Over the last few months, likely each and every one of us has felt pushed to the limits of our abilities to cope with the current global situation. Even for those of us for whom lockdown is no more than an inconvenience, this moment has undoubtedly led to more self-reflection, and an appreciation of the…
For the majority of the population, social rights are not gifts freely offered by those in positions of political power. Although most Brazilians can’t see this, all these rights were won by the mobilization of organized civil society. In recent weeks, Brazil has witnessed a clear example of how popular mobilization is the one authentic…
If you look at Tewa’s website, it will tell you that the word means support in Nepali. Applied to the organization, it’s both appropriate and understated. Tewa’s story has been ably told. This is not the place to retell it. Instead, I want to draw attention to a few key ideas which inform it and…
Just before Christmas last year I found myself with a very small and unsure group of ‘anti-CAA’ protestors outside a public park in Jaipur. We weren’t certain if we had the permission to gather and protest, who was really in charge or what we were going to do. Someone said we could gather but only…
Coronavirus has changed our world forever. Plans made a few weeks ago seem outdated at best or undoable at worst. The speed of this has been remarkable. In a recent article, former UK prime minister Gordon Brown quotes Lenin: ‘There are decades when nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen.’ Those of us…
By Romy Krämer, Graciela Hopstein and Halima Mahomed The global Corona pandemic might very well be the biggest crisis of our lifetime. The current situation has the potential to not only disrupt the status quo but to change our social, economic and political systems forever. It demands us to suspend great plans, focus on being present and think…
The COVID-19 crisis is bringing extraordinary challenges for us personally and for the communities that we serve. As we adjust and adapt to the seismic changes, there are opportunities for us to model responses to the crisis, protect the most vulnerable and build back better after it has blown over. PSJP is now using the…
These are uncertain and challenging times for people trying to push for progressive, people-first solutions to the crisis presented to us by COVID-19. Being deliberate in the way in which we communicate is essential. As progressives – or people who care about people – we want to use our words to activate values in our…
Sometimes nightmares become real and dystopias – foreseen only in novels or movies – become true stories. On Thursday 13 February, Assifero was hosting one of the five Ariadne Forecast roundtables in Europe in Como (http://www.puntocometa.org/home-eng/), Italy. We were over 40 Italian funders, discussing the 2020 Forecast report elaborated each year by Ariadne. Only one…
It’s an old adage: who pays the piper, calls the tune. In other words, if it’s your money, you get to choose. In general, it might be a good rule, but there are times when it’s worth reconsidering. Towards the end of last year, PSJP published a paper based on conversations with 14 civil society…