaders gain access to
the spaces where decisions are made. Oxfam can provide guidance,
but should support groups to develop their own agendas and deter-
mine for themselves how to engage with the power dynamics specific
to their context
Helping citizens to engage constructively with power-holders at all lev-
els through a range of different accountability mechanisms
Being a role model and being fully transparent and accountable to do-
nors, staff, partners and communities (this is a key condition for pro-
moting accountability in other institutions and partners)
In many contexts, working directly with formal institutions of govern-
ance, and having an influencer role that can contribute to better-
functioning institutions that are more responsive to poor peoples
needs
Using our convening power to enable dialogue, foster connections
and create spaces between citizens and formal institutions at all levels
At the local level, working through partners to identify the roles and re-
sponsibilities of local institutions and strengthen their capacity to fulfil
their obligations, particularly following decentralisation processes
Building the capacity of partners and citizens to engage in participatory
governance and upwards accountability mechanisms, promoting trans-
parency and access to information
Supporting innovation and best practice by corporate leaders, by work-
ing with these players in humanitarian and programme work through
partnerships, joint projects and mechanisms such as learning jour-
neys, as well as through joint advocacy and lobbying, and dialogue
and influencing work
Working against corporate blockers who practise worst standards in
business operations and use their influence to maintain poor regulation
and standards, through adversarial advocacy and lobbying work, and
through dialogue and influencing. 3

3 Note that there may be an implicit tension between campaigning work that targets specific com-
panies or corporate practices, and more collaborative programme and humanitarian response work
engaging companies in sectors that are areas of Oxfams campaign work. To offset this, we aim to
balance campaign work by both identifying the worst corporate practices in campaign work and
giving credit to the best performers, to raise their profile. However, tensions may remain when

12
The power of combining programming and advocacy: challenging corporate at-
tempts to trademark Ethiopian coffee

In 2007, the Ethiopian government challenged the unfair-

ness of the international coffee market by seeking to
trademark the names of its high-value speciality coffee
beans. Starbucks the worlds largest coffee shop chain
voiced its opposition to this. More than 15 million
Ethiopians depend on coffee for their living. Yet while
they grow some of the worlds finest coffee varieties
such as Harar, Yirgachaffe and Sidamo they do not re-
ceive the premium prices associated with these names.
Thats why the Ethiopian government wanted recognition
that it owned these premium coffee names.

Our campaigners go into action: After discussions with

Starbucks, Oxfam asked its supporters to send a message urging the company to rec-
ognise Ethiopias ownership of its speciality coffee names. The response was massive.
Nearly 100,000 people from around the world voiced their support for the farmers by
contacting Starbucks. With Oxfams encouragement, the national and international me-
dia ran the story too, building pressure on the company to act.

Campaigning works: Our collective efforts raised the profile of this important issue,
contributing to securing a landmark deal between Starbucks and the Ethiopian govern-
ment. This will enable farmers to get a fairer price for their coffee beans and give them
more to spend on food, health care and education. This success paves the way for
Ethiopian coffee farmers to work with other coffee companies, who will now be under
pressure to follow Starbucks lead.

UNDERPINNING OXFAMS WORK

The Right to Be Heard strategies and approaches outlined are relevant to all
areas of Oxfams thematic focus. For the most marginalised people, access to
productive assets or social protection schemes and essential services typically
and fundamentally relate to governance and power issues. Access to
information and participation in budget decisions and monitoring are key to
ensuring fairness in resource allocation. Access to basic necessities in times
of crisis or for vulnerable populations is also related to peoples ability to
demand their rights, and to those in power providing responsibly for the people
they are supposed to serve. Oxfams campaigning can provide powerful
channels for poor men, women and youth to make their voices heard.
Therefore, integrating a Right to Be Heard approach across our work can
provide useful tools to support our goals of gender justice, saving lives,
sustainable food, the fair sharing of natural resources, and financing for
development and universal essential services. It can also help to build
resilience among poor communities, and to provide a useful entry point in
contexts where directly addressing governance issues is not possible or might
be an organisational risk.

engaging in collaborative programming with companies active in a sector around which Oxfam is
campaigning.

13
Throughout this Learning Companion, the case study examples show how the
Right to Be Heard has been applied in different contexts and how related
approaches can support different thematic goals. The Companion is a lens for
you to use to guide your programme identification, design and implementation
and to help you think about how your programme supports poor men, women
and youth to have a voice and claim their rights.

Questions for reflection

Take some time to reflect on some of the ideas in this section and think
about what they mean for your work. Here are some questions to guide
you:
Do you agree that that enabling poor and marginalised people to
influence decisions that affect their lives, claim and realise their rights,
and challenge inequality is a critical element of overcoming poverty
and suffering?
What are some of the key Right to Be Heard issues that relate to your
context?
Consider situations that demonstrate the impact of denying people the
Right to Be Heard. Was one group particularly affected over others? If
so, why?
What are the practical ways in which increasing peoples confidence to
have a voice are already incorporated in your programme? How
effective have these been? What factors have been particularly
successful? Which have not?
Think of examples where people have participated in diagnosing their
own problems and issues and have sought their own solutions. What
factors in particular have helped them do this?

Tools and Resources

The Right to be Heard: an Overview, Jo Rowlands
This paper provides a clear and comprehensive outline of how the Right to Be
Heard can strengthen the participation of people in poverty in formulating pub-
lic policy, and can enable them to hold decision-makers accountable. It out-
lines some of the forms that power takes.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/the-right-to-be-heard-an-
overview-120556

Quick Guide to Rights-based Approaches to Development

http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/quick-guide-to-rights-based-
approaches-to-development-312421

14
2. ANALYSING YOUR
PROGRAMME CONTEXT
This section:
Explains why understanding power is fundamental to our work
Explains what power analysis is and how to do it
Highlights other analytical approaches that can complement your power
analysis
Explains how to use your analysis.

Why is power analysis so important?

Oxfams work is based on the understanding that unequal power relations
between individuals, between men and women and between different groups
in society underpin and perpetuate poverty. Unequal power relations
manifest themselves in many different ways: from unfair trade regulations that
disproportionately benefit rich countries, to social norms that cause young girls
to suffer malnutrition because they are only allowed to eat after their brothers
have had their fill.

If poor men, women and youth are to participate in decision-making and claim
their rights, they must address this inequality at institutional level, as well as
within the complex beliefs and practices of each society, and must accurately
identify who to influence. To do this, they need to understand enough about
how power plays out, what spaces are already open for interacting with power-
holders, the constraints on those spaces, and what spaces could be created
or claimed. For this reason, power analysis is a fundamental starting point for
all our work.

What is power?
We usually think of power as control over others or the ability to carry out
ones will, but power can also be more subtle. For example, power can be the
strength and capacity that we gain through joining with others towards a
common goal, our own self-belief that we can achieve our aims or the courage
to adopt a certain course of action. Power can be manifested as:
Power over: the power of the strong over the weak, including the power
to exclude others
Power to: the capability to decide actions and carry them out
Power with: collective power, through organisation, solidarity and joint
action
Power within: personal self-confidence, often linked to culture, religion
or other aspects of identity, which influences the thoughts and actions
that appear legitimate or acceptable.

Power can also take different forms, occur at different levels and be acted out
in different spaces the opportunities, moments and channels, both physical

15
 and virtual, through which citizens can act to influence the policies, thinking,
decisions and relationships that affect their lives and interests:

Forms Spaces Levels

Visible: observable decision-making Closed: decisions made by Household
mechanisms, institutionalised in formal closed groups Local
and recognisable rules, laws, structures Invited: people asked to
and procedures National
participate but within set
Hidden: shaping or influencing the boundaries Global
political agenda behind the scenes, Created or claimed: less
usually without legitimacy powerful actors create or
Invisible: norms and beliefs, claim a space where they
socialisation, ideology or culture that can set their own agenda
shape how we understand our society

What is a power analysis?

In campaigning and advocacy work, power analysis refers to an analysis of
the way that change happens in a given context, identification of the key
individuals to influence and the best strategies to use to achieve change.

In our Right to Be Heard work, however, we take a broader view of power, and
use power analysis to identify and explore the multiple power dimensions that
affect a given situation, so as to better understand the different factors that
interact to reinforce poverty. As power is not static, it will often cut across the
different forms, spaces and levels, and show itself in more than one way.
Having a more complete understanding of the power relations at play will help
you to identify opportunities for change and appropriate strategies and entry
points for your programmes. Ultimately, your analysis will help to identify how
far any one programme can go to redress power imbalances and where
opportunities and potential limitations might lie.

In all countries, power is linked and dynamic. Depending on the openness of

any given society, people may only have glimpses of the connections that knit
together the web of power that holds the ruling system in place between, for
example, the media, ruling parties, traditional leaders, key interest groups, the
military and the private sector. A power analysis can help reveal these
connections.

Power analysis can help you answer questions such as:

Where do the different centres of power lie in your country and the
communities in which you work?
Who are the powerful actors and institutions, which sector are they in
and where are they located geographically? (Identify targets, allies and
opponents.)
What type of power is being used? (Reveal hidden mechanisms of
power.)
What opportunities exist, or what needs to change in order for poor
and marginalised people to interact meaningfully with power holders

16
 and to increase their own power? (Find spaces for dialogue and influ-
ence.)
Who makes the decisions that most affect the lives of poor and mar-
ginalised people?
Who has access to and control of resources? To whose benefit?

There are several different frameworks you can use to guide your analysis,
outlined at the end of this section. There is, however, no one way to do a
power analysis and no fixed or right output for example, your discussions
might result in a diagram or a written report. The important thing is to ask
questions that explore all the possible aspects of power that might affect your
programme context, and to use the results to guide your programme design
and implementation.

The Chukua Hatua or Take Action programme in Tanzania has been

running since August 2010. In its first phase it has trialled a number of
approaches to creating active citizenship that is, citizens who know their
rights and responsibilities, are demanding them and are able to search for
and access information. The underlying assumption is that if Tanzanian
citizens begin to demand their rights and entitlements, the government
will be increasingly compelled to respond.
Some pilots have proved successful in catalysing citizens to take action.
For example, the active musicians project was very successful in raising
the awareness of large numbers of people who then took action, including
demonstrating about electricity plans being moved to another district and
demanding budget explanations from the district council.
However, this mobilisation hasnt always met with positive responses and
when citizens have not been listened to, they have found it difficult to
know how to react. Looking at this issue through a power analysis lens
has revealed that while village leaders have power over communities,
they also have potential to be local activists and to provide a key bridge
between communities and government. Therefore, the next phase of the
programme will seek to engage directly with village leaders and develop
their power to be responsive to their constituents and to demand
accountability from higher levels of governance.
Many of the pilots have also struggled with the lack of spaces and forums
for citizens to discuss their accountability issues among themselves, and
for dialogue with duty bearers on the issues they have identified. The
programme had initially assumed that village meetings or village
assemblies, which have considerable power, would be the primary space
open to villagers. However, further analysis has revealed that often either
the meetings are not happening, or they are being closed or controlled by
leaders and their supporters. In the next phase of the programme,
initiatives will aim to claim spaces in traditional and constitutionally
mandated structures and to explore further what informal spaces might be
claimed by citizens to discuss issues and contribute to decisions. In
addition, a piece of participatory action research will seek to understand
the reasons why people choose not to engage in local governance,
including aspects of hidden and invisible power.

17
Enhancing your analysis
Although power analysis is our starting point, there are other types of analysis
that can complement it and help you make sense of complex situations by
viewing them from different perspectives. This does not mean that you have to
do four separate and overlapping analyses, but that you should at least
integrate key questions from the different types of analysis into your power
analysis.

Gender analysis

All of our work should address gender inequality. For our Right to Be Heard
work, this means recognising that poor women are often even more
disadvantaged than men within the same social group or community, and
need additional support to influence the decisions that affect their lives, to
claim their rights and challenge unequal power relations.

The purpose of conducting a gender analysis is to identify the specific aspects

of gender relations and inequalities that are present in your programme
context, and to examine their implications for programme design and
implementation. It should explore questions relating to who has power, who
owns and controls resources, who takes decisions, who sets the agenda, and
who gains and loses from this. It can look at how womens disproportionate
levels of responsibility in the household sphere impact on their ability to
participate in the public sphere. It might explore the different ways in which
women and men are being denied their rights, the laws and practices that
discriminate against women, and the norms and beliefs about womens roles
in public life. It can also show the ways these impact on the levels of womens
participation in decision-making at all levels.

The centrality of gender equality and poor womens rights to our Right to Be
Heard work is explored in more detail in Section 3.

Context/situational analysis

A context analysis looks at your country or programmes general governance

environment and broad background. This helps you develop a clear
understanding of the context in which you are working, an analysis of how
change happens in that context, and consideration of how Oxfam can make
the strongest contribution to positive change.

Some key questions include:

What are the main governance features and issues pertinent to the
country in which you work?
What are the relevant structures and systems at play?
Who are the key political, economic, legal, social and cultural power
holders?
Who are the different stakeholders and what is their level of influence
in both formal and informal governance structures?

18
 How does change happen and what are the barriers to positive
change?
What governance opportunities and constraints exist?
What is the impact of the overarching values, ideas and beliefs in your
country?

Much of this analysis should already have been carried out in your country
strategy (or JCAS), which will include an analysis of the underlying causes of
poverty and vulnerability and the areas in which your programme efforts
should be focused. However, you should check that there have been no major
political, social or economic changes since it was written and that it is detailed
enough to provide an accurate and nuanced picture of your context.

Analysing how politics and economics intersect

It is important to understand how political and economic processes interact in

a society. This is sometimes referred to as political economy analysis (PEA).
It means analysing the distribution of power and wealth between different
groups and individuals, and the processes that create, sustain and transform
these relationships over time. This requires drilling down more deeply in these
areas than in general context analysis, and is critical to achieving meaningful
understanding of how they will influence your programme and the problems it
seeks to address. Effective analysis of the intersection between politics and
economics requires going beneath formal structures. It must reveal underlying
interests, incentives and institutions that can both enable or frustrate change,
particularly those that relate to the Right to Be Heard.

This analysis can help improve the effectiveness of your work through:

Developing a shared understanding of the political context in which you

work and how it affects your programme strategies
Identifying obstacles and constraints to effective programmes, as well
as opportunities for leveraging policy change and supporting reform
Identifying feasible development strategies, with realistic expectations
of what can be achieved over what timescales, and the risks involved
In fragile environments, identifying entry points for promoting an inclu-
sive and stable political settlement between state and citizens. This
might include measures to promote political reform, strengthen the
core functions of the state, or improve the delivery of services that build
state legitimacy and respond to societal expectations
Identifying how you might work outside the state to build progressive
change coalitions across civil society, the private sector and the media
Better understanding the impact of external drivers such as trade,
corruption and the media on governance and political processes
Better understanding the political constraints that governments face,
working more effectively with them and helping to foster country own-
ership of development initiatives.

Key considerations in political and economic analysis

High-level economic analysis, with a particular focus on statistics and macro-

19
economic and political trends, is best left to specialists. In most contexts
where Oxfam works, such analysis will already be available, either publicly or
by developing constructive relationships with other actors. If this is the case,
the kind of analysis that Oxfam needs to undertake to inform its work is not a
daunting process. It simply involves drilling down into the power dynamics of a
range of players. It does, however, need sufficient time and effort allocated to
it. Thorough preparation is crucial, such as:

discussing the purpose of the analysis

phrasing the key question it will focus on
identifying the audience
choosing an appropriate methodology.

Methods
Critical insights usually emerge when the outputs of various different methods
are overlaid, and patterns can be seen. This also enables you to identify gaps
in data and knowledge and think about whom to talk to in order to fill them.
Key methods for assessing how politics and economics interrelate in your con-
text include:

Stakeholder analysis

This needs to go beyond the superficial and delve into detail, particularly in
terms of understanding different actors incentives and motivations. Much can
be gathered from strategic informal interviews with key informants (such as
academic experts, journalists, government officials, etc.). A quick mapping of
the networks that staff and partners are able to access can reveal significant
sources of information. It is also useful to trawl the data sources monitored by
staff, such as journals, websites, and news and information sources. Regular
monitoring of Facebook and Twitter accounts also provides useful (although
less reliable) information in a fast-changing environment. You need to be open
to acknowledging what you do not know, and willing to recognise when further
investigation and data-gathering is required.

Social network analysis (or mapping)

This is an interview-based mapping technique that helps people understand,

visualise and discuss situations in which many different actors influence
outcomes. It enables people to create maps or networks of influence, clarify
their own view of a situation and where influence lies, and develop a strategic
response in order to bring about desired change. It helps players to determine
which actors are involved in a given network, how theyre linked, how
influential they are and what their goals are.

Determining linkages, levels of influence and goals allows users to be more

strategic about how they act in these complex situations. It helps them answer
questions such whether they need to strengthen links to an influential potential
supporter, or be aware of an influential actor who doesnt share their goals.
This assessment of social relationships may include friendship, kinship,
organisational position, sexual relationships or community, within a particular
context.

20
Issues to consider:

An external perspective
It is not easy to undertake analysis of a context in which you are embedded.
Having someone from outside the context to support you through the process
is recommended. You must also choose whether to undertake your analysis
with Oxfams existing staff resources or bring in consultants. This involves the
usual trade-off between speed and learning. A mix between the two may be
most effective. It is crucial for staff to maintain a detailed engagement with
both process and findings, so that ensuing decision making is the most
appropriate and learning is held within the team. It may seem easier simply to
contract consultants, but staff will embed learning into their thought processes
far better if they have helped with information gathering and analysis. If staff
are carrying out the analysis alone, consider linking them with mentors or
coaches from across Oxfam.

Diversity within the team

To ensure depth and minimise unintended bias, the team carrying out your
analysis needs diversity in perspectives, networks, knowledge and skill sets. If
all team members were male (or female) or from a dominant ethnic group, for
example, this could mean key assumptions were not questioned or other
perspectives missed. Analysis teams typically consist of two to four core
members. Ideally they will combine national and international backgrounds,
with specific analysis and sector experience.

Level of analysis
Analysis of how politics and economics intersect can be carried out at three
levels:

o Macro- or country, to enhance general sensitivity to country con-

text and understanding of the broad political-economy environment
(including global influences). This can be useful to inform country
planning processes and the overall strategic direction of country
programmes
o Sector-specific, to identify specific barriers and opportunities within
particular sectors where Oxfam is working, e.g. health and educa-
tion
o Problem-driven, geared to understanding and resolving a particular
problem at project level, or in relation to a specific policy issue.

Analysis should be applied at every level local and sub-national, as well as

national, regional and global. Country-wide analysis of how politics and the
economy intersect will inform high-level programme strategy as well as indi-
vidual project design, and shed light on how the different levels could and
should interconnect. The questions to ask will vary for each but some broad
areas to look at are:

o The interests and incentives facing different groups in society (es-

pecially political elites), and how these generate particular policy
outcomes that may encourage or hinder development
o The role that formal institutions (e.g. the rule of law and elections)
and informal social, political and cultural norms play in shaping hu-
man interaction and political and economic competition

21
 o The impact of values and ideas including political ideologies, relig-
ion and cultural beliefs on political behaviour and public policy
o The possible impact and opportunities provided by decentralisation.

Verifying your findings

It is essential to use diverse sources, and to be careful to triangulate the data,

i.e. combine multiple observers, theories, methods and empirical materials.
This helps you overcome the weakness or intrinsic biases associated with
single-method, single-observer and single-theory studies. It is especially
important for informal sources, so that the analysis does not rely on one,
unverified source, or on opinions that may not be shared by others. Double- or
triple-checking data through different methods or from different sources
increases the robustness of your analysis. Regular revisiting of the same
sources with the same questions can highlight if things are shifting in the
context.

An important need is to create channels for such information to be shared and

evaluated. For instance, formally through weekly staff meetings and informally
in conversations.

Mapping a fast-changing context: Myanmar

With the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house ar-
rest, the beginning of political opening and a surge in foreign invest-
ment, Myanmar is changing rapidly. To help poor communities respond,
Oxfam needs a thorough understanding of how politics and economics
are interacting. So country staff worked closely with an Oxfam global
governance advisor and consultants to carry out an analysis that would
ensure they understood the forces at play. This would help them design
the best possible programmes to navigate the change.

To identify specific questions for the analysis, the Myanmar country

team held a meeting to examine issues relevant to the programme
(from the changing private sector, to the effect of recent reforms on
women). From this, they identified two topics for analysis:
1. How can civil society become engaged with local planning and
budgeting processes?
2. How will the economic opening up of Myanmar affect small-
scale farmers?

What do we know?
The first step was a rapid internet search, to show the level of informa-
tion available and to select key texts. To reduce bias, the team pur-
posely selected a mixture of academic papers, blogs, articles and publi-
cations from different regions and players (such as INGOs, international
financial institutions and donors). Staff also listed journals, websites,
news and information sources to which they have access.

22
 A confidential report from a major development programme which had
already undertaken macro-level economic analysis and political trends
was available to Oxfam, thanks to good working relationships. This gave
team members the big picture, freeing them to focus on issues related
specifically to programming choices.

Using different tools

Participants worked in two groups, each addressing one of the focus
questions. Staff members with diverse backgrounds (e.g. livelihoods,
programme management, advocacy and humanitarian response) were
involved. This ensured the analysis was relevant to all aspects of Ox-
fams Myanmar work.

The groups undertook stakeholder analysis, listing key informants from

civil society, government stakeholders, the private sector, community
members, academic experts and journalists, for focus group discussions
and interviews. These informants then identified other relevant inter-
viewees. Mapping the networks that Oxfam staff and partners can ac-
cess revealed many useful sources of information. They also used
process tracing to understand the causes of the current context, start-
ing with mapping how local planning decisions are made. This exposed
factors such as peoples historical reluctance to speak out freely in local
decision-making, and the rapidly-changing policy environment, in which
new legislation is drafted with incredible speed that doesnt allow civil
society to influence outcomes.

Seeing the patterns

The team verified their data by cross-checking (triangulation) with a di-
verse range of sources. Both questions guiding the analysis revealed
similarities, involving the same key actors, e.g. that the way economic
investments are made is closely linked with the centralised nature of
budgeting and planning. Layering the findings from different methods
also highlighted where there were gaps in data and knowledge. It was
useful was to identify these areas and think about whom to consult to
find out. Filling the gaps mainly required finding ways to access informal
data sources and working out who could do this.

