After weeks of getting excited for my new internship and telling all my friends and family about it, the day was finally here! With a little nervous feeling, I got into the huge but beautiful building in The Hague. The day started with an introduction and different games to get to know each other. It…
Within the Oxfam Novib Academy, besides doing the internship, attending different meetings and events and following different workshops, there is also the possibility to join the meetings of Young Oxfam Novib (YON). By doing this, I ended up having the opportunity to help YON with setting up a ‘Brown Bag Lunch (BBL)’ meeting to discuss Oxfam…
How to empower youth to generate knowledge about and take action to improve their lives? During my internship I was part of the Youth Team of Oxfam Novib. Specifically, I worked on developing a tool-kit for Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as a part of the Empower Youth for Work project. Why? Because Youth-Led Participatory…
Before I commence, allow me to make a disclosure that my years in academia has seen whatever creative writing skills I may have had, chiselled off bit by bit. I therefore, ask you, my gracious readers, to bear with me if at some point I begin to backslide into my comfort zone of academic writing.…
Global education policymakers are changing the landscape of private provision of education in developing countries The recent news that the European Parliament adopted a Resolution stating that the European Commission “must not use development aid money to fund commercial private schools” resounded over the global education landscape. The debate around the role of the private…
What kind of color do you think of when talking about Oxfam Novib? Your answer is probably green. That’s true as the logo is green, but it’s not complete. If I’m answering this question, I will say it’s the color of rainbow. As an Oxfam Academy intern in Gender Justice Team, I am responsible for…
Is a growing economy a sign of well-being? My experience in a developed country left me with a doubt: Should nations continue to focus on expanding their economies, or should they focus on equality? Nowadays, the more an economy grows, the more resources society needs. These resources are not necessarily basic resources (e.g.water) but needless…
Living Income is not a new, but still rather unknown concept that aims to allow especially small-scale farmers and their families to achieve a “decent standard of living”. In comparison to the current minimum prices and wages, that are applied across countries and sectors, living income starts from the actual needs of a farmer family…
Can EdTech reduce the inequalities in educational opportunity around the world? The focus and efforts in global education are switching steadily from assuring education access to increasing children’s learning outcomes. For this objective too, the global community must set its sights on helping all children, regardless of their schooling history or means. But how? Has…
Exactly one year ago the Paradise Papers shocked the world. Week after week we got more news on how the richest people in the world were using tax havens to hide their wealth. So, now that we are one year further, what was the effect in the Netherlands? According to Oxfam Novib, there is a…
The forces preventing climate action from matching climate rhetoric Two years since the Paris Agreement had come into effect—where leaders from 195 countries agreed to jointly reduce humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels—it seems as though the euphoria surrounding the accord is beginning to collide with the unfortunate reality of the present. Despite declining prices for…
I am not sure how many people still harbor the stereotypical image of an intern as a coffee-making currier running across town to pick up the boss’s dry-cleaning, lunch or kids form school; but that is what some of my friends thought I’d be doing as an intern. Luckily for me, there are coffee machines…
