As CONCORD prepares its new four-year strategy, our Director reflects on certain changes in the international arena – including the EU’s role – that the pandemic particularly brought to light or reinforced, while directly impacting on our ability to realise our most basic rights. All these changes mark a leap towards a future in which transformative, systemic change and the goal of a more equal world become significantly more difficult to achieve.
Our Director reflects on how we need more than using “new lenses” to address the deeply rooted problems in our food system. Only by putting in place profoundly new ways of working and thinking will we be able to ensure far greater well-being and freedom within our systems.
To what extent has nearly a year of teleworking hampered our work? It has been harder to stay informed. It has been harder to get a sense of the bigger picture. It has been harder to influence. And, what was that about shrinking civil society space?
CONCORD has just released its annual AidWatch report and the picture is pretty gloomy. Not only is aid, as a proportion of GNI, falling, but genuine aid is only at 0.4% of GNI.
We want to build a new narrative, one based on equality, hope and justice. What better than to introduce new power techniques to support us in this?
With around half of the world’s population still not connected, those who remain in the analog world risk being left far behind. Our investments today reflect society’s commitment to the future, so let’s ensure that we bridge the digital divide for lasting prosperity and equality.
The decisions that leaders make today will impact our lives longer than the outbreak itself. What will happen to our democracies and civil liberties when the immediate threat from the pandemic subsides?
As governments prepare their economic recovery plans, they not only face a formidable challenge, but also an unprecedented opportunity.
As the coronavirus spreads across our globalised world a clear picture emerges: quality healthcare and social rights may not stop a pandemic, but they are key to addressing one and can prevent the poor and marginalised from being hit the hardest.
Whether we are communicating with the public or with policy-makers, if we are doomsayers, focusing on how badly the world is doing, people won’t feel inspired to join us or to stand behind our causes. The language we use matters…