Keeping it fresh
The team explored how to keep the analysis updated, e.g. through using
diverse source and regularly revisiting sources with the same questions,
to show change. Crucially, the team put in place channels for information
to be shared, primarily in the Country Leadership Team and through
weekly staff meetings. Commitment is needed, as in practice, updating
analysis and sharing information are a challenge due to time pressure.

Feeding analysis into programme decisions

As a result of the analysis, the Myanmar team is taking some new ap-
proaches in its work. These include linking governance and advocacy
work, to push for increased transparency in local and national budgeting,
and producing a policy brief on making the private sector work for small-
scale agriculture.

The process showed the benefits of not taking the easy option of con-
tracting external consultants to carry out analysis exercises. Taking part
directly helped staff embed the learning in their thinking. This ensures
that subsequent programming is more deeply rooted in an understanding
of the context than if others had carried out the analysis.
23
Using your analysis
The single greatest challenge associated with power analysis is turning your
findings into action. Programme choices should be determined firstly by the
priorities set out in your country strategy and the OI Strategic Plan. Using
these to define your broad programme goals (as described in the OI
Programme Framework), you can then use your analysis (in consultation with
a range of stakeholders) to help you:

o Develop a more nuanced understanding of how change happens

o Identify your programmes end goal and theory of change
o Identify possible entry points and devise complex strategies for
achieving this change, by understanding how different dimensions
of power interact
o Decide on the combination of approaches that will be most effective
in your context
o Measure the progress and impact of your work
o Adjust your strategies over time.

Analysis in practice: the Indonesia LISTEN programme

In Indonesias LISTEN progamme, the country context analysis

identified food insecurity as the most critical poverty issue for Oxfam to
address. The programmes theory of change identified that the misuse of
budget allocations and a lack of community participation in budget
processes prevented food security from being enhanced through the
Village Block Grant process.
A gender analysis showed that women were most likely to experience
food insecurity and were excluded from decision-making processes.
Although levels of participation were low among both men and women,
women faced additional constraints. The programme strategies sought to
address these gender issues.
To understand the power dynamics on the ground and design appropriate
responses, Oxfams local partner, CIS Timor, with guidance from Oxfam
staff, designed and carried out a power analysis. It showed that:
Village leaders were blocking community participation in formal decision-
making spaces by withholding information. To address this, CIS Timor
produced and distributed leaflets to explain how the budget process
worked.
Negative beliefs about womens capacity to engage in the public sphere
excluded them from informal spaces. So the programme sought to
create new spaces where women could engage on an equal footing
with men.
Village leaders lacked power over the budget process, with district
authorities withholding a proportion of village grants. Leaders
understood that they could benefit from a more participatory budgeting
process.
Competition and mistrust between CSOs were preventing them from

24
 working together effectively, so efforts were made to build a CSO
alliance that would gain legitimacy with decision-makers.
The media was identified as an important informal power holder that
could be leveraged to influence formal decision-makers.

Analysis is not something you do just once the context you work in is not
static and the results of your programme are often unpredictable. At the out-
set of your programme, an initial analysis can help shape the goals. Deeper
analysis can help determine the most suitable approaches to focus on. More
substantive analysis will pinpoint the most suitable entry points for your in-
tervention. Meanwhile the analysis will also help you to identify project indi-
cators, highlighting what should be measured and how.

Throughout programme implementation and based on evidence from your

monitoring data, you can use further analysis to adapt your programme. For
example, it can help you examine unintended outcomes and understand,
where necessary, why change didnt happen as expected.

Tools and Resources

Power analysis

Power: Elite Capture and Hidden Influence, ActionAid Denmark

A booklet looking in more detail at the different forms of power and how they
play out.
http://www.actionaid.org/what-we-do/democratic-governance

Finding the Spaces for Change: A Power Analysis, John Gaventa

An article discussing the nature of power relations and how these surround
and imbue new potentially more democratic spaces.
http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=2677

Quick Guide to Power Analysis

A two-page guide to power analysis, including references to further useful re-
sources.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/quick-guide-to-power-analysis-
313950

Powercube: Understanding power for social change

An online resource which includes a framework for analysing the levels, spac-
es and forms of power, and how they interact with each other.
http://www.powercube.net/

Power and Making Change Happen, Carnegie UK Trust

A report based on a programme implemented by the Carnegie UK Trust and
the Joseph Rowntree Trust which provides a practical tool and framework for
conducting power analysis. It also gives examples of how community groups
have applied the results of their power analysis to their work.
http://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/publications/2010/power-and-making-
change-happen

25
Powerhouse
An online community for practitioners to discuss, debate and explore the many
dimensions of power. The website enables you to exchange tools and re-
sources, work with others to develop strategies for change and reflect on your
own practice and thinking.
http://powerhousenetwork.ning.com

Power Analysis: A Practical Guide

http://www.sida.se/Publications/Import/pdf/sv/Power-Analysis-A-Practical-
Guide_3704.pdf

The Net-Map Toolbox

Online toolkit for influence-mapping of social networks.
http://netmap.wordpress.com/

Oxfam resources

Oxfam GBs Programme Framework

A complete guide to Oxfam GBs approach to programming. Section 2 looks at
programme identification.

Using Power Analysis in Programme Design in Guatemala

A case study showing how Oxfam GB and partners have used the Powercube
framework to design a programme that aims to enhance the political and so-
cial leadership of young indigenous women in Western Guatemala.

Gender analysis

Quick Guide to Gender Analysis

A two-page introduction to gender analysis, including links to further re-
sources.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/quick-guide-to-gender-
analysis-312432

Gender Equity Building Blocks, CARE

An 8-page guide to gender analysis, including a discussion of useful tools to
use in different situations and case studies.
http://www.careclimatechange.org/files/toolkit/Gender_equity.pdf

Learning & Information Pack: Gender Analysis, UNDP

See particularly: Resource 3a: Gender Analysis What to Do; Resource 3b:
Gender Analysis What to Ask; and Resource 16: Information that a Good
Gender Analysis Should Provide.
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/gender/Institutional%20Develop
ment/TLGEN1.6%20UNDP%20GenderAnalysis%20toolkit.pdf

A Guide to Gender-Analysis Frameworks, Oxfam GB

Drawing on the experience of trainers and practitioners, this book contains
step-by-step instructions for using different gender-analysis frameworks, and
summaries of their advantages and disadvantages in particular situations.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications

26
Political economy analysis
Guide to Political Economy Analysis, Governance and Social Develop-
ment Resource Centre.
A comprehensive online resource guide providing pointers to some of the key
literature on approaches to political economy analysis and its effectiveness in
different contexts, and examples of analyses and tools applied at country, sec-
tor and programme level.
http://www.gsdrc.org/go/topic-guides/political-economy-analysis

Political Economy Analysis How To Note, DFID

This provides guidance on the contribution of political economy analysis to de-
velopment thinking, the range of tools and approaches available, and their ap-
plication to programming.
http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/events-
documents/3797.pdf

Diagnosing Public Sector Corruption & Implementing Anti-Corruption

Programmes: A Framework for Practitioners, Partnership for Transpar-
ency Fund
This paper introduces an analytical framework consisting of five distinct steps
to analyse, diagnose, map and assess ongoing or envisioned anti-corruption
projects. It encourages practitioners to consider the overall environment and
strategic parameters that underlie a specific instance of corruption so as to
tailor their project towards achieving the best impact possible.
http://ptfund.org/2012/04/diagnosing-public-sector-corruption/

27
3. APPROACHES TO RIGHT
TO BE HEARD
PROGRAMMING
This section:
Explains why promoting womens rights and participation, and building
and protecting spaces for dialogue and change, are approaches we
should take in all our Right to Be Heard programmes
Outlines a range of other approaches that you can take to implement your
programme, depending on your goal
Gives case studies, ideas and tools to help you put the approaches into
action.

This chapter outlines a number of approaches that can be used to deliver OIs
strategic objectives around the Right to be Heard (see page 8). These are the
most common and effective of the many approaches available, but you need
not be limited to these only. There will always be new or context-specific
ideas, so keep exploring new ways that will be effective in promoting the Right
to Be Heard in your own programmes and context.

The approaches are examined according to the five main strategies for
achieving the Right to Be Heard in the OI Strategic Plan:

1. Organising civil society

2. Access to information and technology
3. Public decision- and policy-making spaces
4. Access to justice
5. Global citizenship.

This section provides an overview of a number of tried and tested approaches

to Right to Be Heard programming, together with practical tools for applying
them. Think of them as a menu that you can choose from, based on the
findings of your power analysis, which will help you decide what is most likely
to work. Used effectively and in the right combinations for your context, these
approaches should result in more poor and marginalised people exercising
their civil and political rights to influence decision-making, by engaging with
governments and businesses and holding them accountable for their actions.

There are inevitable areas of overlap between these approaches, for example,
arranging a consumer boycott of goods produced by a company that exploits
poor farmers may fall under both organising civil society and global
citizenship. The approaches influence each other and are not neatly
separated. But they can be effective across the range of Oxfams work and
should be considered when integrating governance principles into
programmes supporting gender justice, saving lives, sustainable food, the fair
sharing of natural resources, and financing for development and universal

28
 essential services, as well as advocacy and campaigns.

The approaches that you select for your programme will very much depend on
your context and end goals and often you will need to adopt more than one
approach simultaneously or sequentially in order to achieve your programme
objectives. As well as the fifth approach above Global Citizenship there
are two cross-cutting themes that are necessary to achieve Right to be Heard
objectives:
Gender, governance and poor womens rights achieving sustained,
widespread changes in attitudes and beliefs about gender power relations in
order to further womens rights and gender justice
Building and protecting spaces and alliances for dialogue and change it is
critical to Oxfams work to keep civil society space open.

Your programme should address all these issues wherever possible.

The diagram below returns to the Indonesia LISTEN programme, as an

example to help you look at programming through a Right to Be Heard lens. It
shows some of the approaches that were selected in order to achieve the goal
of increasing womens ability to claim local government resources and
improve their food security.

Raise leaders awareness Encourage co-operation

Build the advocacy
of the importance of between CSOs
and research skills of
womens participation CSOs
Engage the media as
Strengthen the effectiveness of formal a partner
institutions
Village chiefs engage in positive dialogue
with women Hold power holders to account
Village chiefs understand their Women monitor implementation
responsibilities in relation to village block of village block grants
grants A strong civil society alliance
lobbies government actors
The media publish articles on
womens access to resources
Create spaces for women to
engage with village leaders Women are able to claim
local government resources and
improve their food security Create linkages between
grassroots women, CSOs
Provide information and the media
about how budget
processes work
Bring women
Support people to raise their voice and claim together in village-
their rights level groups
Build womens Womens Alliance for Budget Monitoring
leadership skills groups are active in four villages
Women understand how budget processes Train women in budget
work monitoring mechanisms
Women are aware of their rights
Women leaders act as role models to others

29
 A note on working in fragile contexts

Many of the approaches presuppose that the state is open to civil society
influence and being held accountable, at least to some degree. However,
in some of the countries in which we work, democratic space is shrinking
or governments lack capacity to respond to citizens demands.
In these instances, we should not assume that work to strengthen either
civil society or institutions is impossible, but we should act with caution
and carry out careful analysis to understand what spaces for action exist
and where we can be most effective. We should also take steps to
minimise the risk to which we are exposing ourselves, our partners and
the poor men, women and youth with whom we are working. In some
cases we may need to choose a softer entry point, or focus our attention
on informal governance channels.
Often when we think of fragility the focus is on governance the nature of the
state (weak government, poor legitimacy), role of elites, limited capacity of civil
society groups, corruption, security, or the ability to provide services and public
goods. Nevertheless, there may be formal or informal opportunities for influence
in such countries. Striking a balance between supporting positive change and
managing and minimising risk is the key to effective influencing in fragile
contexts.
For further guidance see: Programming in Fragile and Conflict-Affected
Countries: A Learning Companion

Cross-cutting theme 1:

Gender, governance and poor

womens rights
The absence of womens voices in decisions which affect their lives is
not only a problem for women, but is usually a sign of unjust power rela-
tions that exclude many men as well. Professor John Gaventa

One of Oxfams strategic goals is sustained, widespread changes in attitudes

and beliefs about gender power relations in order to further womens rights
and gender justice. To achieve this, we need to put womens rights at the
heart of all we do. This means that all programmes should conduct a gender
analysis and address the specific needs and interests of women throughout all
their activities. However, in addition to this, deliberate effort is needed to
redress historical discrimination that puts women at a disadvantage in
comparison to men. Our Right to Be Heard programmes can address this by:

Working on the intersection between womens rights and governance

Supporting women to play an active role in governance processes as
participants and leaders.

30
Work on the intersection between womens rights
and governance
Womens exclusion from decision-making and governance processes is
closely linked to the denial of womens basic human rights. Being unable to
participate in decision-making is, in itself, a violation of womens right to
participate in political and public life. Moreover, the violation of other rights
presents serious barriers to womens participation. For example, if women do
not have official documentation (are denied their right to an identity), they are
barred from being able to vote or stand for public office. Similarly, around the
world many more girls than boys are denied their right to education, making it
much more difficult for women to participate on an equal footing with men in
later life. Therefore, programmes that seek to increase womens participation
in decision-making and governance are likely also to need to work on other
aspects of womens rights.

Many of our programmes have found that violence against women is a specific
barrier to womens participation that needs to be addressed. Violence, or the
threat of violence, denies women opportunities and choices at many levels.
Fear of sexual assault may reduce womens mobility outside the home;
domestic violence may prevent women from getting involved in public life;
women who succeed in the public sphere may be subject to intimidation by
men. Violence also undermines and destroys womens dignity, confidence and
self-respect, which may prevent them from seeking out and taking advantage
of the opportunities that other women enjoy.

Violence against women in Honduras

Violence against women has long been a serious problem in Honduras

but since the coup dtat of June 2009, the level of violence has
escalated. Femicide, or the murder of women, is all too common. One
woman is killed every 15 hours and just as shockingly, fewer than 2 per
cent of cases are ever investigated. The huge increase in the availability
of firearms has exacerbated the situation, but the underlying context is
one of unequal power relations between men and women. Only 3 per
cent of cases of violence against women are brought to trial. This
impunity for perpetrators is a reflection of the degree to which the murder
of women is tolerated and justified in society. Perpetrators are neither
identified nor punished, and justice institutions lack the will and the
capacity to prevent or solve cases. Women frequently dont report
violence, as they have little confidence that the perpetrator will be tried or
brought to justice.
Violence against women is one of the factors preventing women from
participating in political life. Women who live with violence or the threat of
violence are unlikely to have the confidence or self-esteem needed to
participate politically, let alone the mobility, time and resources. When
womens consciousness and confidence is raised and they decide to
move beyond the confines of the home to participate in public spaces,
this often creates tension within the household and beyond. Their
aspirations threaten the established order, thus exposing them to the risk
of further violence.
The Honduras Programme Coordinator describes how this plays out: At

31
 national level, including within political parties, discriminatory norms and
practices exclude women from resources, and spaces for training and
education. Many women lack the power, money, connections and
networks to even enter the electoral race. At local level, violence is
exercised either to keep women confined to private spaces or, if they are
able to take up public roles, define and constrain those roles [to those
lacking power and influence]. This impedes any substantial progress for
women, and particularly for those who are poor, rural and indigenous,
who have to struggle against multiple forms of discrimination and violence
in the home and in the public arena. In a world where men command and
women obey, women rarely dare to participate in political issues.

Support women to play an active role in

governance processes
Women are often prevented from contributing to decision-making in both the
private and public spheres. In many communities and societies, men dominate
over women, womens opinions are not heard or valued, and decision-making
structures exclude women. Women face significant barriers to their full and
equal participation. These include the disproportionate amount of time women
spend on household labour, financial constraints, discriminatory attitudes
regarding womens roles in public life, and harassment and violence.

Our programmes therefore need to take concrete steps to ensure that women
are included and actively participate in community-level meetings and
decision-making bodies. These may relate to disaster risk management,
peace building, water management, grain banks, micro-credit schemes and
school management. Women must also be empowered to participate in formal
decision-making bodies at all levels from local councils to national
governments.

An equal representation of women is important for a number of reasons:

Women have a right to participate in public and political life, so it is a

matter of justice

Women have valuable knowledge, skills and experience to offer, which

have the potential to benefit the whole community

Women are often more comfortable talking to other women about their
needs and concerns

Women and men have different needs and experiences, which need to
be separately represented so that mens are not taken as the norm and
the basis for decisions. If womens voices are not heard, their issues
will remain invisible and inequality may be reinforced

Womens and mens interests are different and sometimes conflict, and
so both should be heard and taken into account in decisions.

There is, of course, no guarantee that women leaders will promote gender
equality, and nor should we assume that male leaders will not do so, but there
is a clear relationship between personal identity and experience and
commitment to a cause. So, while having women in leadership positions does
not automatically translate into womens concerns being put on the agenda, it

32
does increase the likelihood of this happening. Oxfams Raising Her Voice
programme has shown how women leaders can act in the interests of other
women:

In Pakistan the concerted efforts of women leaders

in 30 districts have helped more than 105,000
marginalised women to obtain identity cards for
the first time, restoring their identity a first step
towards claiming other rights. The lack of official
documentation is a major barrier for many women
in Pakistan: without identification, they cannot vote, use a
bank, buy property, claim their inheritance rights or get a passport.
Ahead of the 2011 parliamentary elections in Uganda, members of the
Uganda Coalition for African Womens Rights met with the two main
political parties, to influence them to address key articles of the African
Womens Rights Protocol in their campaign manifestos. Raising Her
Voice helped to ensure that reproductive health rights were high on the
agenda. Presidential candidates took part in televised debates on the
issues and during International Womens Day celebrations, the President
spoke out against Ugandas high maternal mortality rate.
In Nepal, women have taken on decision-making roles in community
forest user groups, school management committees, sub-health-post
management committees, and drinking water and sanitation user groups.
These community decision-making bodies have a particular impact on
womens lives. Women leaders are extremely committed and determined
to do a good job. They are beginning to influence decisions that affect
womens lives, for example, making sure that water pumps are operating
around meal times when water is most needed and lobbying for better
access to essential medicines and maternal health care.

Raising Her Voice has identified three broad spheres that influence womens
opportunities to participate in decision-making: the personal, political and
social spheres. The political and social spheres influence each other, and
have a strong influence over poor and marginalised womens abilities to
secure their rights. However, the very marginalisation of these women means
that they have very restricted power to influence the social and political
spheres, as illustrated below:

33
Therefore, in order to be effective, gender and governance programmes must
explicitly redress this imbalance and support poor women to increase their
participation and voice in the social and political spheres. This requires work-
ing across the spheres and at different levels: local, national and re-
gional/global, employing a range of diverse strategies. For example:

The personal sphere: To lay down the foundations for womens participation
in governance structures, women must first gain confidence in their own abili-
ties and realise their potential to contribute to society. At a more practical
level, women need to gain the confidence and skills to speak out, voice their
opinions, form arguments and negotiate solutions. They also need to learn
how decision-making bodies function, the roles played by representatives and
how to apply for a position.

The social sphere: Women will struggle to access leadership positions and
be effective in them if they do not have the support of the wider community.
This can be achieved through awareness-raising activities related to womens
rights, and by giving women opportunities to demonstrate their newly learned
skills, which can influence beliefs about womens roles and capabilities. It can
also be helpful to meet with and encourage influential community members
and power holders to support women leaders.

The political sphere: An enabling environment can be created, for example,

by influencing quotas for womens participation in decision-making structures,
and influencing public opinion via the media. This might also involve working
with political parties to convince them to select women as candidates.

34
Reporting womens rights in Palestine
Women in Palestine are suffering rising social and domestic violence, fu-
elled by the strain of regional politics and poverty. Yet womens rights are
barely covered in the Palestinian media. To tackle this, Oxfam Novib has
supported its partner, the Womens Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling
(WCLAC), to establish the Media Forum Advocating Womens Rights. This
aims to raise media awareness of women's issues and rights, so journal-
ists can influence public opinion and change womens daily life.

The forum was set up through a meeting with 21 media professionals and
launched through six workshops for West Bank journalists, to train them in
womens rights and incorporating gender issues into their reporting. It is
also developing a library related to women's issues and has built relation-
ships regionally and internationally with other women-related media
groups.
As a result, media attention to womens issues has risen dramatically.
Coverage has included a televised roundtable discussion with 25 experts,
workshops at Alnajah and Hebron Universities, and widespread coverage
of a WCLAC art exhibition on sexual assault and honour killing. The most
widely circulated Palestinian newspaper assigned a female journalist to
report gender-related stories and write a column on womens issues.

Social change takes time, but WCLAC is confident the forum will achieve
its goals. By involving the media at every stage, from planning to evalua-
tion, it has made the womens rights agenda the medias own.

Supporting women to get into leadership positions successfully is just the

beginning of the journey. They also need ongoing support to be effective
leaders and to represent the interests of their constituents, and of women in
particular. Steps you can take:
Conduct a gender analysis and identify the specific disadvantages
and forms of discrimination faced by women in your programme
areas. Ensure that strategies to address these are included in
your programme/project plans
Use the Raising Her Voice model to think about the current
balance of your programme and spot any gaps that may prevent
you from achieving your goals
Support individual women to grow in self-esteem and confidence
Support women to better understand how decision-making bodies
function and how they can participate in them
Ensure that women understand their rights and do not accept
violence and discrimination as their due
Support women to gain the skills and confidence to speak out,
voice their opinions, form arguments, negotiate solutions and
show leadership at all levels
Address practical barriers to womens participation
Address the customs, beliefs and practices that prevent women
from having a voice
Work with men and decision-makers to build acceptance of and
support for womens participation in public life
Lobby for legal reform in countries with laws that disadvantage
women.

35
Further ideas about how you can do this can be found in the Womens
Participation Resource Pack, developed for Oxfam GB in Myanmar.

Tools and resources

Programming in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries: A Learning
Companion
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/programming-in-fragile-and-
conflict-affected-countries-a-learning-companion-139074

Organising civil society

A Ladder of Citizen Participation, Sherry R Arnstein, 1969

http://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-participation.html

Childrens Participation: From Tokenism to Citizenship, Roger Hart, 1992

http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/childrens_participation.pdf

Introducing Participatory Approaches, Methods and Tools

http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/AD424E/ad424e03.htm

People and Participation.net

http://www.peopleandparticipation.net/display/Methods/List+of+methods+with
+brief+descriptions

The REFLECT Mother Manual

http://www.reflect-action.org/mothermanual

Haki Zetu: ESC Rights in Practice, Amnesty International Netherlands,

2010
http://www.huridocs.org/2011/02/haki-zetu-esc-rights-in-practice/

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

http://www.iied.org/legal-tools/home

Gender, governance and poor womens rights

For tools to conduct a gender analysis, see Section 2.

Quick Guide to Womens Participation

Outlines practical steps you can take to ensure that women are able to attend
meetings and get involved in committees, as well as make their voices heard.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/quick-guide-to-promoting-
womens-participation-312423

Gender and Decentralisation Programme in Lira District, FAO

A case study examining how womens participation in local councils was pro-
moted in Lira District, Uganda, including the methodology behind the pro-
gramme used.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6090e/x6090e06.htm#TopOfPage

Supporting Women to Aspire to Election to Political Office in Sierra

Leone: The experience of the PACER project

36
A case study of Oxfam's work on gender and governance in Sierra Leone,
highlighting key strategies and lessons learned.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/supporting-women-to-aspire-to-
election-to-political-office-in-sierra-leone-the-141912

Bridge Cutting Edge Pack: Gender & Governance

A compilation of resources containing an overview report outlining the key is-
sues, a Gender and Development In Brief bulletin and a supporting resources
collection (including summaries of resources, case studies, tools, guidelines,
training materials, websites, and networking and contact details).
http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/go/bridge-publications/cutting-edge-packs

Participatory Gender Analysis, Intercooperation, 2009

http://www.intercooperation-bd.org/publication.php#manuals

Resources for Oxfam Staff

Promoting Womens Participation in Decision-Making: A Resource Pack

A guide developed for Oxfam GB in Myanmar, drawing on existing experience
and good practice in the Oxfam Myanmar programme. It outlines tools that
can be used to develop conceptual thinking around womens participation and
suggests strategies that can be used to promote womens meaningful partici-
pation in community decision-making.

A Companion to Promoting Womens Leadership and Participation

A guide for programme staff giving a short summary of the issues around
women's leadership, examples of Oxfams work, and some of the strategies
being used to promote womens leadership.

A Companion to Promoting Womens Rights

A guide for programme staff giving a short summary of the issues around
women's rights, examples of Oxfam's work, and some of the strategies being
used to promote women's rights.

A Training Manual for Female Aspirants and Candidates for Local Coun-
cil Elections: Breaking Barriers, Empowering Women to Participate in
Democratic Politics
A manual developed by the PACER programme to support women to stand for
election to political office.

Lessons from the Mid-Term Evaluation of Raising Her Voice

Outlines the different strategies that Raising Her Voice projects have used to
address the personal, social and political spheres.

Further reading
Learning for Action on Womens Leadership and Participation
This book brings together lessons and experience in building up women's in-
volvement from Oxfam GB and its partners. It illustrates methodological ap-
proaches and learning points, covering a range of issues, from women's par-
ticipation in national elections to female decision-making in community liveli-
hoods initiatives. It also includes a resources section.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/womens-leadership-and-
participation-case-studies-on-learning-for-action-115530

37
Raising Her Voice case studies
An in-depth case study on Raising Her Voice in Nepal
http://raisinghervoice.ning.com/page/material-library

Further information on and resources from the Raising Her Voice Pro-
gramme
http://raisinghervoice.ning.com/page/material-library

38
Cross-cutting theme 2:

Build and protect spaces and

alliances for dialogue and change
In many countries the spaces for dialogue, engagement and activism are
shrinking and citizens ability to participate in social and political life is
becoming more difficult and restricted. This may be through prohibitive
legislation and regulation, direct harassment or attempts at co-option by
governments, powerful private sector actors with vested interests, or religious
elites. This restriction of space for dialogue impacts most heavily on the most
marginalised members of society, who have less access to resources,
information and legal protection. It can easily exacerbate the poverty and
isolation of these groups.

In this context, Oxfam has an important role to play and through all our work
should seek to:

Create and protect spaces for stakeholders from traditional and non-
traditional civil society, government and the business sector, to ensure
citizen voice and participation.

Support social movements, unions and other relevant global or na-

tional peoples groups and influencers (including religious leaders);
provide assistance to ensure their protection, and create and support
spaces for meeting and dialogue.

Influence accountability agendas by bringing partners, networks and

social movements to national, regional and global forums.

Build alliances with organisations that have developed specialist exper-

tise in rights-based work on budgets, social accountability, transpar-
ency and resource mobilisation.

Engage local, national and global media as a strategic partner, not just
as a vehicle for dissemination of news and stories. Work with investiga-
tive reporters and media experts to help develop strong education and
advocacy programmes.

Create and protect spaces for dialogue

Spaces are the opportunities, moments and channels through which citizens
can act to influence the policies, thinking, decisions and relationships that
affect their lives and interests. These spaces have traditionally been physical
spaces, such as community centres and associations, but are more and more
becoming virtual spaces where people can engage. The spaces in which
people can be active are not neutral or static, but are shaped by power
relations. These determine what is possible within them, who may enter, with
which identities, beliefs and interests. Spaces may be:

Closed: where decisions are made behind closed doors

39
 Invited: where people are asked to participate but within set bounda-
ries

Claimed or created: where less powerful actors claim or create a

space where they can set their own agenda.

Our work can address any or all of these, and decisions should be based on a
power analysis, which will help to identify appropriate strategies and entry
points. Looking at spaces through the lens of power analysis enables strategic
assessments of the possibilities for citizens to take action, and how to make
the spaces more effective. It can, for example, reveal the range of factors that
restrict access to spaces, such as government policies, traditional ideas about
who should participate, and limited access to information. It also allows
consideration of which of these can be challenged.

The power analysis conducted by the Indonesia LISTEN programme

showed that village decision-making spaces were closed to women.
Therefore, the programme sought to create new spaces where women
could engage on an equal footing with men. At district level, the CSO
alliance was invited to participate in governance processes, but
programme managers were unclear as to whether there was genuine will
on the part of district authorities to strengthen participation, or whether it
was a more tokenistic gesture.

Oxfam can use its convening power and experience to enable dialogue,
foster connections and create spaces where citizens and power holders can
interact at all levels. We can also help citizen leaders gain access to the
spaces where decisions are made, and provide support and guidance. But we
should take care to support groups to develop their own agendas and
determine for themselves how to engage with the power dynamics specific to
their context.

Oxfam is also aware that civil society space is closing over 90 countries.
Oxfam relies heavily on working through civil society partnerships, which come
under threat when our partners come under pressure from their governments.
Oxfams ambitions rely on working in countries where civil society can

40
organise and activists can be active. We cannot take this space for granted.
Its maintenance and protection needs to be on our radar. If our ambitious
influencing objectives are to be achieved, we must push back against
restrictions and proactively safeguard the operational environment necessary
to campaign, provide humanitarian relief and undertake all Oxfam
programming.

Support social movements, unions and other

peoples groups
Oxfam has a long history of working with social movements. In Latin America,
in particular, we have a great deal of experience of supporting social
movements as key protagonists in the most important processes of change in
the region. Social movements are important both as expressions of active
citizenship and as dynamic actors in change processes. Therefore, Oxfam can
make a strategic choice to work with social movements both as a way of
supporting the voice and power of those most affected by exclusion and
discrimination, and also as a means of contributing to wider and more
sustainable changes.

Among the key lessons we have learned about working with social
movements are:

Social movements have intrinsic value in and of themselves as expres-

sions of active citizenship, and should be supported and encouraged
for that reason; they also are instrumental for social justice objectives,
especially in relation to reducing inequality.

A movement may fail to meet its stated purpose, yet be a great suc-
cess in terms of enabling citizens to engage collectively with state and
private sector institutions on a range of issues.

Successful movements often start as demand-driven; when they make

the transition to making proposals, and move from sectoral to broader
agendas and to political involvement, their contribution to change
processes tends to become more effective.

Oxfam can play a valuable role in facilitating, opening spaces, link-

ing/connecting and promoting the voices of the most excluded, espe-
cially women. But it can also do damage by distorting movements with
the weight of its agenda and expertise so its role is contested by
some.

Work with social movements, on the basis of transparency and re-

spect, demands that we develop stronger capacities for political analy-
sis and that we maintain flexibility in how we work with them, including
working with the uncertainty, and sometimes confusion, of open-ended
processes.

In addition to directly supporting social movements to organise, Oxfam can

play a role in creating debate around peoples right to organise and engage in
peaceful protest, supporting citizens freedom of expression, and convincing
others to view movements as legitimate players in policy formation. For
example, following the Arab Spring, Oxfam published a report critiquing the
European Unions new policy in relation to the Arab region, and analysing to

41
what extent it responded to demands for people-driven reform.

Helping waste pickers find strength in numbers

In Pune, Oxfam India has helped bring about the emergence of a
strong collective of waste pickers called Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari
Panchayat (KKPKP) a membership-based trade union working for the
rights of over 8,000 waste pickers. Oxfams multi-pronged approach
combined mobilisation of the people, institution building and advocacy
over local government policy. With this support, the KKPKP fought for
and won municipal endorsement of identity cards for waste pickers, es-
tablished that their operations would save the city millions of rupees in
waste handling costs, and created an autonomous enterprise that pro-
vides municipal contract waste management services to the citizens of
Pune. These include door-to-door collection, resource recovery, trade
and waste processing. Oxfam's role was crucial in the initial organisa-
tion of KKPKP, as well as in advocacy with the municipal government
and providing continuing support to KKPKP's operations and growth.

Influence accountability agendas

Oxfam works with a holistic influencing model that is focused on the power,
attitudes and beliefs that underlie poverty and injustice. It involves public
campaigning and advocacy, but extends beyond Oxfams previous campaigns
model to use the whole of our One Programme Approach to contribute to
transformative change.

Oxfam can support poor men, women and youth to influence debates at all
levels by bringing partners and community leaders to decision-making forums,
where they can talk about their first-hand experiences of poverty. This can be
an extremely effective way of bringing dry policy debates to life for decision-
makers, and helping them understand the impact that policy decisions have on
peoples lives. In the run-up to the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen
in December 2010, a staggering 1.5 million people in 35 countries attended
climate hearings organised by Oxfam and our partners. Their collected
testimonies were brought to the attention of local and national leaders, and
finally to world leaders at the summit.

Commission on the Status of Women

In March 2010, Oxfam GB participated in the 54th session of the

Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), a functional commission of
the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Every year
representatives of member states gather at the UN headquarters in New
York to evaluate progress on gender equality. For this reason, CSW is
one of the highest global policy-making bodies on gender issues.
Participation in the CSW provided Oxfam with the opportunity to influence
governments directly and indirectly, to connect with the womens
movement, and to become better informed on the issues, organisations
and individuals important for women and development. Above all, we
supported grassroots women to take their place in these political arenas.

42
 Maite Matheu, Raising Her Voice Programme Co-ordinator in Honduras,
accompanied four programme participants to New York. She said: At the
Oxfam side event, it was really fantastic to see the level of empowerment
achieved with grassroots women. Elubia, Alba, Amar and Nigar spoke
from their hearts and from their own experience, and this made it possible
to bring the public close to their stories of leadership and their national
context. The impact was so great that many women asked if Oxfam is
working in their countries.

Engage the media as a strategic partner

Many of our programmes make effective use of the media to share the work
that Oxfam is doing, but by engaging the media as a partner we can achieve
so much more. The media can play a critical role in enabling the voice of poor
and marginalised people to be heard, be a powerful partner in advocacy and
accountability activities, and influence attitudes and beliefs. In the Indonesia
LISTEN programme, the local newspapers had not previously thought of
themselves as having a role to play in influencing governance agendas, but
were persuaded to start publishing articles which challenged the way village
block grants were being implemented.

Engaging the media has also been a strong focus of the Raising Her Voice
project in Guatemala:

Claiming a space in the media

Women in Guatemala have little voice in their own communities, let alone
in local or national government. The media serves the interests of the
white, male-dominated, Spanish-speaking elite and tends to ignore the
plight of women and indigenous people. Raising Her Voice is working to
break this silence by enabling womens organisations to be heard by
the public, the media, local authorities and the government.
The project has provided training for womens groups in communication
skills, including radio, press and television journalism. As a result, many
rural, indigenous women are now able and willing to speak to reporters
and in public. Positive results have motivated the women to expand their
knowledge further. Women who previously had no voice now have the
capacity to be spokeswomen, to prepare radio programmes and adverts,
to interview and be interviewed, to claim public spaces previously denied
to women, and to voice their rights and demands as women.
For example, Ixmukan Quich is training indigenous women
communicators through the medium of their own languages. With the
support of another Oxfam project it has established the first radio station
for women. Similarly, more than 20 journalists have taken part in training
courses, with the aim of increasing coverage of indigenous womens
issues, and combating sexist and sensationalist reporting of violence
against women. Campaign activities have had good coverage in the local
media, although national media interest remains low.

One particular media channel that many of our programmes have used
effectively is community radio. Community radio stations are run on a not-for
profit basis, often by volunteers. They actively encourage community

43
participation in running the station and defining the programme agenda, and
broadcast on issues that will contribute to local development.

For the Scottish people, by the Scottish people

Oxfam supports the Sunny

Govan community radio station
which broadcasts from Govan
in Glasgow, Scotland. Now known
across the city, Sunny G plays a
vital role in giving the people of
Govan a say sometimes
directly to local politicians or
decision-makers about the
issues affecting their community,
such as drugs, anti-social behaviour or gang violence. Community radio is
for the people, by the people, to the people, explains the founder and
manager, Heather McMillan. Its about people being experts on their own
experience, and actually being able to say that, through time, collectively, we
may well become agents of change.

Steps you can take:

Conduct a power analysis to assess existing spaces for dialogue and
change, and identify appropriate strategies and entry points for your
work.
Use power analysis to inform your work with social movements, in relation
to the movement and wider society, and also internally within social
movements. Internal conflict is an issue that requires careful response.
Issues of autonomy, the influence of funding, relations between social
movements and campaigns, and the role of organisations inside social
movements also need careful attention.
Look for opportunities to bring poor men, women and youth to talk to
decision-makers about the issues that affect their lives.
Build a stronger and more strategic relationship with the media.

Tools and resources

For tools to conduct a power analysis, see Section 2.

Build and protect spaces and alliances for dialogue and change

The Barefoot Guide to Working with Organisations and Social Change

A practical, do-it-yourself guide for leaders and facilitators wanting to help or-
ganisations to function and develop in more effective ways, so as to contribute
to society. The guide, with its supporting website, includes tried and tested
concepts, approaches, stories and activities.
http://www.barefootguide.org/

Working with the Media on Gender and Education: A Guide for Training
and Planning
A guide to working with the media on gender and education issues, giving
practical advice and suggestions of activities to help individuals or groups de-
velop their understanding. Can also be applied to other topics.
44
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/working-with-the-media-on-
gender-and-education-a-guide-for-training-and-planning-141496

Resources for Oxfam Staff

National Influencing Guidelines
Detailed guidance for all aspects of influencing at national level, with many
examples.

Civil Society Space and Risk Management

Guidelines on operating effectively, with managed risk, in contexts where civil
society space is under threat or shrinking:
https://sumus.oxfam.org/civil-society-space/documents/folders/civil-society-
space-and-risk-management

Civil Society Space Discussion Paper

A paper examining programming specifically designed to protect or open up
civil society space:

Reflections on the role of social movements in processes of change, Ox-

fam GB
The report from a 2008 meeting in Bolivia, when over 50 social movement rep-
resentatives and Oxfam staff members came together to learn about the cha-
racteristics of social movements and some of their key challenges. They ex-
amined how organisations such as Oxfam can best support social move-
ments.

Further reading
Voice: Representation and Peoples Democracy, ActionAid Denmark
Includes further reading on the idea of space.
http://www.actionaid.org/what-we-do/democratic-governance

Blurring the Boundaries: Citizen Action across States and Boundaries,

Development Research Centre
This report pulls together over 10 years research by the Development Re-
search Centre into how citizen action shapes states and societies. Taking a
citizens perspective, looking upwards and outwards, this research offers a
unique insight into how citizens see and experience states and other institu-
tions which affect their lives, as well as how they engage, mobilise and partici-
pate to make their voices heard.

Democracy in Action: Protecting Civil Society Space, Trocaire

In the current global context, hard-won gains towards democracy and respect
for civil society activities are highly vulnerable to reversals. Powerful actors do
not necessarily respond positively to increases in spaces for participation, or
to more vocal and empowered citizens and organisations. There is a worrying
trend in the closing of space for civil society and citizen expression in many
countries, particularly for those who challenge injustice. This paper details the
impact of these trends on the potential for civil society to serve as a catalyst
for democratic change and effective governance.
http://www.trocaire.org/sites/trocaire/files/pdfs/policy/Democracy_in_Action.pdf

45
Power to the People? Reactions to the EUs Response to the Arab
Spring
A paper analysing what the new EU policy entails from a civil society perspec-
tive, and to what extent it responds to the current protests and demands for
people-driven reform in the region.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications-power-to-the-people-reactions-
to-the-e-us-response-to-the-arab-spring-189549

46
 STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES

1. ORGANISING CIVIL SOCIETY

Civil society is the public space between the state, the market and ordinary
people, in which people can debate and take action. It includes charities,
community schemes, faith-based organisations, campaigning groups,
professional associations, interest groups, the media and non-governmental
organisations all both formal and informal. It is the sphere in which social
movements become organised and provide appropriate channels for political
participation, and where the platforms for peoples voices to be heard are
found.

We often think of our work to support civil society in relation to strengthening its
ability to hold governments accountable. However, civil society has a much
broader role to play, and strengthening civil society should be an important goal in
its own right. It can, for example, produce trust, reciprocity and networks; create
and promote alternatives, and support the rights of citizens and the concept of
citizenship.

At the heart of our Right to Be Heard work is the goal that poor and
marginalised men, women and youth are able to influence decisions affecting
their lives, achieve their rights and challenge unequal power relations. We
believe that everyone should be able to take control of their own destiny and
challenge the inequality that underpins poverty. With this aim, our programme
should seek to:

Strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations to self-organise

around the priorities of poor and marginalised people (in particular
women and youth) in both rural and urban settings

Ensure people understand the roles and responsibilities of governance

institutions and support poor men, women and youth to relate to
these

Ensure people understand their rights and the legal mechanisms to

exercise them, including access to information laws and justice

Build the capacity of leaders to engage with stakeholders and bring out
the voices of the people they represent

Work with youth, womens and indigenous peoples organisations, rec-

ognising and supporting their own ways of expression and organisation

Analyse and influence customs and beliefs, attitudes and behaviours

Build peoples power within (themselves), with (each other) and to

(demand and achieve fulfilment of their rights)

Organise to persuade governments to lift restrictive laws that deny civil

and political rights and to engage constructively with civil society.
47
Participation and participatory methods
Our work aims to ensure the participation of poor men, women and youth
in their own development but the word participation can be used to
mean lots of different things:
Passive participation: People participate by being told what is going to
happen or has already happened. It is a unilateral announcement by an
administration or project management without any listening to people's
responses.
Participation in information giving: The information being shared
belongs only to external professionals. People participate by answering
questions posed by extractive researchers using questionnaire surveys or
such similar approaches. People do not have the opportunity to influence
proceedings; the research findings are not shared or checked for
accuracy.
Participation by consultation: People participate by being consulted
and external agents listen to views. These external agents define both
problems and solutions and may modify these in the light of people's
responses. Such a process does not concede any share in decision-
making and professionals are under no obligation to take on board
people's views.
Participation for material benefits: People participate by providing
resources such as labour, in return for food, cash or other material
incentives. Much of farm research falls into this category, as farmers
provide the fields but are not involved in experimentation or the process
of learning. It is very common to see this called participation, yet people
have no stake in prolonging activities when incentives end.
Functional participation: People participate by forming groups to meet
predetermined objectives related to the project, which can involve the
development or promotion of externally initiated social organisation. Such
involvement tends not to be at early stages of project cycles or planning,
but rather after major decisions have already been made. These
institutions tend to be dependent on external initiators and facilitators, but
may become self-dependent.
Interactive participation: People participate in joint analysis, which leads
to action plans and the formation of new local institutions or the
strengthening of existing ones. This tends to involve interdisciplinary
methodologies that seek multiple objectives and make use of systematic
and structured learning processes. These groups take control/ownership
over local decisions, giving people a stake in maintaining structures or
practices.
Self-mobilisation: People participate by taking initiatives independent of
external institutions to change systems. Such self-initiated mobilisation
and collective action may or may not challenge existing inequitable
distributions of wealth and power.
Oxfams rights-based approach to development highlights the equal right
of vulnerable or marginalised groups to participate in decision-making that
affect their lives. We value participation as a means of grounding
development itself in the reality of those it aims to support. This is a vital
ingredient for advancing more equitable development and universal
realisation of rights.
From a rights-based perspective, participation is not something that
development does, it is something development is. We dont use
participation in an instrumental way simply because it is good practice, or
48
 leads to better development results, though there is certainly evidence
that it does. Instead participation is itself a fundamental human right: to
identify, design, implement and evaluate development without the
meaningful participation of those it will impact is to fail to accord them
equality, dignity and respect.
There are a number of tools and approaches that we can use to support
the meaningful participation of poor and marginalised men, women and
youth in our programmes. These are broadly referred to as participatory
methods. Some of the most popular are highlighted in the tools and
resources section below.
An alternative framework for thinking about participation is Sherry Harts
Ladder of Citizen Participation, which has also been adapted by Roger
Hart as the Ladder of Young Peoples Participation. The ladder can
easily be adapted to other contexts.
(Source: Prettys Typology of Participation, in http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/AD424E/ad424e03.htm)

Oxfam works with people to help them gain and grow the power to organise,
participate and articulate concerns about matters relevant to their
development. We can support civil society to recognise its own value, as well
as to play a strong role in decision-making and accountability through:

Supporting national NGOs and coalitions working at grassroots and

supporting community organisations to be effective and active partici-
pants at national level

Embedding social accountability approaches in various sectors and

working with both civil society groups and local authorities on joint par-
ticipatory planning and monitoring activities

Strengthening budget work and economic literacy, both for public au-
thorities and citizens

Making use of appropriate technologies that enable peoples voices to

be heard and amplified and that enhance accountability mechanisms

Helping develop successful models of engagement at the local level

that can be used with national government for replication

Emphasising evidence-based research and ensuring solid research

capabilities are available to civil society at country and global level.

Oxfam in Bangladesh the Campaign for Sustainable Rural

Livelihoods

More than 70 per cent of people in Bangladesh live in low-lying rural

areas, where extreme weather events such as cyclones and floods
present a terrible threat. As well as devastating families, buildings and
infrastructure, these events cause saltwater to enter local water systems,
which in turn destroys crops and makes farming much more difficult. As a
result, farmers face an ongoing battle to overcome poverty. The
Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL) is an Oxfam-
supported alliance of more than 200 development and civil society
organisations. Since launching in 2007, it has addressed issues relating
to climate change, agriculture and trade policies, at every level from local
to global. CSRL helped to ensure that the voices of vulnerable people

49
 were heard at a pioneering conference on climate change between the
UK and Bangladeshi governments in London. Campaign members also
briefed parliamentarians, highlighting the importance of climate change
policy negotiations. The UK Government committed to a 75 million
funding grant to help Bangladesh adapt to the effects of climate change,
to be paid between 2008 and 2013. And since then, CSRL has acted as a
watchdog to ensure that the government uses this fund effectively.

In addition, CSRL began campaigning for a Comprehensive Agricultural

Reform Programme (CARP) in 2008. The CARP policy framework aims to
revive and modernise Bangladeshs agricultural sector. It was devised in
collaboration with small-scale farmers, entrepreneurs, political parties and
non-governmental organisations. CSRL has also campaigned tirelessly to
safeguard the interests of small-scale producers.
When tomato farmers in the Rajshashi district
lost over half their crop after agribusiness
giant Syngenta overcharged them for poor-
quality seeds, CSRL responded by lobbying
local authorities to take action.
CSRLs message has also been heard at a
national level. Bangladesh has become the
first country to address climate change
issues in its national constitution, and its
government has adopted CARPs objectives
as their own. Moreover, the Bangladeshi government has asked
Syngenta to compensate affected farmers following an investigation by
local authorities and discussions in parliament.

Support national NGOs and coalitions working at

grassroots, and help community organisations to
be effective participants at national level
Working with others is central to Oxfams mandate. By working with a wide
range of partners, we can contribute to building a strong, vibrant, independent
civil society that can understand, represent and address the rights, needs and
aspirations of poor men, women and youth.

We believe that by working with others and pooling our skills, expertise and
resources, we can achieve so much more than we would working on our own.
This might mean working with small, grassroots organisations that have a
much better understanding of the local context than we could ever hope to
gain, or joining with well-established national coalitions to reach greater
numbers of people with our campaign messages.

Working in partnership means that both Oxfam and our partners contribute
something distinctive to the work we are implementing, and that by working
together, both will learn from each other and benefit from the relationship.
Often, in the case of small NGOs, Oxfam has a role to play in developing their
organisational capacity and helping them to become strong, sustainable
organisations that will continue to operate without Oxfams funding. This is an
important contribution to building civil society in its own right.

Oxfam also has an important role to play in linking the local level to the
50
national or even global level, and vice versa. We can bring a national
perspective to a smaller, local organisation that will enable it to expand the
scope of its work and have a far greater impact than working solely at local
level. In other instances, Oxfam has links and influence at local level that our
national-level partners can benefit from, for example, by helping them ground
advocacy in the lived experiences of poor men, women and youth. Above all,
whichever way the linkages work, we can help bring the voices of poor men,
women and youth to the attention of decision-makers, so that they can speak
for themselves about the issues that affect their lives.

Helping Afghan civil society build peace

In Afghanistan, Oxfams Within and Without the State (WWS) project is
attempting to strengthen civil society by supporting the development of a
national network of civil society organisations, the Afghan Civil Society
Organisation Network for Peace (ACSONP). WWS is supporting the
network, and wider civil society, to make links with power holders and
engage in peace-building activities.
ACSONP contains around 100 organisations from provinces across the
country and represents many interests, including community and national
level organisations working in health, education, peace-building,
advocacy, humanitarian work and womens rights. The network has
existed since 2006, but Oxfams support since 2011 has helped to
reinvigorate and strengthen it. Oxfam helped initially to analyse its
capacity and that of the individual organisations within it, using a self-
assessment tool which looked at areas such as advocacy and financial
and project management. Based on this assessment, support is being
offered to develop a more effective network and to strengthen member
organisations.
The network now has a well-developed vision, mission and work
objectives, a thriving leadership and a core group of 25 active member
organisations. While Oxfams role is to provide technical support, the
network is clearly owned by the organisations themselves. It has agreed a
Memorandum of Understanding around how it will work, and drawn up an
advocacy strategy and work plan. The membership elected a Chair and a
Steering Group, using newly-gained skills in participation and
governance. The Steering Group represents the full range of interest
groups in the network, including womens rights. Three of the six
organisations represented are womens organisations, while the Chair of
the network is also a womens organisation.
Oxfam is now supporting ACSONP to make links with wider civil society
and power holders, and to engage in peace-building activities. It is
conducting community-level action research and facilitating provincial
hearings on local peace-building, particularly focusing on the role of
women and youth. It is also facilitating engagement of wider civil society
in peace-building activities, for instance by holding roundtables on the
role of the private sector and conducting pilot projects on private sector
engagement.
WWS in Afghanistan is also working with stakeholders at national level to
ensure that peace-building strategies engage with civil society. Activities
include advocating for an inclusive peace-building strategy, engaging with
the High Peace Jirga (council), parliamentarians, key ministers and
provincial governors, and conducting research and policy analysis on
peace-building activities.

51
 Creating civil society space in Laos
Laos has suffered from a lack of awareness of civil societys role. Many
dont realise it can contribute to poverty reduction and promoting the rights
of marginalised groups. Civil society itself has been fragmented and lacked
capacity, while the government also lacks capacity to work with civil society.

In response, Oxfam Novib partnered with international NGO Cord to de-

velop civil society and government capacity to work together effectively in
policy making. Oxfam organised workshops to give civil society organisa-
tions (CSOs) organisational training and the chance to network. The project
also gave seven key CSOs coaching and mentoring in fundraising, relation-
ship management, strategic planning and M&E. Civil servants were trained
in new legislation which regulates CSOs. Oxfam and Cord then created a
consortium of INGOs and stakeholders to streamline activities to develop
civil society capacity.

As a result, CSOs are better able to organise themselves and run effective
programmes. Several have collaborated with local authorities, and civil so-
ciety networks have been established. There is increased awareness of the
role and function of civil society in Laos, as well as of the new legislation,
leading to increased CSO registration and recognition. The project has also
increased the governments ability to involve CSOs in planning and deci-
sion-making. Civil society is becoming more assertive, accountable and in-
clusive able to work with the government and other actors towards human
rights, gender equality and serving the needs of marginalised groups.

Analyse and influence customs, beliefs, attitudes

and behaviours
In every society, there are deep-rooted attitudes and beliefs about different
individuals roles, their abilities and what is deemed to be appropriate behaviour.
Often these beliefs view women or other minority groups as inferior, less
competent or less valuable than men or the dominant group. This leads to
practices that discriminate against them and prevent them from enjoying the
same opportunities as others. Often such practices can be so embedded in
society that they are seen as normal, and accepted and maintained by the
discriminated group themselves. Culture and religion are often used to justify
discriminatory beliefs and practices, and to maintain existing power imbalances
by implying that they cant be challenged or changed.

Influencing attitudes and beliefs can be difficult and sensitive, particularly

when they are closely linked to culture and religion, but we cant expect to
bring about change without doing so. It is important to remember that cultural
and religious practices are not static and that they can and do change.
Moreover, even within a given group, not everyone thinks the same way and
there is no single way of doing things.

52
 Changing culture and attitudes in Malawi
In Malawi Oxfam has been supporting the Womens Legal Resource
Centre (WOLREC) to work in 120 villages to enable communities to
analyse, assess and redefine cultural practices. Fifty facilitators from
selected villages were trained in how to hold circle discussions with
community members to identify and debate the positive and negative
impact of various cultural practices such as initiation, wife swapping,
abstinence around pregnancy and menstruation, and sexual cleansing.
They then moved to solutions whether they needed to adjust, enhance
or stop such practices, and discussions on how they would hold one
another to account. Groups included traditional leaders who, after initial
resistance, often became change agents themselves.
The changes made were monitored, evidence of outcomes gathered and
fed back to communities so they could judge whether the changes
worked or not. WOLRECs baseline survey had shown that violence
against women affected 60 per cent of households; after just two years
this seems to have been reduced to 25-30 per cent. Women have joined
male dominated chiefs tribunals, increasing their access to justice. The
spread of HIV has slowed and more girls are attending school.
Couples now openly talk about their improved relationships, openness
and general happiness, as well as explaining in front of everyone how
they have changed many harmful cultural practices. After a year or so of
the programme, many of the women asked for help to gain more
economic independence. Savings and loans schemes were set up in the
villages, resulting in family incomes being raised, school fees being paid
and family emergencies and shocks being managed.
The power shifts achieved were primarily and perhaps most importantly
the power within assertiveness training for women, sensitisation to
rights, convincing communities that they had the power to change
practices and take collective action. There were also changes related to
the power with. Relations between men and women have shifted: men
are open to women making decisions, women are asserting their views
and taking responsibility for earning income. Both are able to express
their concerns. The power to hold one another to account with bye-laws is
being instigated to punish those that dont uphold agreements.

Steps you can take:

Conduct a full analysis in each project area to gain a thorough
understanding of the socio-cultural attitudes, beliefs and behaviours
that may act as barriers to change
Use participatory methods to stimulate discussion among marginalised
groups and to open womens and mens eyes to new possibilities
Use a range of awareness-raising techniques to bring issues to the
attention of the affected group itself, and to wider society
Be prepared for some of the negative things you might hear and think of
strategies or arguments for responding to them
Collect facts, figures and stories about the situation you want to change to
show that the issues are real and relevant
Collect examples of success stories to illustrate that culture is not static,
and that different communities do things in different ways
Identify champions and role models who can influence and inspire others

53
 Find ways to engage dominant groups positively to make them feel that
they have a role to play in supporting change, rather than feeling
threatened by it
Remember that the attitudes and beliefs you are seeking to address are
deeply entrenched and that changing them will need consistent
attention over time. Dont be discouraged: recognise that small steps
forward are significant and celebrate these as successes.

Build peoples power within, with and to

The poorest and most marginalised men, women and youth have often been
subjected to decades of discrimination and neglect, and have extremely low
levels of confidence. As a result, they frequently accept their situation as the
norm or their fate, and feel powerless to challenge it. Therefore, our
programmes will often need to begin by helping people to gain a sense of self-
identity, and understand that alternatives exist and that they themselves can
be change agents. This is developing their power within.

As a woman participating in the Raising Her Voice project in Nepal explained:

We [the women] were largely invisible because we could not speak our mind.
We could not speak because we were never encouraged to speak by our
family and society. We have realised now that it is not as difficult as we
thought to break this barrier.

54
 Building power with in the Jordan Valley

An evaluation of our three-year programme working with young people in

the Jordan Valley showed the need to build linkages with other
community groups in order to create a more active and unified approach
to community development.
Oxfam took video clips which clearly highlighted the different needs in
each village. One of the issues was unemployment among women.
Women talked about how they used to work in agriculture, but now water
resources and land are controlled by Israel, so unemployment is
increasing. They highlighted that they wanted a project that was income
generating, and stressed that a womans role in producing for and feeding
her family is very crucial. Other villages highlighted issues of lack of youth
activities, electricity, healthcare, agriculture and access to land. They also
raised the constraints women face in conservative and traditional villages.
The best outcome of this project was that Oxfam got the people in those
villages to think together. Instead of thinking of water in my backyard, Im
thinking of water for everyone in the village, said one villager. Im not
thinking just of how to market my produce, but marketing agricultural
produce for the whole village. (Nivine Sandouka Sharaf, MEEECIS
Learning Newsletter, July 2010)

The power to is important for the capacity to act, to exercise agency and to
realise the potential of rights, citizenship or voice. This can include targeted
skills development for example, training in public speaking for those who
have never had the opportunity to participate in decision-making before. It also
means finding innovative ways to overcome practical and attitudinal barriers to
participation.

Power with refers to the strength and synergy which can emerge through
partnerships and collaboration with others, or through processes of collective
action and alliance building. Oxfam can play a role in bringing people together,
including facilitating the connection and solidarity of citizens across social,
class, religious or economic differences. We can use participatory
methodologies to support people to learn, reflect and find solutions to
problems together, and then act on these, fostering solidarity and a sense of
collective action.

Promoting youth participation

Youth under the age of 25 represent the vast majority of people (60 per cent)
in the least developed countries 4. As recent developments from the Arab
Spring countries, Senegal, Brazil and other nations show, youth are an
important driver of change. However, the places and spaces for them to
participate and make their voices heard are often limited by social hierarchies,
norms and practices, as well as gender, wealth and place of residence. This
can result in the low participation of youth, even in development initiatives
intended to address their needs.

There is no universally agreed definition of youth. It is a social and cultural

4
UN World Population Prospect 2012 Report

55
construction bounded by a range of working indicators such as age, financial
dependency, responsibility and emotional reliance on primary caregivers.
These vary considerably across cultures and contexts. The relationship
between characteristics of youth and their ages can vary across national and
regional contexts, and between individuals and their experiences. Like the
United Nations and many other organisations such as the UKs Department for
International Development (DfID), Oxfam defines youth as people between
the ages of 15 and 24.

Youth is a multi-faceted category, and spaces for young peoples participation

differ depending on their educational, social and economic position; their
cultural background, gender and sexuality; life circumstances, experiences
and context. The ability of youth to act, to exercise their rights and access
services are determined by their circumstances. While youth as a category is
often excluded from the public sphere and major political, socio-economic
and cultural processes, some youth groups in particular are socially excluded
through formal institutions and relations (such as laws and policies) and
informal ones (social and cultural traditions, practices, attitudes and norms).
Through this exclusion, they are denied access to resources, services and the
spaces and opportunities open to other social groups. Meaningful youth
participation must be inclusive, which requires both a representative youth
group and equity in participation by young people from all social backgrounds.

Supporting and promoting youth as active citizens might appear self-evident,

but it demands a significant shift in approach and thinking, from doing for
youth to doing with youth and eventually doing by youth. Youth participation
entails the active, informed and voluntary involvement of youth in making
decisions affecting them and their communities. DfID describes youth
participation as a process whereby young people progress to greater rights
and responsibilities (citizenship), from being the targets of outreach to being
actively engaged in the planning and implementation of development
interventions.

Development projects may engage youth, in ascending order of responsibility,

as beneficiaries, partners and leaders. The latter involves youth working with
adults and becoming development professionals and leading political actors
themselves. This is a key goal of youth empowerment processes that must
always take into account local contexts, and cultural values and practices. In
the global South, where age-based hierarchies are often strong, adult
approval is essential for achieving and sustaining youth participation. It is
equally important to realise that participation is a political process that requires
ongoing negotiation with gatekeepers, community and religious leaders and
those in positions of authority.

The involvement of youth is fundamental to youth as active citizens and

should be integrated into Oxfams and our partners structures and processes.
Our involvement of youth should provide an example of the democratic
processes and institutions that we seek to promote. In many contexts this is
challenging and may meet with some community resistance, but plans need to
be in place to move from simple consultation to youth-led and managed
initiatives. Youth as active citizens interventions would be contradictory
without demonstrating high levels of youth engagement. The effort and
resources required are high, and this needs to be accommodated within

56
Oxfams and partners organisational plans. The value of maximising youth
involvement includes:

Youth-to-youth communications reduce age hierarchies that tend to

characterise adult-youth relations

Oxfam gains better access to young people, especially those who are
more marginalised

Improved understanding of youth constraints, issues and aspirations

Peer education provides space for more open and negotiated

interventions, and mutual learning that highlights youth perspectives

Higher levels of youth investment in projects where youth are active in

identifying issues, initiating and planning responses, and mobilising
themselves

Youth reap positive benefits in terms of feeling confident, valued and

respected when they are treated as equal partners.

Effective targeting of youth is often best accomplished by going where youth

are, rather than trying to assemble them at designated spaces chosen by
adults.

At the programme level, specific strategies need to be developed, put in place

and evaluated to improve the reach and engagement of the most marginalised
people in youth as active citizens activities. Equitable participation of diverse
social groups needs to be integral. This is especially critical for those in more
rural locations. Contextual and cultural constraints are likely to require more
customised and creative approaches to involve young women and minorities
and ensure equity. The development of more contextually appropriate
priorities and projects would need to factor in the lifestyle demands of these
groups, including, for example, domestic labour, the relative isolation and
distance of rural communities and other particular demands on different young
people.

The use of radio, ICT, social media, dance, music and rapping has been
proved to attract youth, increase communication among them and other
stakeholders, improve reach, provide safe spaces for participation and report
developments and successes. In general, these can be used for advocacy,
participation and communication around youth as active citizens and to
support and highlight more traditional intervention practices that combine
formal strategies (public hearings, lobbying) with informal strategies (social
events).

Strategies to engage and incorporate youth in programmes and projects

require training for both adult teachers and the young people involved.
Consistent with the emphasis on active and the encouragement to claim
rights and become agents of change, it is vital that active learning and skills
acquisition are key components of training and intervention projects.

57
Mobilising Malis Youth

In Mali, part of the My Rights, My Voice (MRMV) programme focuses on

mobilising youth to claim their fundamental rights. In recent presidential
elections, young people were at the heart of MRMV activities, advocating
with candidates to obtain their commitment to promoting health and
education essential to youth development. Supported by CSOs, they also
targeted the public, to encourage voting especially among youth.

To gain civil society support, Oxfam created a strategic alliance with other
CSOs and the media, holding a workshop to coordinate activities. The
MRMV programmes Youth Consultative Council was responsible for
mobilising and coordinating youth organisations.

Strategies included bringing together 400 young people to film a national TV

advertisement inviting people to vote for candidates promoting basic social
services. Youth groups arranged a radio discussion and two awareness-
raising caravans to tour the capital city. These put on shows in markets,
squares and sports-grounds urging people to vote for candidates supporting
social service provision. They also organised a press conference to publicise
their ideal social service manifesto, and asked candidates to sign cards
promising to stick to their pledges over social services. These signed
commitments will be used to demand accountability from the new president.

As a result, much of the population young people in particular turned out

to vote. Young people became aware of their role in claiming their rights in
an electoral process, while candidates awareness of youth issues and
CSOs increased. The campaign strengthened the organisational and
operational capacities of young people, who are now working towards the
creation of a national youth coalition. Given the chance, youth took the
initiative and committed themselves to promote their rights.

Steps you can take:

Support poor and marginalised men, women and youth to understand
their rights and see their own potential using a range of participatory
methods, such as the REFLECT methodology or regular, facilitated
discussion groups.
Provide information about rights and how to claim them, opportunities for
participation in decision making and the importance of participation.
Support men, women and youth to think about and identify the personal
capacities they already have, those they would like to build and those
they could help others build.
Support men, women and youth to develop practical skills for participation
and leadership for example, technical skills, project planning, needs
assessments, proposal writing, participating in meetings and public
speaking. These enable them to present arguments, defend their
interests and build support networks.
Offer possibilities to practise these capacities in a safe environment.
Bring poor and marginalised men, women and youth together for strength
in numbers and to enable them to build mutual support networks.

58
 Support men, women and youth to develop their critical thinking skills to
build a collective analysis of their situation and begin to identify
possible solutions.

Tools and resources

Support national NGOs, coalitions and community organisations

Power Tools for Policy Influence in Natural Resource Management, IIED

A website introducing a number of power tools to help marginalised people
and their allies have a greater positive influence on natural resources policy,
though also applicable to other sectors. Divided into tools for understanding,
organising, engaging and ensuring.
http://www.policy-powertools.org/

PG Exchange Toolkit
A comprehensive online toolkit providing information on nine different catego-
ries of participatory governance practices, including more than 30 individual
approaches and tools. Each section includes the benefits of using the ap-
proach, challenges and lessons, and a resources section linking to further
toolkits. The toolkit covers public information, education and deliberation, ad-
vocacy and citizen voice, public dialogue, elections, policy and planning, pub-
lic budgets and expenditures, monitoring and evaluating public services, and
public oversight.
http://pgexchange.org/index.php?option=com_alphacontent&view=aphaconte
nt&itemid79

Tools to Support Transparency in Local Governance, Transparency In-

ternational
A toolkit to support advocacy and capacity building for the application of the
principles of good urban governance. Covers assessment and monitoring,
access to information and public participation, ethics, professionalism and in-
tegrity, institutional reform, and targeting specific issues.
http://archive.transparency.org/tools/e_toolkit/tools_to_support_transparency_i
n_local_governance

Building Responsive States: Citizen Action and National Policy Change

This briefing paper and accompanying case studies from IDS explore positive
examples of citizen action and highlight how government, donors and civil so-
ciety organisations can help citizens bring about pro-poor national policy
change.
http://www.ids.ac.uk/go/citizens

Programme Insights: Speaking Out

A series of 12 papers bringing together experiences, lessons and good prac-
tice from Oxfam GBs programmes, describing different ways to strengthen the
participation of people in poverty so they become active citizens and shape
policy decisions.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/speaking-out-case-studies-on-
how-poor-people-influence-decision-making-115592

59
Resources for Oxfam Staff

The Partnership Companion

A practical resource for programme staff illustrating what good partnership
looks like and giving advice on how Oxfams partnership policy can be applied.

The Partnership Companion: Introduction

The Partnership Companion: Setting up a Partnership
The Partnership Companion: Selecting Partners
The Partnership Companion: Building Strong Relations
The Partnership Companion: Building and Exit Planning
The Partnership Companion: Learning and Reporting

Social accountability approaches

South Asia Social Accountability Network

Provides an overview of a number of social accountability approaches, and
advice on how to implement them.
http://www.sasanet.org/tools.do

Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific
(ANSA-EAP)
A website providing information about ANSA-EAP and their social accountabil-
ity tools.
http://ansa-eap.net/resources/social-accountability-tools/

The Public Affairs Centre (PAC)

The centre is globally known for its pioneering Citizen Report Cards (ben-
chmarking studies used to improve public services). It also works on electoral
transparency, public works monitoring tools and the recently launched audits
of the Right to Information Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act in India.
http://www.pacindia.org/tool-kits

Accountability: Quality and Equity in Public Service Provision, ActionAid

Shows how men and women can get involved in demanding accountability for
service delivery and provides information on community scorecards, participa-
tory expenditure tracking surveys, budget tracking and social audits.
http://www.actionaid.org/what-we-do/democratic-governance

Folio: Customised Learning Modules for Social Accountability and Good

Governance, ANSA-EAP
A series of eight learning modules on social accountability, covering under-
standing of the social accountability framework; the value of social accounta-
bility and constructive engagement between government and citizen groups;
establishing a pool of social accountability learning facilitators and trainers;
training with infomediaries; strategic planning for social accountability initia-
tives; mentoring and coaching for social accountability; and implementation of
citizen report card and community scorecards initiatives.
http://www.ansa-eap.net/assets/792/ansa-eap_folio.pdf

Citizen Report Card Learning Toolkit

An e-learning resource to understand how to apply Citizen Report Card
processes.
http://www.citizenreportcard.com/
60
People and Participation.net
Website providing a full list of social accountability mechanisms.

Strengthen budget work

Breathing Life into Democracy: The power of participatory budgeting

A detailed overview of the origins and development of participatory budgeting,
why it is important today and its key strengths and weaknesses.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/breathing-life-into-democracy-
the-power-of-participatory-budgeting-111969

Dignity Counts: A guide to using budget analysis to advance human

rights
A book providing guidance to civil society organisations and others on how to
use budget analysis as a tool to help assess a governments compliance with
its obligations to economic, social and cultural rights. It has been designed to
provide information to both human rights activists and those involved in ap-
plied budget work.
http://righttomaternalhealth.org/resource/dignity-counts

How to Do a Gender-Sensitive Budget Analysis

This document draws on data from countries which already have gender-
sensitive budgets in place, or are initiating them. It shows the diversity of ap-
proaches in different countries, and covers the issues, methods and strategies
for the first year of implementing the exercise. It has a strong practical orienta-
tion, and includes theory, examples, discussion questions and the basis for a
series of structured workshops for practitioners.
http://www.ndi.org/node/13624

Budgets: Revenues and Financing in Public Service Provision

A guide to budgets, from the budget cycle, revenue and taxes to fiscal decen-
tralisation and local revenue justice
http://www.actionaid.org/what-we-do/democratic-governance

Economic Literacy and Budget Accountability for Governance Hand-

books, ActionAid
http://www.actionaid/org/what-we-do/democratic-governace

A series of handbooks on different aspects of budget accountability work.

Further reading
Global changes and civil society, INTRAC
A paper exploring the challenges confronting civil society at a time of unprec-
edented and widely underestimated global change. It contributes to the inter-
national debate by setting the scene, describing some of the key changes and
looking at ways in which civil society can adapt to them.
http://www.intrac.org/resources.php?action=resource&id=715

Capacity-Building: An approach to People-Centred Development

This book considers specific and practical ways in which NGOs can contribute
to enabling people to build on the capacities they already possess. It reviews
the types of social organisations which NGOs could work with.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/capacity-building-an-approach-
to-people-centred-development-122906

61
A Ladder of Citizen Participation, Sherry R Arnstein and Childrens Par-
ticipation: From Tokenism to Citizenship, Roger Hart
Two frameworks to guide thinking about different levels of citizen participation
in decision-making.
http://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-participation.html

Introducing Participatory Approaches, Methods and Tools

A training module on how to apply participatory methods.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/AD424E/ad424e03.htm

The REFLECT Mother Manual

A guide to using REFLECT methodology, including information on a range of
participatory techniques.
http://www.reflect-action.org/mothermanual

Haki Zetu: ESC Rights in Practice, Amnesty International Netherlands

A series of booklets giving step-by-step advice on how civil society groups can
use African and international human rights instruments in their work with
communities at local level.
http://www.huridocs.org/2011/02/haki-zetu-esc-rights-in-practice/

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

A website providing a set of legal tools for citizenship empowerment.
http://www.iied.org/law

PG Exchange Toolkit
A comprehensive online toolkit providing information on nine different catego-
ries of participatory governance practices, including more than 30 individual
approaches and tools. Each section includes the benefits of using the ap-
proach, challenges and lessons, and a resources section linking to further
toolkits. The toolkit covers public information, education and deliberation, ad-
vocacy and citizen voice, public dialogue, elections, policy and planning, pub-
lic budgets and expenditures, monitoring and evaluating public services, and
public oversight.
http://pgexchange.org/index.php?option=com_alphacontent&view=alphaconte
nt&Itemid=79

Tools to Support Transparency in Local Governance, Transparency In-

ternational
A toolkit to support advocacy and capacity building for the application of the
principles of good urban governance. Covers assessment and monitoring,
access to information and public participation, ethics, professionalism and in-
tegrity, institutional reform and targeting specific issues.

My Rights My Voice
This programme engages marginalised children and youth in their rights to
health and education services in eight countries, see
http://myrightsmyvoice.ning.com/

62
 2. ACCESS TO INFORMATION AND
TECHNOLOGY
People do not eat information, but without information they will starve to
death
Priscilla Nyokabi

Freedom of information is a fundamental human right () and the touchstone

for all freedoms to which the United Nations is consecrated
UN General Assembly resolution 59(I) from 1946

The free flow of reliable, relevant and timely information is a pre-condition to

ensure people can participate meaningfully in decisions that affect them, and
can demand accountability from those in power. In a rapidly evolving
information society, access to information and the capacity to produce,
repackage and disseminate it influence social and political power structures to
an increasing degree. Information is power and is a central element in
empowering marginalised people. It enables them to build knowledge and
critical questioning which challenges the powerful. A lack of access to
information can prevent poor men, women and youth from understanding their
own situations, and therefore from being able to devise possible solutions for
themselves.

However, the control and production of information can also be a powerful tool
for domination and oppression. Lack of information perpetuates poverty as
much as lack of income does. Disadvantaged people, in particular women and
minorities, tend to have the least access to information. Additionally, they often
lack the capacities, skills and means to share and receive information.
Conversely, those in power have the tendency to monopolise information
sources to remain in power. One way to keep poor people excluded is to keep
them poor in information and therefore poor in knowledge. Interest groups and
government officials can nurture a culture of secrecy and public ignorance,
holding back information and knowledge in order to maintain their power and
the status quo. Bad governance needs secrecy and ignorance to survive.
Corruption, wastefulness of public resources and inefficiency in public service
delivery can only thrive if there is limited or no access to information on the
performance of those in responsible for managing public resources.

The free flow of information is therefore a critical feature to empower

marginalised people so that they can make their voices heard and demand
accountability. Access to reliable, relevant, understandable and timely
information enables people to participate meaningfully in governance, having
options explained and making informed decisions. Receiving understandable,
relevant and accurate information on time will permit marginalised groups to
take an informed stand e.g. about a new public health service policy, or the
impact on the environment and their livelihoods of a dam project in their
community. When they can communicate and share their opinion with each
other, marginalised people are able to organise themselves and create

63
solidarity and joint interest groups.

Men, women and youth in the isolated, rural communities of Armenia

have limited access to information and little knowledge about new
government policies that affect their lives, including what health care
they are entitled to. Oxfam GB has been piloting new methods of
information sharing for example, using SMS alerts to raise awareness
of the Basic Benefit Package of health care services provided by the
state and about the health Ombudsmen to whom community members
can apply for free support to restore violated health rights.

Oxfam defines the concept of Access to Information as: accessing, generat-

ing, processing and communicating information in the context of governance
structures that can contribute to the empowerment of marginalised groups and
accountability of duty bearers.

We have a role to play in ensuring free information flows are created and pro-
tected between marginalised people and power holders, and between margin-
alised people themselves. This will mean that they are better equipped to ex-
ercise their right to seek, receive and share information. Marginalised people
will know how to use information that affects their lives, and thereby have the
power and tools to hold power holders to account. To achieve this, Oxfam will:

Use and promote disclosure policies, international standards and laws

that guarantee the right to information. This can include work on
Access to Information legislation, the Extractive Industries Transparen-
cy Index, the Free, Prior and Informed Consent Principle, the Open
Government Partnership, and advocacy for proactive disclosure poli-
cies from inter-governmental organisations. Transparency in aid is an-
other aspect (e.g. advocating for respect of the standards established
by the International Aid Transparency Initiative).

Use budget monitoring and tax justice tools to increase access to

budget information. Budgets on both the income (taxation) and
spending side are a very tangible entry point for understanding the
importance of accessing information held by public bodies.

Enhance the capacity of marginalised groups especially women and

youth to receive and communicate information with web-based and
mobile media. This can help them generate and share their own infor-
mation, ideas and opinions (citizens reporting and citizen journalism).
They can also organise and mobilise support and more easily and effi-
ciently. Media users security needs to be considered when employing
these tools. Advocacy for internet freedom and training in the safe use
of online and mobile tools can also be part of Oxfams activities. Its im-
portant to be aware that access to technology can be difficult for many
communities. Digital information will be of little use in such cases, so
take care that information does not bypass these groups.

Work with and support traditional media (especially radio) to increase

the availability and quality of information channels. Traditional media
still are a powerful driver to realise the freedom of information. They are
key vehicles of communication and expression, therefore the ability of
the media to function independently is vital to freedom of information.

64
 Traditional media can help people make informed choices and can be
crucial in giving voice to marginalised communities.

Use strategic litigation, i.e. the courts, to extract and distribute govern-
ance- and policy-related information that the government would prefer
to keep from public view.

Enhance access to the information needed by poor people to partici-

pate in decision making and to persevere in the event of shocks,
stresses and uncertainty (such as early warning, weather and market
information).

Make use of appropriate technologies

Public demonstrations, rallies and hearings can all put pressure on duty
bearers and draw their attention to the demands of citizens. But in recent
years the use of technologies such as mobile phones and the internet have
fuelled other forms of public mobilisation and solidarity across the world and
have become important platforms that can very quickly expose any lack of
transparency. We can harness the power of new technologies at local level to
improve the effectiveness of our own programmes, and as tools to promote
accountability and mobilise people.

In Cambodia, a pilot project to improve connections between grassroots

women leaders found that using mobile technologies yielded some very
positive unanticipated outcomes:

Linking up women in Cambodia

Women for Prosperity (WfP) has been an Oxfam
partner for many years, and has had a strong
focus on promoting womens leadership skills.
Oxfam has supported WfPs work to address
the challenges women face to participate in
formal decision-making processes and that,
once elected, female councillors face in being
effective as commune leaders.

Nanda Pok is the founder of Women for

Prosperity. To organise meetings with the female commune councillors
involved in the project, she used to have to make 45 separate phone calls
to gather all the women in one place, as they are scattered in different
villages. Most of the women did not have their own phones: phones are
usually shared within the family or are owned by their husbands.

With a 500 grant from Oxfams Digital Vision fund, WfP was able to
purchase phones for the women commune councillors and provide them
with training on how to use SMS in Khmer. The phones are pink, to
discourage men from using them. A free tool called Frontline SMS allows
Nanda to send mass messages with a click of a button.

The phones were intended to be used to facilitate coordination and

communications within the group, and to provide the women with
information on the current market price of agricultural commodities, which
they could pass on to members of their communities.

As expected, the phones are saving the women a great deal of time, as
they no longer have to cycle long distances to speak to other councillors
or community members. However, the women are also using their phones
65
 to support community members with all sorts of issues, in particular, to
respond to womens needs.

At night it is very beneficial to have the phone. We can help pregnant

women in labour on time, says Seng Chanthou, a female commune
councillor from Treal Commune in Baray district, central Cambodia.
Another councillor, Chea Kimhong from Angdong Por Commune adds,
When there is a case of domestic violence, the village can call me and I
come to help do an intervention immediately. Before they had to travel to
my place and knock on my door.

Social and mobile media are increasingly being used by individuals and civil
society organisations for civic engagement on a wide range of issues. The
term social media refers broadly to internet-based tools and services that
allow users to engage with each other, generate content, and distribute and
search for information online. Social media offer many benefits:

The opportunity for people to be meaningfully engaged in social change

in new ways, able to interact with thousands or even millions of others.

A way of engaging more with young people an audience with which

Oxfam hasnt always strongly connected. Youth in the South is often
spearheading developments in Information and Communication
Technology in their countries, creating innovative solutions adapted to
their context.

A way to facilitate real participation, involving people directly and

enabling actions to be taken as a group, rather than at the direction of an
outside campaigner.

They give people real-time access to data, knowledge, expertise and

advice to support them to gain the knowledge and confidence they need
in order to speak out. Social media can be used in electoral participation,
popular campaigns and engagement with political actors and institutions.

The women of Kuwait had for years been struggling to get full suffrage to no
avail. Suddenly, the legislature voted overwhelmingly for women's suffrage.
Why? We think in part because many Kuwaiti women were emailing the
legislature, and the bottom line was that their emails didn't wear skirts or
communicate through burkas. We're in a new age of connected activism in
which social media are democratising and transforming social change efforts.
Source: The Evaluation Exchange, Volume XIII, Number 1&2, Spring 2007,
http://www.hfrp.org/evaluation/the-evaluation-exchange

The question of the role of social media is not straightforward, however, and
they can have their limitations. While internet-based resources, sites and
meeting places can echo the voices of the poor, many of the worlds poorest
and most marginalised people may not have direct access to the social media
toolbox. Moreover, the connections made in these virtual spaces are less
likely to be as deep or personally relevant to peoples own sense of identity as
other forms of social engagement, such as unions. For example, while it was
social media that got people to Cairos Tahrir Square in the Arab Spring, it was
the deeper ties of football clubs and religious groups that kept them there. Yet

66
it is clear that social media represents an important set of spaces that can be
used to boost and strengthen civil society.

Tools and Resources

Our Rights, Our Information: Empowering people to demand rights

through knowledge; Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative;
This is a useful guide, with many examples explaining how to work with the
right to information (in its conventional sense, i.e. accessing information held
by public bodies) and how this right can be instrumental in claiming other
rights.
http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/publications/rti/our_rights_our_information
.pdf

Guides and Manuals for community radios, AMARC

Oxfam partner AMARC, the World Association of Community Radio Broad-
casters, supports and contributes to the development of community and par-
ticipatory radio. The website includes many useful guides and manuals, in-
cluding how to strengthen womens empowerment through community radio.
http://www2.amarc.org/?q=node/603

Toolkits and Guides for using ICT for social change, Tactical Tech
Tactical Techs mission is to advance the skills, tools and techniques of rights
advocates, empowering them to use information and communications to help
marginalised communities understand and effect progressive social and politi-
cal change. They offer many practical guidelines for using ICT, including a se-
curity guide on its safe use.
https://www.tacticaltech.org/projects?type=8

Oxfam Resources

Evaluation of Oxfam Novibs Priority Theme: Access to Information

This evaluation includes many examples of how Oxfam works on Access to
Information in Myanmar, Nigeria and Egypt.

67
 3. PUBLIC DECISION- AND POLICY-
MAKING SPACES
The efforts of poor and marginalised people to raise their voices and demand
their rights will only be effective if governments and other institutions are
prepared to listen and able to respond. Formal institutions, and how they
interact with citizens, are central to successful development. These include
state institutions, such as the legislature, judiciary, police and military, and
other forms of recognised governance structures, such as local councils and
committees. At local level, strengthening the capacity of institutions benefits
members of the communities they serve, but also benefits the key players in
the institutions themselves. These entities can often be powerless in the face
of dominant central or illegitimate power holders.

Oxfam needs to work with these institutions so they can provide a channel for
poor mens and womens voices to be heard. This way, they can become
effective, able to fulfil their duties and responsive to what citizens are saying.
Therefore, it is as important to work to strengthen and support authorities as it
is to strengthen civil society. We can achieve this balance through:
Encouraging women, young and indigenous people, and other vulner-
able groups to participate in decision-making processes that affect their
lives
Encouraging poor and marginalised people to strive for political leader-
ship
Promoting social accountability tools (such as participatory monitoring)
to monitor and influence public decisions and ensure that poor people
benefit from revenue flows (including from extractive industries)

Working with elected representatives and government officials to un-

derstand their roles and responsibilities and strengthen their skills to
deliver their roles effectively

Encouraging co-operation and collaboration between civil society and

local authorities

Investing in understanding decentralisation processes, and providing

assistance to all stakeholders to fulfil their roles and obligations

Paying particular attention to newly-elected women representatives, to

support them to be effective leaders and to represent the interests of
poor and marginalised women

Strategic use of campaigning and advocacy.

Encouraging vulnerable groups to participate in

decision-making processes
Oxfam can encourage and support activities that help poor men, women and
youth to participate in decision-making that affects their lives, by helping them
understand governance processes and opportunities where their voices may
68
be heard. It is important that citizens understand how public meetings,
committees, political parties, rallies, voting, civil protest and election
campaigns work and how to prioritise where their efforts can best be targeted.
This will enable them to participate in an informed and effective manner.

We can support poor men, women and youth to work out how they could and
should relate to formal and informal governance institutions and processes at
local, national and global levels. This may be through their vote, their
contribution at a public meeting, their role in a school committee, their
requests for and use of public information or their ongoing civil engagement.

Significantly, voters often dont see holding legislators to account as their

responsibility, therefore we need to work on changing attitudes towards
engagement with institutions, as well as providing tools for doing so.

Voicing demands in Uganda

How did a group of Ugandan cotton farmers persuade the countrys
president to stabilise cotton prices? Like many other community groups
in the country, they used the Citizens Manifesto to express their de-
mands and participate in decision-making over issues affecting their
lives.

The manifesto is promoted through a project supported by Oxfam Novib

which aims to strengthen citizens capacity to demand political account-
ability. It lists their constitutional rights, empowering them to address
Ugandas governance challenges and reminding them to express their
will over how theyre governed.

The project involves civil society actors, from NGOs and professional as-
sociations to unions and youth movements. Through grassroots institu-
tions, it trains and encourages people to express their aspirations as
clear demands shared with leaders, from local to national levels. This
gives them the skills to engage with decision-makers effectively.

Oxfam and its partners trained grassroots CSOs to promote the Citizens
Manifesto within local communities. These CSOs in turn have trained
10,000 people, who can now use the manifesto to express their specific
demands to elected leaders. A key element in the projects success has
been help from Oxfam to access information. This means people can
carry out informed advocacy, in a voice that demands to be heard.

Build leadership capacity

Oxfam should build the capacity of leaders at all levels, especially of women
and young people, to have the confidence, knowledge and information
necessary to engage with various stakeholders and legitimately bring out the
voices of the people they represent.

We can play a role in identifying and nurturing poor men, women and youth
with strong leadership potential, and in building their skills and capacity to
speak out on behalf of their peers. This could range from very practical skills,
such as public speaking and critical thinking, to supporting them to identify

69
whom to engage with and how to engage in a constructive way. For example,
Oxfams Raising Her Voice project in Nepal saw a big shift in gender relations
at household level once women learned how to formulate an argument and
clearly explain to their husbands their reasoning for or against an issue. This is
a skill that they can now also use to represent womens interests in
community-level decision-making bodies.

It is also important to support leaders to act as spokespeople for their

constituency, rather than using their new position to further their own interests
or maintain the status quo. And they need to be equipped to cope as a leader,
develop self-care mechanisms and deal with resistance, criticism and efforts
to undermine them, so that they are able to be effective in their roles and not
become discouraged.

Zimbabwes girls club together

In Zimbabwe, Oxfam Novib and its partner Girl Child Network are creating
girls empowerment clubs within schools. Coordinated mostly by female
teachers, these champion the development and empowerment of girls, and
are led by the girls themselves. There are over 350 clubs with 20,000
members aged up to 16, spread nationwide in both urban and rural areas.
Communities are also involved, through events and awareness campaigns.

The clubs fight to improve the position of girls in society and give them a
voice. They support girls in all spheres of home, school and community,
aiming to empower them to resist harmful cultural practices, such as early
forced marriage, virginity testing, sex initiation and gender stereotypes that
favour boys over girls. They also offer career guidance and a Women as
Role Models programme to instil confidence and leadership skills. Girls
learn about their rights and can speak out when these have been violated
(especially in cases of sexual violence). The clubs have channelled many
reported cases of abuse and been key in teaching communities that abus-
ing girls is wrong. Members also enjoy artistic activities.

The clubs have proved hugely popular with schools and pupils. Their num-
ber is expanding, with some girls even saying they want to change school
to one with a club. Success factors include strong support from schools and
government ministries, involving the community from the beginning, and
thorough training for club coordinators. Above all, the project has suc-
ceeded by including girls in its design and implementation. Their participa-
tion in decision-making is crucial, giving them ownership and driving the
enthusiasm to overcome their challenges.

Embed social accountability mechanisms

Civil society can play an important role in holding governments to account and
demanding transparency in the way they spend their money and provide ser-
vices. There is a growing range of social accountability mechanisms it can use
do so.

Social accountability mechanisms enable civil society actors to engage with

processes such as policy making, service delivery, budget preparation and
analysis, expenditure tracking and performance monitoring of service
provision. There is a wide range of social accountability tools, including:

70
 Participatory budgeting is a mechanism or process through which
citizens participate directly in the different phases of budget formulation,
decision-making and monitoring of budget execution. Public budgeting
can be instrumental in increasing public expenditure transparency and in
improving budget targeting.
Independent Budget Analysis demystifies the sometimes highly
technical language of official budgets and opens up to public scrutiny the
often opaque budgetary process. Budget analysis is closely linked with
the process of budget formulation, as it aims to generate debate on the
national budget and influence the budget that is ultimately approved.
The Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) is a quantitative
survey of the supply side of public services. The unit of observation is
typically a service facility and/or local government. The survey collects
information such as facility characteristics, financial flows, outputs
(services delivered) and accountability arrangements. As quantitative
exercises that complement qualitative surveys on consumers perceptions
of service delivery, PETS have been very influential in highlighting the
use and abuse of public money.
Citizen Report Cards are participatory surveys that solicit user feedback
on the performance of public services. They can enhance public
accountability through the extensive media coverage and civil society
advocacy that accompanies the process.
Community Score Cards are a community-based monitoring tool for
exacting social and public accountability and responsiveness from service
providers. By linking service providers to the community, citizens are
empowered to provide immediate feedback on the service.
A citizen's charter is a document that informs citizen's about the service
entitlements they have as users of a public service (procedures, costs
and charges), the standards they can expect (timeframe and quality) and
remedies available for non-adherence to standards.
Public hearings are formal public meetings at the community level where
local officials and citizens have the opportunity to exchange information
and opinions on community affairs, such as community budgets.
Citizens' juries are a group of selected members of a community who
investigate complex issues and make recommendations or action
proposals to decision-makers.
Social Audit (sometimes also referred to as Social Accounting) is a
process that collects information on the resources of an organization. The
information is analyzed and shared publicly in a participatory fashion.
Although the term Audit is used, Social Auditing does not merely consist
in examining costs and finance the central concern of a social audit is
how resources are used for social objectives.

Links to further information on all of these approaches are available in the

tools and resources section.

71
Empowering participatory budget monitoring in Georgia
The collapse of the Soviet Union led to difficult times for the independent
state of Georgia as it made the transition from a centralised to a market
economy, and from a communist to a democratic system. People had no
experience of making decisions, even at local level, or of participating
actively in local government. Oxfam GB has worked with the Association of
Disabled Women and Mothers of Disabled Children (DEA), with support
from the Association of Young Economists of Georgia (AYEG), to implement
budget monitoring projects in Zugdidi District, one of the poorest
municipalities in the country.
The Local Budget Monitoring project aimed to introduce participatory
principles into budgetary processes and raise public awareness about
budget monitoring. The idea was to build a new kind of civil society, where
each member would feel responsible for the communitys budget and able
to participate in its formation, based on the needs of a particular community.
DEA mobilised the local population in all 30 villages of the district, and
established interest groups in each, made up of 10 to 15 socially active
villagers who wanted to get together to influence or participate in the
development of their community. But they lacked the skills or practical
experience to participate in local budget monitoring, and so groups of
committed individuals formed community committees.
DEA assisted these committees to develop statutes, co-ordinated twice-
monthly meetings, and, together with AYEG, conducted local budget
monitoring training. AYEGs role at the start of the project was very
important in providing capacity-building training and training in grassroots
advocacy and lobbying, as well as assisting DEA in analysing the budget
data they managed to collect. The goal was to develop the skills and
abilities of committee members on budgetary process issues, as well as
help them to understand organs of local self-governance, and to undertake
advocacy and lobbying. The committees prepared their recommendations
and submitted these to the Gamgeoba, the executive branch of local self-
government. The community groups were very successful in working
directly with local government. Since 2005, 85 per cent of recommendations
from the committees have been taken on board. The relationships between
local self-government representatives and communities improved, and there
was increased transparency in the budgetary process. Members of the
Local Budget Monitoring project have even been offered some office space
in the Zugdidi local self-governance building, to set up a resource centre
that will provide the population with information on the new tax code,
budgetary processes and other enquiries. This is clear evidence that the
local government is satisfied with the project.
Perouza, a public committee member from a village in Zugdidi, describes
the budget monitoring and its impact on the local community: Before
participatory budget monitoring, nothing that the government did was
transparent. Now the government has to show the budget to us, which
means it is open for discussion with the public. This has had an impact on
our lives: as a result of our participation, decisions by the local authorities
are no longer taken behind closed doors. We know best what the problems
on the ground are and our suggestions have made this budget more
reflective of real concerns our problems and our vision.
From: A New Way of Working: Community Participation in local budgeting in Georgia, Oxfam GB

72
Work with elected representatives and
government officials
Sometimes poor and marginalised men, women and youth are denied their
rights through deliberate discrimination, but more often than not the situation is
much more complex and nuanced. Governments might fail to meet the basic
needs of their citizens because they dont fully understand how a policy affects
poor men, women and youth, because corruption at the local level diverts
resources away from those who most need them, or because policies are not
effectively implemented.

Oxfam can help identify where blockages lie e.g. with civil servants,
technical services, politicians or local councils. And we can work with
government officials at all levels to help them understand their roles and
responsibilities, and strengthen their skills to deliver their roles effectively. This
could include:

Targeted capacity building for officials on a specific issue, for example,

on how to deal sensitively with women who have suffered domestic vio-
lence
Advice on engaging with citizens and using social accountability mecha-
nisms to support improvements in service delivery
Piloting new models of service delivery that, if successful, governments
can replicate
Linking citizens and officials, or providing officials with evidence, so that
they can understand the impact of policies on the ground.

73
 Claiming the right to food in India
In 2011, Indias government suddenly cancelled many eligible peoples en-
titlement to subsidised grain from the Public Distribution System. Families
like Sankaliyas were forced to sleep on an empty stomach, despite her
hard work as an agricultural labourer. Instead of two Rupees per kilo of
rice, she had to pay an inflated 15 on the open market, leaving no money to
buy pulses or oil.

More than 300,000 peoples entitlement cards were cancelled in Sanka-

liyas home state of Chhattisgarh alone. In response, Oxfam India and its
partner, the Right to Food Network, organised a public hearing on food se-
curity, enabling Sankaliya and 200 other people to speak out over the can-
cellation of their subsidy cards. The hearing involved Supreme Court
Commissioners Advisors across four Indian states, who faced a unified
outburst against the use of unfair criteria to exclude people from food enti-
tlements.

The Right to Food Network also collated numerous case studies and lob-
bied the authorities. As a result, the Chhattisgarh state government rein-
stated entitlement to subsidised rations. In December 2012, it passed the
Food Security Act the first of its kind extending subsidies to almost 90
per cent of the states population. Through speaking out, people like
Sankaliya won the means to protect their food rights.

Encourage co-operation and collaboration

While the ability of people to raise their voices can be strengthened and
governments can be supported, it is the interaction between these two that will
lead to active and real change for the societies involved.

Through local partners, Oxfam can facilitate early dialogue and cooperation
between communities and local power holders. This enables respective
struggles, constraints, roles and responsibilities to be well understood, and
plans, budgets and monitoring mechanisms to be developed jointly.

Oxfam can also support and encourage authorities to view citizen participation
as positive and useful and as something which can help the authorities
themselves be more effective and legitimate. Government agencies and civil
society can work together to analyse the underlying causes of poverty, for
example, in order to establish a common mindset and enable collaborative
work in planning future actions in an atmosphere of mutual trust.

Invest in understanding decentralisation

processes
Decentralisation has the potential to devolve power and decision making to
citizens and foster a more efficient system of service delivery. However, local
officials may not have the knowledge and experience needed to implement
policies that have been developed and written at national level, or know how
to go about involving poor and marginalised people. Through working with
partners, Oxfam can support local decentralised authorities by translating
rules and procedures, and making systems and processes more accessible.

74
 Understanding decentralisation in Turkana, Kenya
Turkana County is situated in the northwest of Kenya and has a
population of almost 900,000. It is hot and dry, and water is often scarce.
Its people are nomadic herders who depend on their cattle, camels,
goats, sheep and donkeys for a living. They have learned to live in the
harsh landscape and have a strong sense of kinship and community. With
94 per cent of the population living below the poverty line, Turkana is one
of Kenyas poorest counties. In partnership with the European
Commission and local partner the Turkana Womens Advocacy and
Development Organisation (TWADO), Oxfam is implementing the
Community Engagement in Good Governance project. This aims to
ensure that the rights of poor and marginalised women and men are
assured through their integration into political, social and economic
systems at all levels.
Kenya has a system of devolved budgets, where the use of funds is
decided by a local committee rather than by central government. The
Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF) provides funds to local authorities
to improve public service delivery, financial management and
accountability, and to reduce outstanding debts. Each year, 5 per cent of
national income tax receipts are allocated to the LATF. Local authorities
are supposed to combine the LATF monies with their own local revenues
to implement services and investments at local level.
The project has worked through local government officials, who often do
not know enough about the LATF or other funds to be able to administer
them effectively. Councillors did not have the capacity to formulate
strategies or to make key choices, but instead tended to intervene on an
ad hoc basis, often at the implementation stage. In practice, much
decision-making was informal, while formally approved budgets were not
adhered to due to the lack of financial resources, or because of
misappropriation of funds.
Oxfam designed a capacity-building package aimed at giving local
authority officials the knowledge and skills needed to enable them to work
effectively. This consisted of training on good governance, social
accountability and citizen participation, along with support to develop a
strategic plan. During the training, lack of planning quickly emerged as
one of the major causes of confusion. Local authority officials were
therefore supported to develop five-year strategic plans (200913), which
were subsequently approved by the Minister for Local Government.
Officials also developed:
A service delivery charter outlining the purpose and the standards of
services expected from the municipality
A clients charter outlining the services provided by the municipality
such as road maintenance, rubbish collection and school bursaries
and payments for council services such as business permits and burial
fees
A citizens scorecard to monitor and audit councils performance.
These documents were disseminated to the communities through public
meetings organised via a local network of civil society organisations.
As James Lobwin, development officer at Turkana County Council
explains, Today our operations are more focused and projects are in line
with the strategic plan. The service charter has enabled communities to
be more aware of council operations and the services offered. Now we
have more people coming to make enquiries about how they can access

75
 services such as school bursary funds, grants to community development
initiatives, and even how to participate in monitoring the projects run by
the council.
Source: Where does the money go? Citizen participation in Turkana county, Kenya, Oxfam GB

Support newly-elected women representatives

Earlier in this section, we looked at the importance of involving women in
political processes as participants and leaders. Women are increasingly
gaining access to decision-making processes at all levels as elected
representatives, but often find that their ability to set the agenda, influence
decisions and be effective leaders is limited. This might be because they lack
leadership skills, or are manipulated by male relatives or excluded from
decision-making processes. Under these circumstances, there is a risk that
women will become demotivated if they are unable to work on an equal footing
with their male counterparts and earn their respect. Men may dismiss
womens role in decision-making if women are unable to demonstrate results.

Supporting Nepals new women leaders

Many of the women involved in Oxfams Raising Her Voice project in
Nepal have recognised the challenges of leadership. One woman
explained that she had been selected to join the Drinking Water and
Sanitation User Group committee as it needed a woman representative,
but she didnt understand how the committee worked and was scared to
attend meetings. Through the project she has learned skills that have
helped her improve her participation. She is now able to put across her
views, but would still like further support to improve her effectiveness. As
another woman explains: After I got elected to the Community Forest
User Group executive committee, I wanted to control deforestation, which
is a huge problem in our village. So I was quite vocal in favour of
prosecuting those who felled trees illegally. However, in reality, I do not
have any idea about the rules and process of how this is to be done and it
keeps bothering me.
Women in the project have identified a number of areas where they need
further support. This means ongoing skills development in areas such as
public speaking; deeper knowledge of what is expected of them once they
have taken on roles; and greater knowledge of relevant policies and
procedures related to the committees area of focus, for example, hiring
teachers. What is evident, however, is that although women have
identified gaps, they have a strong desire to learn. A further challenge is
to stop women from overburdening themselves. Some women with higher
levels of education or greater family support for them to be active in public
life have found it difficult to balance their capacity and time.
A further challenge is to stop women from overburdening themselves.
Some women with higher levels of education or greater family support for
them to be active in public life have found it difficult to balance their
capacity and time. They need support to help them not to take on too
much and to prioritise where their efforts can best be targeted.

76
 Therefore, we shouldnt just seek to support women to take up leadership
positions. Once they are elected, we must provide ongoing support so
they can establish their legitimacy as leaders, genuinely represent the
interests of their constituencies (poor women in particular) and resist co-
option or intimidation from vested interests.

Steps you can take:

Ensure that women fully understand what their new role entails and how
the body they are elected to functions
Promote training in leadership, focusing on topics such as debating,
negotiating, conflict management and team-building
Promote training on technical issues such as procedures and
mechanisms for decision-making, including unwritten rules
Support women to interact with other woman leaders so that they can
learn from each other, gain self-confidence and establish relations
Set up a mentoring scheme so that women have someone they can turn
to for advice and support
Promote exchanges between women decision-makers at local, regional
and national levels
Promote exchanges between civil society and women decision-makers
Identify a specific project or issue that women can work on together, so
they can achieve something jointly and demonstrate their capabilities.

Strategic use of campaigning and advocacy

Oxfam defines advocacy as the process of influencing decision-makers to

change public policies and practices in ways that will have a positive and
lasting impact on the lives of men and women living in poverty. This might
involve calling for new policies and practices, changing existing ones or even
demanding their elimination. Advocacy can take place at different levels, from
local through to international institutions, and can incorporate a variety of tools

77
and approaches. These include public campaigning, lobbying, media work,
popular mobilisation and challenging social norms.

Advocacy compliments development and humanitarian work as part of

Oxfams one-programme approach to ensure the sustainability of change.
While it is possible to achieve significant change through development and
humanitarian work, advocacy may allow us to increase the scale of our impact
and challenge national and international power structures that contribute to
poverty and inequality. It is therefore an important strategy for Right to Be
Heard work.

A common point of confusion is that advocacy and the Right to Be Heard are
one and the same thing. This is not the case. Advocacy is certainly a useful
strategy that can be used alongside others to help us achieve our Right to
Be Heard goals, but it can also be used in other programme contexts. For
example, to reduce the impact of disasters, Oxfam is lobbying for rich
countries to pay money for adaptation to protect poor peoples livelihoods,
help with disaster prediction and build defences. While this is important work
which, if successful, will improve the lives of thousands of poor men, women
and youth, it is advocacy on behalf of poor people rather than being done in
such a way as to enable poor men, women and youth to influence decisions
affecting their lives.

In trying to influence decisions from local to national level, effective advocacy

needs both the capacity of civil society to carry out advocacy activities and the
capacity of authorities to respond. Both these areas have been explored in
more detail in previous sections.

78
 Zambians vote for Health For All
Every day, people in Zambia are put at risk by a poorly organised and
severely underfunded health care system. Clinics across the country
regularly face stock outs, meaning they run out of essential, life-saving
medicines. The country also has a chronic shortage of health workers. One
in 10 children dies before their fifth birthday and 17 per cent of adults are
living with HIV and AIDS, so its vital that Zambians get the health care
system they deserve.

In September 2011, Zambia held closely contested national elections.

These offered an important opportunity to secure desperately needed
reforms to the countrys health system. The Vote Health For All campaign
used the elections to spread its message. It aimed to support communities
raise their concerns about health care at national level, helping people to
discuss key issues with aspiring candidates and those already in power.
The campaign set out to ensure that health care especially access to
medicines was placed at the top of the political agenda. But it also aimed
to persuade all parties to promise to increase health spending in line with
the Abuja Declaration on Health, which commits African Governments to
spend 15 per cent of their budget on improving the health sector.

Working alongside local partners, Oxfam supported thousands of

Zambians to get their views on health care heard. At community level, local
artists and musicians helped to spread the campaigns messages through
song, drama and poetry. Oxfams partners also organised a series of local
meetings for voters to discuss health issues with parliamentary candidates.
During these meetings candidates were invited to make a public pledge to
improve health care if they were elected.

At national level, the campaign was launched with a large concert in the
capital, Lusaka, backed up by media coverage highlighting the challenges
that Zambians face in accessing health care. Other activities included a
press conference with presidential candidates and the release of a policy
report that caught the attention of many high-profile political figures.

The Vote Health For All campaign has led to important changes in
Zambias health care system. The new leader of the country, President
Sata, having expressed his support for the campaign, repeated this
commitment during his acceptance speech. And these were more than
words they led to the new government increasing spending on health
care by 45 per cent in its first budget. The countrys Minister of Health also
set a 90-day deadline to remove user fees from all health centres, pledged
to end stock-outs of vital medicines in clinics across the country and
promised that the new government will cover the costs of an additional
2,500 health workers.

Oxfam can also support civil society to make its voice heard even more widely
by disseminating messages, policy asks and calls to action through
campaigns, linking national and regional agendas to global advocacy
strategies. Wherever possible, our goal should be to support poor men,
women and youth to speak for themselves and represent their own issues,
rather than others speaking on their behalf.

We should be particularly careful to base advocacy work on evidence

79
collected on the ground, and ensure that it is based on the real, voiced needs
of poor men, women and youth. We also need to be careful about whose
voices are being heard and whose interests are being represented. Without
thorough research and analysis, we risk reinforcing inequalities, creating
resentment in the communities we aim to support, or wasting scarce
resources.

Tools and resources

Practical ways to engage with your community, Improvement and Devel-
opment Agency for Local Government
A website aimed at local government officials outlining methods and tools to
use to engage with the local community. IDeA encourages local government
to view community empowerment as being about motivated people actively
engaged in making a difference to the places they know best, and highlights
the role that local authorities should play in supporting residents to know how
they can get involved.
http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/localism-act/-
/journal_content/56/10180/3510950/ARTICLE

Building National Campaigns

This book draws on Oxfam Internationals experience of supporting national
labour rights campaigns initiatives at local and national levels. It includes
learning points and examples of good practice, and offers a menu of ap-
proaches and activities.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/building-national-campaigns-
activists-alliances-and-how-change-happens-115412

Advocacy Tools and Guidelines: Promoting Policy Change, CARE

Written for programme managers, this is a step-by-step guide to planning ad-
vocacy initiatives, with advice for successful implementation.
http://www.careclimatechange.org/files/toolkit/CARE_Advocacy_Guidelines.pd
f

World Bank Sourcebook on Social Accountability

http://www.worldbank.org/socialaccountability_sourcebook /

World Bank: Mapping Context For Social Accountability

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/Resources/2
44362-1193949504055/Context_and_SAcc_RESOURCE_PAPER.pdf

Affiliated Networks for Social Accountability

http://wbi.worldbank.org/wbi/content/affiliated-networks-social-accountability-
ansa

80
 4. ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Increase awareness of rights, legal mechanisms
and access to information laws, and support
access to justice
Access to justice can be defined as peoples capacity to seek and find
solutions for individual or collective problems, through formal or informal legal
institutions, according to human rights standards. Access to justice is not
confined to accessing formal legal institutions and the non-state customary
legal system, but entails a fair and implementable legal framework, as well as
procedures that are accessible and deliver appropriate remedies. Crucially for
Oxfam, access to justice relates to both empowerment of people as well as
accountability of institutions.

In many of the countries in which we work, there is legislation in place which

supports the rights and interests of poor and marginalised men, women and
youth. Many governments have signed up to global and regional human rights
treaties. But often, implementation is weak and citizens are unable to benefit
from the protection such legislation should afford them. Lawyers, courts and
the judiciary are generally considered distant institutions far removed from
peoples day to day reality, and are rarely seen as the guardians of citizen
rights or as an independent check on government power.

Poor men, women and youth are frequently not even aware that they have
rights, so raising awareness is often the first step towards their being able to
claim them. In addition to knowing the rights to which they are entitled, it is
also important for poor and marginalised people to know about and be able to
access the legal mechanisms they can use to claim their rights, access justice
and, where necessary, receive support to overcome barriers. Oxfam will rarely
undertake direct litigation, but has an important role to play in supporting
coalitions and networks, and facilitating connections with legal services. Above
all, we will use legal strategies to enable civil society to use the law to uphold
the human rights of poor and marginalised people and achieve pro-poor
development.

An important distinction is the difference between procedural and substantive

justice. Procedural justice deals with aspects of equality before the law, fair
trial and the right to legal defence. Substantive justice deals with the
question of how just or unjust laws are, or the quality of the outcome achieved
through a particular legal process.

For Oxfam, key access to justice areas of focus in terms of procedural justice
are:
Womens rights and gender equality
Land rights
Civil and political rights violations
Issues related to Access to Information, claiming and receiving infor-
mation from both the government and the private sector

81
 Discrimination and exclusion from social services such as education,
health care, water and humanitarian assistance

In terms of substantive justice, for Oxfam this primarily relates to undertaking

legal advocacy strategies in the following areas:
Fairness of laws relevant to any Oxfam work and using advocacy and
public-interest litigation to achieve legal reform
Addressing the criminalisation of poverty
Undertaking public interest litigation to achieve legal reform in areas
such as the right to food; extractives; climate change, and access to in-
formation and services.

An area of particular concern is the gender aspects of access to justice. In

many countries where we work, women are denied the same access to justice
as men. Oxfam therefore supports legal aid, rights awareness and public liti-
gation initiatives that primarily benefit women who are marginalised from usual
legal systems.

Helping Yemeni women seek legal equality

Women in Yemen do not have the same
access to justice as men. Each year,
hundreds of women are imprisoned for
moral crimes. There is little free legal
support for female prisoners, and many
are mistreated and stigmatised. Oxfam
partner the Yemeni Women's Union
(YWU) is working to ensure that the legal
system protects the rights of vulnerable
women, by raising awareness about legal
rights, providing legal aid, and supporting
female prisoners. YWUs female lawyers
are playing a growing role in empowering
women and advocating for womens rights.
For 20-year-old Najwa, who was imprisoned
for six months after running away from her husband, Oxfams legal
protection programme was a lifeline. Without the support of YWUs
female lawyers, Najwa and many other women would most likely face
long or indefinite prison terms.

Of course, a denial of rights can be due to more than just a lack of knowledge
on the part of citizens. Several factors can contribute to the barriers that poor
men, women and youth experience in claiming their rights and accessing legal
mechanisms and justice. These include:
a lack of political will to uphold rights
direct or indirect discrimination against certain social groups
corruption
vested interests
a lack of knowledge among duty bearers about how to fulfil their role.
Accordingly, access to justice is broader than a lack of legal awareness or in-
ability to access legal services. Rather, it encompasses the inherent fairness,

82
equity and accessibility of the justice system, in terms of the overall frame-
work, the quality of justice received and the accountability of judicial duty
bearers.

Tools and Resources

Legal empowerment in practice: Using legal tools to secure land rights
in Africa
A book exploring land rights, the use of paralegals, legal literacy training and
awareness-raising, and public interest litigation in Africa.
http://pubs.iied.org/12552IIED.html

A Guide to Using the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa for Legal
Action
This manual provides step-by-step guidance for using the Protocol as a legal
tool to uphold womens rights at both national and regional levels. It provides
information on use of the Protocol in cases brought before domestic courts;
bringing complaints of violations of the Protocol to regional mechanisms, and
analysis of violations of the Protocol to assist practitioners in drafting com-
plaints on these issues. There are also summaries of key cases to give practi-
tioners a sense of international and regional jurisprudence on womens rights.
http://www.equalitynow.org/sites/default/files/Manual%20on%20Protocol%20o
n%20Women%20Rights%20in%20Africa_EN.pdf

Local Governance Self-Assessment Guidelines for Facilitators, Inter-

cooperation
A tool to support local communities to understand better what local gover-
nance is concerned with, to voice their opinion regarding the current gover-
nance situation and take action to improve local governance functioning.

Programming for Justice: Access for all. A Practitioners Guide to a Hu-

man Rights-based Approach to Justice
A UNDP comprehensive programming guide that aims to help practitioners
design human rights-based access to justice projects. It introduces a holistic
model of access to justice, provides guidance on how to programme and pri-
oritise access to justice strategies, and maps a large number of capacity-
development strategies for justice system institutions and processes.
http://regionalcentrebankok.undp.or.th/practices/governance/a2j/tools/

Community-Based Paralegals: A Practitioners Guide

An Open Society tool to assist in the design of new paralegal programs, im-
prove existing ones or learn more about paralegals and the legal empower-
ment of the poor.
http://regionalcentrebangkok.undp.or.th/practices/governance/a2j/tools/

83
5. GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
Oxfam works to help citizens become more involved in democratic processes,
hold those with power to account and gain decision-making power
themselves. This means influencing the relationships and attitudes needed for
building accountability, transparency and responsiveness. We work to help
citizens become active and empowered, so they can help shape public debate
by asking questions and stating their views. It also means influencing power-
holders so they meet their demands and duties responsibly and responsively.

We can achieve this through:

Encouraging Oxfam supporters to act as global active citizens through

personal choices and actions. They can do this as consumers of
energy and food, through Fair Trade products, and through their
actions as employees and employers. They can also act as political
constituents on issues of aid, social justice, transparency and
accountability,

Supporting organisations of poor and excluded people (in particular

women and youth) to link with other organisations and activists. This
enables them to learn from each other and collaborate on joint
campaigns for peoples participation, civic awareness of global
challenges, and pro-poor policies.

Supporting the most vulnerable people to participate in processes and

debates that identify and manage risks and uncertainty.

What does Global Active Citizenship mean?

Global citizenship is a social trend which fosters a new model of citizenship
actively engaged in and committed to making the world a more equitable and
sustainable place. Often we link the idea of active citizenship with a local
dimension of empowerment and becoming a relevant actor in everyday
problems that affect our communities. But in an increasingly interconnected
world, the sense of community is evolving, with the local dimension of active
citizenship enriched with a global perspective of solidarity, empowerment and
action for change.
Global citizenship raises a new model, based on people who:
are aware of the multi-dimensional challenges facing us in today's
world
recognise themselves and others as people with dignity, rights and re-
sponsibilities, and with the power to drive change
take responsibility for their actions and are outraged by injustice and
any form of human rights abuse
believe justice only can exist if everyones human rights are fulfilled

respect and value gender equality, diversity and the multiple identities
and sense of belonging of people and communities
84
 are interested in understanding and spreading how the world works at
economic, political, social, cultural, technological and environmental le-
vels
participate in the community at a range of levels, from local to global,
and are mobilised with the aim of making the world a more equitable
and sustainable place, where human rights are enjoyed by everyone
contribute to building an active citizenship which fights against inequa-
lity by aiming for the redistribution of power, opportunity and resources.

Global citizens try to learn and be informed, analyse reality and promote new
thinking within the communities they belong to. They reject political and social
systems based on imposition or cultural assimilation. From Oxfams
perspective, it is vital to build capacity so that people are empowered to claim
fulfillment of their rights as well as those of others worldwide.

Global citizenship is also important to the OI operational goal of establishing a

Worldwide Influencing Network (WIN), a holistic model that will build pro-poor
constituencies in strategic countries. Through this network, Oxfam will put
power analysis and gender equality at the centre of its influencing strategies
targeting powerful interests.

Three pillars for building Global Active Citizenship

There are three key way in which Oxfam supports Global Active Citizenship:

1. Education

Oxfam promotes education for global citizenship, including dedicated space in

schools and communities for the formation of participative citizens who seek
active, ethical responses to the challenges of the world today. This involves:

Encouraging the multi-dimensional development of people: education

that develops the whole personality (rather than just focusing on the
jobs market), guided by ethical values of solidarity and justice. It
involves concepts such as learning to coexist and learning to transform
(ourselves, the community, the world).

Generating a global vision in which citizenship extends beyond a

closed context (city, country), and the world is viewed as everyones
common space. This leads to new concepts of personal identity,
involving respectful dialogue with other cultures and identities, and
respecting the dignity of other people and cultures.

The global-local perspective of justice and solidarity, in which students

recognise themselves as important players in social transformation.
Whether in their immediate (local) setting or from a more global
perspective, people need to be able to assess reality, and use tools
and methods to tackle it.

Education is never neutral. It always has a perspective on the context in which

it is immersed, validating or questioning power relations. Education is
therefore vital to the maintenance or transformation of the power structures
that rule global society.

85
2. Empowerment

Oxfam needs an integrated approach to beneficiaries and supporters as

catalysers of deep social transformation. We can achieve this by providing
them with:

Information and learning tools for self-organisation, networking and

reinforcement of their ability to impact other people and society as a
whole

Tools that help them understand and play their role as global citizens,
improving their consumption patterns, influencing and lobbying
governments and companies, and becoming transformation agents
working alongside other people and social movements

Opportunities to participate in public debates and decision-making

spaces, to demand that governments and companies change their
policies and strengthen practices towards redistribution and solidarity

Opportunities for connection, communication and collaboration with

people we work with in the global South, to exchange experiences and
knowledge, and build a sense of belonging to a global movement for
change.

3. Working with others

In rich and poor countries alike, people are beginning to realise their strength
and capacity to challenge the vested interests that perpetuate the injustice of
poverty. Oxfam believes that people living in poverty who claim their rights and
make their voices heard constitute enormous potential for real change. To
harness that potential, we must devote real effort to linking with others social
movements, trade unions, digital communities and faith-based organisations
both transient and established. And we must engage with constituencies who
have not previously been involved in issues of poverty and development.

We will join with networks of citizens, consumers, producers, communities,

social movements and civil society organisations who demand change from
governments, multilateral institutions, the UN and companies. Through our
decisions and the choices we all make as consumers, political and business
incentives will shift. Oxfam will work with others to help build momentum for
change, whether it comes by leading low-carbon lifestyles, buying Fair Trade
goods, or demanding change in the streets or through the ballot box.

Bridging social movements

Global Active Citizenship offers the opportunity to generate and strengthen a
worldwide social movement for justice, based not on a givers-receivers model
but on horizontal networking. Interesting fields which Oxfam affiliates are
exploring include:

Exchange platforms: a central aspect of raising awareness of global

86
 issues is generating spaces for exchange and dialogue. Some affiliates
are already working on proposals that generate such spaces as part of
formal education programmes or wider global platforms (often
electronic).

Reversed development: the global economic crisis since 2008 has

meant northern social movements are facing difficulties that their
southern counterparts have been struggling with for many decades.
This is opening a space to learn from their experiences and successes.
Oxfam could play a role in connecting and bridging social movements
with matching needs and experiences, using our unique global
structure and offering spaces for co-learning, sharing resources and
creating synergies among organised citizens.

Global-local advocacy and advocating overseas: Oxfam helps

generate social pressure for reinforcing government overseas
development budgets. The recent economic crisis has meant cuts also
being made in budgets for domestic social policies. This has created a
sense of competing interests. Global active citizenship asks for socially
responsible responsible policies everywhere, offering deeper
understanding of world dynamics and generating cross-country
solidarity and empathy.

Reaching the Diasporas: working with migrants from specific countries

on key political issues also strengthens advocacy capacity, drawing in
migrant communities to put pressure on their governments, as well as
building capacity and raising awareness. It opens a space for migrants
to take active part as global citizens, both in their native country and
their current home context.

Engaging business: advocacy directed at the private sector is of

growing importance, as business is increasingly recognised as a
central actor for global change (but one that can be approached from
the local perspective). Organised and aware citizens can support
actions and campaigns led by Oxfam towards private corporations, or
can initiate their own actions (with support from Oxfam as information
provider and advisor on strategy and capacity building).

Communication for Change

Engaging people as Global Active Citizens requires a long-term process

based on dialogue and finding common interests between Oxfam and its
audiences. The model in which Oxfam holds the truth, the alternatives and
offers closed options for supporting them is being replaced by programmes
with more flexibility. These incorporate and support peoples initiatives, helping
develop autonomous movements that may go far beyond our organisational
reach. Useful communication approaches for engaging global citizens include:

Teaching the teachers: Some affiliates have formal education

programmes for teachers so they can promote global citizenship
education. These programmes may have a clear policy component,
87
 aimed at achieving the inclusion of global citizenship in the official
curriculum. They help refine a comprehensive approach to building
global citizenship. Teachers can also develop and adapt materials, and
act as community leaders bridging local and global actions.

Improving management of supporter databases: Many information

systems and social networks provide analytical tools to help better
characterise supporters. These are essential for building supporter
relations plans and communication strategies that take into account
peoples interests, values and behaviour. Oxfam affiliates, partners and
social movements we support can gain interesting insights by
analysing such information and adapting strategies to new knowledge
gathered.

Empowering leaders and organisations: Many affiliates have

developed leadership curriculums as a way to empower and
strengthen engaged supporters and volunteers. These cover a broad
variety of themes and methodologies on the local-national-international
axes. They are also a valuable source for identifying good practice in
the promotion of global active citizenship.

Playing a supporting role: Oxfam can provide resources and

opportunities to support individuals and organisations own initiatives,
with a clear vision of enabling them to be active drivers of change in
their own contexts and with their own rationale. Sometimes Oxfam
needs to lower its own voice and let others take ownership of
initiatives.

Harnessing global voices for Guatemalas farmers

Guatemalas suitability for biofuel production has recently driven local
and multinational companies to claim large tracts of indigenous and
peasant lands. Thousands of people have been displaced without
compensation, resulting in widespread hunger and social conflict. In
2011, in the remote Polochic Valley, security units hired by a private
company forcibly evicted 769 families, while the government turned a
blind eye.

In response, Oxfam launched a campaign to demand compensation

for the displaced families, while highlighting the global land-grab issue
through the GROW campaign. It combined international action at both
political and public levels, with strong national action taken with local
partners and allies. Diplomatic lobbying and media work comple-
mented support for events such as a farmers march from Polochic to
the capital, after which the president promised to give evicted families
compensatory land.

When these promises were not fulfilled, Oxfam launched an interna-

tional online petition, gaining over 100,000 signatures from people in
55 countries. Alongside local allies, it presented the petition to the
government and demanded a meeting, at which the authorities prom-
ised to address the land claim. Faced with mass action and diplo-
matic pressure, in October 2013, the president finally gave the first
140 Polochic families land titles in a new location, and guaranteed
relocation for the remaining families. National action and pressure
from global citizens together forced the president to listen to civil so-
ciety instead of big business, resulting in justice for the Polochic fami- 88
lies
4. STRENGTHENING
OXFAMS WAYS OF
WORKING
Oxfams Right to Be Heard work requires us to put a strong focus on our own
ways of working. This is so that we ourselves uphold the principles outlined in
the Right to Be Heard change goal of the OI Strategic Plan. It also helps us to
be as effective as possible while working in rapidly evolving and complex
contexts. We should pay particular attention to:

Recognising that change often happens in subtle or erratic ways,

and can build up slowly

Learning from experimentation and adopting a transformative ap-

proach for wider influence

Managing the risks inherent in a situation where people are de-

manding rights in a way that challenges the status quo

Promoting our own accountability to beneficiaries (downward ac-

countability) and leading by example in the development sector

Valuing voice, participation and inclusion at every stage of the pro-

gramme cycle

Ensuring that regular opportunities to reflect and learn with partners

and other key stakeholders are built into all we do.

These are all closely linked to monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL). All of
Oxfams programmes should use monitoring and evaluation to maximise their
effectiveness and improve accountability to stakeholders, but they are
particularly pertinent to our work on the Right to Be Heard.

Looking at MEL through a Right to Be Heard lens

MEL practices have improved in recent years, but Oxfam is working to
become a better learning organisation. We aim to facilitate and use evidence-
based innovation, learning and knowledge management to increase the
quality and impact of our programme work and that of our partners. MEL
enables us to strengthen our capacity to meet agreed programme standards
and use our collective programme support resources and tools effectively. It
helps us to be fully accountable for our achievements and failures.

To do this, we need to define a focused learning strategy based on the Right

to Be Heard change goal, and share learning and good practice through
networks of staff. This will help create a reflective culture founded on
evidence-based learning from frontline programme experience. This can easily
be fed into new programme policy and guidelines and used to influence
external stakeholders. By ensuring that programme standards and external,
sector-wide standards become the benchmarks for assessing programme
quality, we can best ensure that the Right to Be Heard is powerfully woven

89
into Oxfams work. We must build staff and partner capacity to carry out
systematic, high-quality monitoring and evaluation, based around a cross-
affiliate model of pooled resources. Strong MEL will enable us to focus
programme support on areas of innovation and work that need to be driven
forward; reward innovation and risk-taking, and learn from failure.

Integrating reflection into your practice

Oxfam Australia (OAU) periodically undertakes deeper reflection on its
work, as part of its commitment to effective programming and positive
development change. This takes the form of annual reflective learning
events, linked strategically to our external change goals, and engaging
stakeholders at all levels.
In 2013 OAU reflected on its central commitments of active citizenship
and accountability. Through a series of locally-organised, regional
events, OAU staff and representatives from Oxfam affiliates in Sri Lanka,
Australia, Southern Africa and Vanuatu, reflected on their learning and
experience in this space and their specific contexts. They then looked to
the future, to: 1) develop regional recommendations for active citizenship
strategic priorities for the next three years; and 2) provide
recommendations for how these priorities can be implemented. These
were fed back to OAUs senior leadership team and have informed
current strategic planning processes.
These events provided time and space for staff at the regional level to
look back on their work using evidence from programmes, research and
evaluations. This valuable reflection then informs future programmatic
priorities, ensuring no learning is overlooked or lost.

Through partnerships with innovators and pioneers in this field, Oxfam is

developing robust, 360-degree accountability tools for reporting to key
stakeholders. Across the confederation, it is collecting evidence, testing
assumptions and conducting pilots with communities, to consolidate and
improve public reporting.

The OI Programme Framework gives full guidance on all aspects of

monitoring, evaluation and learning. However, there are some things to look
out for specifically in Right to Be Heard programming.

Working with change and complexity

Much of our work on the Right to Be Heard is necessarily complex: it involves

employing a range of strategies at different levels, from local to global. Many
of the contexts in which we work are rapidly evolving and unpredictable.
Change happens over the long-term, often in ways that are unanticipated.
Against this backdrop, regular monitoring, reflection and learning can help us:

Question our assumptions and see things from a new perspective

Judge our progress and make adjustments to our approach, if nec-

essary

90
 Look beyond our day-to-day programme activities, to consider
whether we are bringing about positive changes in people's lives

Increase our ability to respond to new challenges and opportunities

See what is working and why, so that we can continually improve

our programmes, and apply this learning to new pieces of work

Highlight gaps and what is not working, so that we can avoid re-
peating mistakes

Identify any negative trends so that we can quickly see if power dy-
namics are moving in the wrong direction and react accordingly

Set realistic timeframes for realising our desired impact

Build trust, respect and openness in relationships, both within Ox-

fam and with stakeholders and partners.

The first step is to develop a theory of change for your programme, which
expresses how you expect change will happen. Developing a theory of change
involves understanding enough about how change happens in a
particular context to identify what short- and long-term outcomes are needed
to bring about an intended impact. It also means understanding what Oxfam,
in collaboration with others, can do to bring about these outcomes. Your
theory of change should be grounded in your power analysis, and your project
designed so that it takes account of issues youve identified.

Does your theory of change identify

Which citizens you are focusing on? Are there particular groups of people
you want to work with for example, those of a certain age, sex,
geographic location or employment status?
The situation of your target group at the beginning of the project? (Were
they civically engaged before you met them? Where do they get their
information? What do they think of state institutions? What issues do
they care about? And if they mobilise already, why do they do so and
on what issues?)
If you have multiple outcomes you are seeking to achieve, do you expect
one to come before another? Is one more important than another?
Source: McGee and Gaventa

As your work progresses, your monitoring will test your theory of change. If
change doesnt happen as anticipated, regular monitoring will show this at an
early point and enable you to make adjustments to your programme
approaches.

In order to make these kinds of judgements, you should set and measure
process, output and outcome indicators. Often in Right to Be Heard work,
the process you follow can be just as important as the end result, and your
indicators should seek to measure whether the process itself is empowering
and participatory for poor men, women and youth.

In Right to Be Heard programmes and projects, you might find yourself trying
to measure things that are not easily measured. However, you can address
this by being as specific or descriptive as you can about what you are seeking
to achieve. Try to avoid general terms such as empowerment and think about

91
what you really mean by these. For example, an Oxfam programme on HIV
and AIDS wanted to measure reduced stigma against people living with HIV.
Staff identified a number of effects of stigma, such as HIV patients travelling to
distant towns for treatment to avoid recognition by people they knew, and
used these to formulate their indicators. In many cases, you may need to
involve other stakeholders, particularly people from marginalised groups, to
understand what success would mean for them.

A mix of qualitative and quantitative methods can help you measure the
less tangible aspects of Right to Be Heard programmes. Using just
quantitative measures is likely to give you an incomplete picture for
example, counting the number of women who have been appointed to a
decision-making body doesnt tell you about the quality of their participation.
But by combining this with an assessment of qualitative aspects, such as their
perceived ability to express their opinions during meetings, you will get a
clearer idea of whether women have increased their decision-making power.

Mapping change resulting from Oxfams work

One method that has been used effectively in Oxfam programmes is
Outcome Mapping (OM), a methodology for planning and assessing
development programming that is oriented towards change and social
transformation. OM provides a set of tools to design and gather
information on the outcomes, defined as behavioural changes, of the
change process. OM helps a project or programme team learn about its
influence on the progression of change in its direct partners. It therefore
helps those in the assessment process think more systematically and
pragmatically about what they are doing. They can then adapt and
manage variations in strategies to bring about desired outcomes. OM
puts people and learning at the centre of development and accepts
unanticipated changes as potential for innovation.
In Tanzania the Chukua Hatua or Take Action programme has been
trialling a number of approaches to creating active citizenship. It has used
OM to help it respond to the changing complexities of its context and to
capture deviation from its intended outcomes and indicators, both positive
and negative. OM has enabled the programme to spot trends in
behaviour change which either it had not anticipated or which have been
significantly influenced from outside.

Recently, researchers have been looking at the intersection between

participatory and quantitative methods and how participatory numbers
(quantitative data gained through participatory methods) can produce high-
quality and meaningful statistics. People are able to generate numbers
through estimating, calculating, measuring, comparing, valuing and scoring.
This information can be aggregated and even subjected to statistical analysis.
This is a particularly exciting idea for Right to Be Heard programming, where
such data could be used to make a convincing case to policy makers.

You should also think about how aspects of different Right to Be Heard
approaches can feed into and strengthen monitoring. For example, the data
collected during your initial power analysis can contribute to your baseline
study, which gives information about your programmes starting point. Or
social accountability methods such as citizen scorecards can themselves be
used as a source of data on effective institutions.

92
Monitoring and managing risks

All of Oxfams programmes should assess and manage potential risks to staff,
partners, poor and vulnerable people and Oxfams reputation and
effectiveness. They need to strike a balance between supporting positive
change and minimising risk. In complex contexts particularly in fragile and
conflict-affected contexts and in situations where our work is challenging the
status quo, the risks involved are heightened. This makes forward planning,
risk assessment and regular monitoring all the more important, so that we do
not expose ourselves or others to unnecessary risk, and are able to respond
quickly if things do go wrong.

Promoting accountability and participation

The methods we choose for our monitoring, evaluation and learning can be
important tools for promoting our own accountability and encouraging
participation. Oxfams vision of a just world without poverty will best be
realised by promoting active citizenship and gender equity, and by being more
accountable in the ways we govern ourselves and treat each other.
Accountability, both to communities living in poverty and to our supporters,
donors and other external stakeholders, is an ethical and effective basis for
our relationships and will contribute significantly to greater programme impact.
It is important that Oxfam promotes and shares learning about accountability
internally and externally, with examples of learning-based change

In Oxfam, accountability is based on four dimensions: transparency,

participation, learning and evaluation, and feedback mechanisms. These allow
us to give account to, take account of, and be held to account by stakeholders.
This is particularly important when it comes to our relationship with people
living in poverty, where there is a power imbalance, with nearly all the power
being ours. For example, you should be conscious of who is making decisions,
identifying priorities and doing the measuring, and how information is being
shared. Think about how you can use MEL to support equitable power
relations within your project.

As much of our work is about holding power holders to account, it is critical

that we lead by example, and demonstrate accountability to the poor men,
women and youth with whom we work. By demonstrating transparency and
honesty, Oxfam strengthens its legitimacy and integrity for example, through
open information policies, strong communications, independent stakeholder
feedback and user-friendly complaints mechanisms.

How we work with people is every bit as important as what we do. People
need to know what they can expect from us in terms of our behaviour and our
values. And they need to know that they have the right to let us know if they
are unhappy with what we are doing or how we are behaving (and that we
want to know).

93
By the same token, as our work seeks to increase the ability of poor and mar-
ginalised men, women and youth to influence decisions that affect their lives,
we should seek to ensure that their voices are heard when making judgments
and decisions about our projects and programmes. Include them in these
processes and then, when selecting your data collection methods, there are
various tools that you can use to promote community participation in monitor-
ing. The diagram below gives an overview of these.

Participatory
Power is with community
Participatory Rural Participato ry numbers
Appraisal tools

Qualitative Quantitative
Why? What?
Focus Group Surveys
Discussions How much?

Objective
Power is with the interviewer

Campaigning for residents rights in Peru

Communities living near Perus La Oroya metallurgical complex, run by
Doe Run Peru (DRP), had long suffered the effects of environmental pollu-
tion, as the company repeatedly failed to meet legally imposed emissions
targets. Despite this, in 2011, a government extension of DRPs operating
permit looked likely. In response, Oxfam America and its Peru office joined
forces in a campaign to highlight environmental and health issues and
lobby the government to reject DRPs application for a permit extension.

The campaign aimed to influence national and international public opinion

to put pressure on Perus government about the public health and envi-
ronmental risks. Oxfam targeted the media and the general public, and
found allies in the Peruvian and US Congresses. It convened a network of
local organisations, the La Oroya Platform for Change, and played a coor-
dinating role among members. It also ensured messages disseminated
matched the platforms objectives and reduced the risk of controversy and
conflict. The Peru office also coordinated activities between Peru and the
US. The platform published press releases and interviews, receiving wide-
spread media coverage. Social media were also key in creating a snowball
effect for campaign messages.

The campaign influenced members of Congress in Peru and America,

both directly and via social pressure. At public hearings and forums, peo-
ple affected by contamination gave testimonies. As a result, by mid-2012
Perus government had changed its position, refusing DRP a permit ex-
tension. An alternative operator was granted a permit for La Oroya. After
the campaign, Oxfam continued discussions with the authorities to ensure
real commitments on environmental issues, monitoring the results.

The campaigns success lay in the collaboration of organisations in the La

Oroya Platform for Change. This gave local people a strong voice, but also
broadened the campaigns relevance, making it an issue for all Peruvians. 94
Building MEL capacity in Right to Be Heard programmes

Oxfam is a people organisation: we depend on our staff and volunteers and

must value, understand and inspire them. For people to be able to deliver
strong Right to Be Heard programmes, we must ensure that organisational
leadership, culture, processes and systems are all aligned behind the goal of
helping poor and marginalised people claim their right to a better life.

Programme staff must be well equipped to work collaboratively within and

across teams, in a global network of organisations. They need to be able to
share effectively their learning and experience from Right to Be Heard
programmes. They need soft skills such as brokering, convening, influencing
and negotiating and to help partners and communities develop these skills.
True accountability requires trust, realism and honesty, with role models and
leadership from the highest levels. We must encourage innovation and agility
in MEL from Right to Be Heard programmes. Its important that programmes
have effective systems and processes to enable people to collaborate, share
knowledge and learn together.

Sample Indicators for Right to Be Heard programmes 5

The following are some sample indicators that you may consider using in your
Right to Be Heard project or programme. This list is not comprehensive it is
simply a starter and reference, which may be helpful as you develop your
monitoring plans.

Outcome: Women play an active role in governance processes as par-

ticipants and leaders
Possible indicators:
Number of women involved at different levels of decision-making or of
an organisation
Level of confidence to speak out expressed by women participants
Number of times that womens issues are raised during meetings.
Example: Speaking out in council meetings
Five of the 10 participants in the council leadership meeting were women.
However, when we observed three meetings, we realised that women spoke
only 20 per cent of the time. When we fed this back to the council, they were
surprised. They decided that they would monitor meeting agendas and
discussions, to ensure all participants had adequate opportunity to feed in
before and during the meeting.

Outcome: Spaces exist for stakeholders to engage in an inclusive and

supportive way
Possible indicators:
Number and range of stakeholders who know that different decision-
making spaces exist
Ability to access different spaces expressed by stakeholders
Breadth of participation in decision-making spaces (who is invited to
participate, which groups are represented?)

5
Adapted from and built upon the Literature Review by Cathy Shutt.

95
 New spaces created or claimed by excluded men, women and youth
Men, women and youth from marginalised groups can identify spaces
where they have expressed their opinions.
Example: Doubling womens decision-making
At present there is no elected local government in Nepal. Therefore, the
project aims to increase womens participation in four community decision-
making bodies: community forest user groups, school management
committees, sub-health post management committees, and drinking water and
sanitation user groups. These bodies have been targeted due to the impact
their decisions have on womens lives. Project participants learn how these
organisations function, the roles played by representatives and how to apply
for a position. As a result, 258 women have taken on decision-making roles in
these four organisations, increasing womens participation from 28 per cent to
43 per cent. An additional 145 participants have taken leadership roles in
other community-level committees, such as parent-teacher associations.

Outcome: Partners, networks and social movements influence account-

ability agendas at national, regional and global forums
Possible indicators:
New actors introduced to forums
Quality of engagement between new actors and forum
Evidence of take-up of new actors ideas or input into forums
Example: Helping indigenous people to network
As part of our project, we brought representatives from four indigenous
organisations including two womens groups to a weekend forum. Two of
the partners gave presentations at workshops where turnout was small, but
the audience was influential. Three of the attendees (including both women)
asked questions of other panel speakers. They felt that making connections
was one of their big goals in attending and that they did a lot of networking
that will pay off in future. They were happy to report that they collected 42
business cards and gave out 132 over the weekend.

Outcome: Strengthened capacity of local public authorities and elected

representatives to deliver on their responsibilities
Possible indicators:

Number of officials expressing increased knowledge and understand-

ing of their responsibilities to citizens (of rules, regulations, laws, impor-
tance of participation and constructive engagement)
Demonstrated ability to engage genuinely and consult with their con-
stituency
Dissemination of information by authorities
Responsiveness in terms of budget allocations / resource responses to
community claims
Number of policies or practices revised to support rights of citizens
Level of citizen trust in institutions / citizens perception of quality of
state interactions

Example: Customary beliefs and womens rights

Oxfam has supported a process to integrate customary beliefs into the official
96
judicial system, which has improved indigenous peoples opportunities to
access justice. Cases of womens rights violations have been resolved under
this new model and it has been officially recognised as a better way to defend
indigenous womens rights. More than 445 civil servants (265 men, 182
women) have been trained in the approach.

Outcome: Authorities and other actors influenced through use of social

accountability approaches.
Possible indicators (outcome):
Breadth of media coverage on a targeted issue
Number of policy reforms or new policies introduced
Improvement in provision and quality of service through citizen moni-
toring
Example: Focusing media attention
In the Indonesia LISTEN project, local CSO group the NTT Policy Forum
successfully promoted debate in the local print media. In total, 21 articles on
womens access to public budgets were published from November 2010 to
January 2011, showing the increased capacity of the Forum to engage the
local media as a strategic partner.
Output: Social accountability approaches embedded in our programmes
Possible indicators (process):
Social accountability processes undertaken
Number and/or diversity of citizens involved in these processes
Number of proposals presented to authorities
Quality of citizen monitoring and oversight
Example: Monitoring councillors promises
Election trackers have been trained in 40 villages and are recording, tracking
and following up on promises made by councillors, with mixed response.

Output: Poor men, women and youth understand their rights and the le-
gal mechanisms to exercise them
Possible indicators:
Number of men, women and youth expressing awareness of existing
rights, laws and mechanisms
Number of men, women and youth expressing understanding of how
justice or accountability processes work
Number of men, women and youth expressing understanding of the
roles and responsibilities of institutions in upholding their rights
Availability or accuracy of public information on rights and legal
mechanisms
Lobbying activities conducted by marginalised men, women and youth
to claim their rights
Example: Legal advice on rights
Over 650 legal consultations have been provided to vulnerable men and
women in 30 target communities. Increased demand for legal advice from
these communities has resulted in the resolution of a number of cases. For
example, 130 community members were provided with advice on consumer
rights and 63 per cent of cases resolved in their favour.

97
Output: Poor men, women and youth use Access to Information laws to
claim their rights
Possible indicators:
Frequency of use of existing mechanisms (number of petitions, re-
quests or complaints made)
Success rate of petitions, requests or complaints (percentage heard
and granted)
Length of time for a new request, petition or complaint to be proc-
essed/fulfilled
Quality of information provided through access to information (accu-
racy, comprehensiveness)
Amount and quality of information published proactively by government
and the private sector (e.g. on budgets, expenditure, taxes received
and paid, lists of beneficiaries of schemes and selection criteria).
Example: Peoples right to know
With our partner, we commissioned a survey on peoples knowledge of
Access to Information laws and the district education system. More than 675
people completed the survey in three districts, and the results were the same
for most people and groups except for government workers, who knew much
more than anyone else. More than half of people knew about access to
information, but most seemed to think it applied only to journalists and NGOs.
More than 75 per cent did not know that individual people could make Access
to Information requests, and less than 10 per cent knew that you could request
school admission decisions. Its no wonder there were only two such requests
in these districts in the last year.

Output: Leaders, especially women and young people, have the confi-
dence, knowledge and information necessary to represent their con-
stituency
Possible indicators:
Number of targeted leaders (or women, or young people) expressing
increased knowledge, information or confidence
Observed, non-verbal behaviour of participants during challenging
situations (for example: posture, eye contact, positioning in room, will-
ingness to speak)
Number of times targeted leaders raise issues relating to the develop-
ment of their community (or women, or young people) in meetings
Example: Building power within
At the half-way check-in with our leadership programme participants, our
mentors sat down with each participant and looked at two things: their self-
reports and their colleague feedback. Maria noted that she feels much more
confident, though her colleagues havent noticed any change. When asked to
explain her new confidence, Maria explained that she was not yet willing to
lead meetings but she felt much less anxious about participating and sharing
her opinion with others.

98
Tools and resources
Programming in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries: A Learning
Companion
Section 2 takes a detailed look at working with and managing risk.
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/programming-in-fragile-and-
conflict-affected-countries-a-learning-companion-139074

Accountability Starter Pack

A guide on how to implement activities that are accountable to people and
communities. It is primarily aimed at country-level staff responsible for
implementing development or humanitarian projects and programmes. It
provides an introduction to Oxfam GBs approach to accountability and an
explanation of its Minimum Standards on Accountability, including how-to
guidelines and good practice examples.
http://policy-
practice.oxfam.org.uk/~/media/Files/policy_and_practice/methods_approache
s/monitoring_evaluation/Accountability_Starter_Pack_for_web.ashx

Outcome Mapping
A website providing a number of resources on Outcome Mapping, including an
overview brochure and frequently asked questions, as well as more in-depth
practitioner resources.
http://www.idrc.ca/EN/Resources/Publications/Pages/ArticleDetails.aspx?Publi
cationID=1004

Who Counts? The Quiet Revolution of Participation and Numbers, R

Chambers
This paper provides an overview of the way in which participatory approaches
and methods can generate quantitative (participatory numbers) as well as
qualitative data.
http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/Wp296.pdf

Shifting Power? Assessing the Impact of Transparency and Accountabil-

ity Initiatives, R McGee and J Gaventa, IDS, November 2011
http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4209

Oxfam Americas Impact Heartbeat (video and document)

MEL guidance on longer-term programme Monitoring, Evaluation and
Learning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLZT-L2W7d4

Oxfam Resources

Analysing and Reviewing Data, Oxfam GBs Programme Framework

Section 4 gives detailed guidance on collecting, analysing and reviewing data.

Increasing our Accountability to Communities through Programme Moni-

toring: A Guide for HECA Programme Managers
A practical guide to addressing accountability through our programmes.

Novibs RBA Toolkit

In 2005, the Research and Development Bureau undertook a study to explore
how Oxfam Novib and counterparts apply a rights-based approach. This report
contains 23 case studies described in the course of the project. The introduc-

99
tion contains background information on the rights-based approach, as well as
describing the choice and methodology of the case studies, summarising their
most striking outcomes and finishing with a set of reflections.

Thematic Hubs as Mechanisms for Organisational Learning

This Oxfam Australia Learning Paper explores different models of
organisational learning, drawing on examples from NGOs in Australia and
Europe to highlight how different organisations have focused their learning
and the various vehicles used. It also briefly explores some conceptual models
for translating knowledge into organisational learning and changed practice.
The last section of the paper shares Oxfam Australias experience of
implementing a learning mechanism tied to its organisational priorities the
four Change Goal Hubs: Gender Justice, Economic Justice, Active Citizenship
and Accountability, and Essential Services.

Further reading
Measuring Results, Governance and Social Development Resource Cen-
tre
This guide introduces some of the core debates and considerations for
development practitioners involved in designing and managing M&E activities
in governance and social development programmes. It introduces key tools
and approaches, provides case studies of applying different methodologies,
and presents lessons learned from international experience of M&E in a range
of developing country contexts.
http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/ME5.pdf

Monitoring and Evaluation Wiki, AWID

An online resource aimed at stimulating experience sharing and building a
body of practical knowledge and experience of M&E in terms of measuring
gender equality (or other related human rights issues). There are two primary
sections. The first is for individuals working on M&E or assessments to share
thoughts, struggles or successes with other members of the community. The
second is a compendium with descriptions of major M&E frameworks,
approaches and tools used to track social change and justice, along with the
link to their original source. It also provides a brief overview and critical
analysis of their strengths and weaknesses.
http://awidme.pbworks.com/w/page/36050854/FrontPage

Citizen voice and state accountability: Towards theories of change that

embrace contextual dynamics, ODI
This paper provides a critical analysis of a series of citizen voice and
accountability case studies in order to develop patterns of observation and
thought lines. When put together, these form an analytical framework for
developing theories of change for citizen voice and accountability projects.
The analytical framework focuses attention on how to explore, understand and
explain change as it occurs in a dynamic context, and how this can help in the
formation of more realistic citizen voice and accountability objectives and the
resultant outcomes.
http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-
files/7557.pdf

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Measuring Empowerment in Practice, World Bank
This paper presents an analytic framework that can be used to measure and
monitor empowerment processes and outcomes. The measuring
empowerment (ME) framework illustrates how to gather data on
empowerment and structure its analysis. The framework can be used to
measure empowerment at both the intervention level and the country level, as
a part of poverty or governance monitoring.
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEMPOWERMENT/Resources/41307_w
ps3510.pdf

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ANNEX CASE STUDY: THE
INDONESIA LISTEN
PROGRAMME
Throughout this Learning Companion we refer to the Indonesia LISTEN
programme to illustrate different aspects of the Right to Be Heard
Framework and how it can be applied. This is the full case study.

The Indonesian government introduced Village Block Grants (ADD) as a

means of decentralising resources and giving autonomy to village-level
decision-making. The district government allocates a Village Block Grant of
5,700-7,700 per village per year, which can be spent according to local
priorities. Decisions about how to spend the grant should be made through a
process of community consultation and participation. However, in practice,
a lack of accountability and transparency often means that the ADD budget
is used by village and sub-district elites to satisfy their own interests.

The Local Initiative to Strengthen and Empower Women (LISTEN) project was
a pilot in four villages of East Nusa Tenggara province to promote womens
participation and interests in grant allocation. The project was particularly
concerned to support women to claim resources to enhance food security
during periods of drought and food price rises.

A power analysis conducted by local partner CIS Timor at the start of the
project showed that women faced significant constraints to participating in
both formal and informal decision-making spaces. Both were dominated by
male elites, who had negative beliefs about womens capacity to participate
in the public sphere.

Lack of access to information about the ADD process was a further barrier
to participation. Village chiefs did not share information with community
members and failed to follow district government guidelines on participation in
ADD planning and implementation. District officials assumed that village chiefs
would follow the prescribed process and did not demand accountability.
Meanwhile, the local media had potential to support local development
through publishing public information, but did not understand that it could play
an important role in promoting accountability and good governance. Therefore,
many women and men at village level did not know that the grants existed, let
alone that they should have a say in how the resources were spent.

Finally, civil society organisations working in the area were fragmented and
often in competition with each other. Meaningful collaboration among CSOs
was rare, meaning that there was no coherent civil society action to hold
decision-makers accountable.

Against this background, the LISTEN project had three main strategies: to

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create spaces for women to participate in community decision-making
processes, to build the capacity of civil society organisations to support
women to be listened to by decision-makers, and to strengthen CSOs ability
to influence public opinion and policy debates.

Building the skills and confidence of women to claim their rights

In each village, the project brought women together in groups called the
Womens Alliance for Budget Monitoring (KPPA), each with around 10 to 20
members. CIS Timor developed simple leaflets to help the women understand
how the budget process worked. The women learned how to monitor the
implementation of block grants: they interviewed community members,
identified activities funded by the block grant, and compiled a report. The
women then asked the village government for the opportunity to present their
findings to the village chief and traditional leaders at a public hearing.

The knowledge and experience the women gained through the monitoring
process, and their improved access to accurate information, gave them
confidence to talk about the budget with village leaders. The KPPA members
had varying levels of education but they supported each other during the
monitoring and were able to produce a strong, evidence-based report.
Through taking part in a practical exercise, the women gained improved
awareness of their own rights, saw that these were being neglected and
were able to communicate this. Some women, such as Nelcy Pelondou in
Raknamo village, emerged as particularly strong leaders, providing positive
role models for other women.

Presenting the findings of the monitoring to village leaders had a dual

purpose: it acted as an accountability mechanism for effective
implementation of ADD and challenged male leaders assumptions about
womens capacities and role in decision-making. Village leaders recognised
the accuracy and objectivity of the womens findings, and gained information
that they could use to address the challenges of effective ADD
implementation. The greatest success was in Fatubaa village, where
authorities reallocated budget to support women to buy farming equipment
and seeds in response to the KPPAs findings.

Strengthening civil society to support womens rights

The project brought CSOs together and formed a civil society alliance, the
NTT Policy Forum, to strengthen the skills, capacity and confidence of
members to work effectively together and influence decision-makers and
public opinion. The number of alliance members steadily increased to 22,
creating a strong movement for the promotion of womens rights.

A key area was building the research capacity of forum members, which
changed their approach to influencing decision makers, and improved their
relationships with them. Previously, their advocacy had been based on
opinions, but research enabled them to build a solid argument based on
evidence and facts to influence debates. This increased their confidence to
engage in lobbying, and also gave decision-makers a more positive image of
their work. A concrete achievement was the successful lobbying of the Timor
Tengah Utara District parliament to pass a District Regulation on Food
Security, committing to realise food security for women and poor households
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in the district.

The NTT Policy Forum also successfully built relationships with the local
print media and persuaded them to play a more active role in holding
government to account. In total, 21 articles on womens access to public
budgets were published from November 2010 to January 2011, which gave
the issues greater visibility and began to influence policy debates. Through
linking the village womens groups with the NTT Policy Forum, the alliance
could support womens voices to be heard more widely, for example, by
helping the women to talk about their experiences in the media.

The NTT Policy Forum has gained legitimacy and is now consulted by the
provincial and district government during policymaking processes, to
contribute CSOs perspectives on development challenges in the province.
Being recognised by decision-makers is an important step towards influencing
the government on womens rights. However, it remains unclear at this stage
to what extent decision-makers are genuinely open to influence.

Strengthening institutions the missing piece of the puzzle?

The project focused its work on two key principles of the Right to Be Heard:
supporting people to raise their voice and claim their right, and holding power
holders to account. Although it made some significant gains, there are still
challenges that need to be addressed for women to be able to fully participate
in decision-making and ensure their food security needs are met.

A more explicit focus on strengthening the effectiveness of formal

institutions of governance may allow greater progress. For example, the
KPPA has proved to be an effective mechanism for village women to
contribute to the budget process and has potential to bring significant changes
to the lives of women, but needs to be integrated into the village government
structure to be sustainable.

At village level, CIS Timor worked hard to gain the support of village chiefs for
the project. Initially suspicious about the womens activities, they eventually
changed their minds and provided opportunities for women to engage in
dialogue with them. They also welcomed the opportunity to develop greater
understanding of their responsibilities in relation to ADD, as they had received
little support from their district-level counterparts.

On the other hand, while the project has sought to influence district-level
authorities through lobbying and the media, it has not engaged directly with
them. District officials still withhold public information from CSO members
despite the existence of the Public Information Disclosure Act. They continue
to divert public budgets for their own purposes for example, to fund election
campaigns. These are significant barriers to good governance which it will be
difficult to address indirectly.

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 We are grateful to ActionAid Denmark for allowing us to use content from
The Just and Democratic Governance Series, a set of resource books
which aims to support the work of civil society activists in their struggle to
reduce poverty and fulfil peoples rights. The series supplements
ActionAids Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) and focuses on key
challenge areas identified in ActionAids governance work.
These resource books can be found at: http://www.actionaid.org/what-we-
do/democratic-governance
ActionAid also runs training courses based on the key themes in these
books at the TCDC Training Institution in Arusha, Tanzania. For more
information, please visit http://www.mstcdc.or.tz/

Oxfam GB, September 2012, updated November 2013

Cover photo: Woman from the Gambia, tells of her experience of semester mar-
riage, in which migrants come home or stay abroad and instruct their parents or family
to find a wife for them, and the long-term effects of the gender-based violence that she
suffered in the marriage.
African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies

This learning companion was originally written by Adrienne Hopkins with

contributions from Carol Brady and Ali Brownlie. The illustrations are by
Teresa Robertson. The 2013 version updated and edited by Stephanie
Debere with support from Jo Rowlands, with contributions from Oxfam
America, Oxfam Australia, Oxfam GB, Oxfam Intermn and Oxfam Novib.

This publication is copyright but the text may be used free of charge for the
purposes of advocacy, campaigning, education and research, provided that
the source is acknowledged in full. The copyright holder requests that all such
use be registered with them for impact assessment purposes. For copying in
any other circumstances, for re-use in other publications, or for translation or
adaptation, permission must be secured and a fee may be charged. Email
[email protected].

The information in this publication is correct at the time of going to press.

Published by Oxfam GB under ISBN 978-1-78077-560-9 in April 2014.

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