Resource library

Explore selected resources covering diverse aspects of narrative work and find practical tools speaking to your specific narrative interests and needs.

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24 results

How to Message on The Rights of People From Marginalized Groups: A Communications Guide for Organisations Promoting Human Rights

by Civil Liberties Union for Europe

2023

Available in English

This guide is a tool for organisations in the human rights sector that want to communicate more effectively with the public to build
support for human rights-related causes. This includes civil society organisations, foundations, international organisations and national bodies promoting human rights.

The advice in the present guide relates primarily to how to speak to a moveable middle audience among the majority population. That is, an audience who does not, at first glance, consider themselves to be directly affected by the harms inflicted on the marginalised group in question. Put otherwise, the guide is more about how communicators can persuade the ‘majority’ population to support equality for marginalised groups than about mobilising people from the marginalised group.

Measuring Narrative Change: Understanding Progress and Navigating Complexity

by ORS Impact

2021

Available in English

Better understanding and measuring progress is an important part of strengthening narrative change strategies. This brief offers insights into some of the questions facing practitioners, funders, and others interested in measuring this kind of work: How do you lay the foundations for successful measurement? What short- and longer-term signals can you look for to indicate that things are moving in the right direction? And how can you understand the impact of narrative change efforts when they’re happening in complex, dynamic environments?

Measuring Narrative Change: Webinar

by ORS Impact

2021

Available in English

On September 15th, 2021, ORS Impact hosted a webinar to discuss some of the opportunities and challenges that animate narrative change measurement. With Neha Singh Gohil, Communications Officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, they explored different facets of narratives by identifying relevant and meaningful outcomes, responding to dynamic contexts and learning as you go, and what this might mean for funders and others engaged in this type of work

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

by Oxfam

2020

Available in English, Spanish, French

Narratives are a form of power that can mobilize and connect, as well as divide and isolate. Social, public or dominant narratives help to legitimize existing power relationships, prop them up or make them seem natural.

As an anthology of perspectives this knowledge offering is one way to amplify different and diverse ways of knowing and doing narratives. Narratives are made up of many stories, tweets, online content, offline conversations. They keep deeply held ideas about society and people in place, for good and bad.

Narratives are not something that happen over there, they are part of us and we are part of them. We can challenge or reinforce narratives on daily basis. We see powerful damaging narratives at work in the COVID-19 response, and in systems of oppression that perpetuate inequality. We can use this knowledge to guide us now and as we move into the future. Narrative knowledge and framing know-how can help us to open civic space, collaborate better and amplify others, helping us to be part of the biggest ‘us’ we can be.

Interested to know more? We spoke to 20+ collaborators from across the world. They share with us their knowledge, ideas, tips, and tactics from their lived experience. Learn from them. Collaborate with them. Let’s creatively and collectively act on narratives together. These ideas are contributing to Oxfam’s creative collaborations with others to protect and open civic space.

No Unga Tax – Connecting taxes for the rich and poor

by The Rules

2019

Available in English

One way wealth is extracted from the global south is through the network of tax havens, which, by allowing the rich to hide their wealth, pushes the tax burden onto those with the least ability to pay. The case study documents how The Rules intervened to draw attention to how the City of London was extending its influence in East Africa by trying to make Kenya a tax haven for the region, and the Kenyan government’s supporting role in taxing basic goods, like maize (or Unga, in Swahili) instead of the hoarded wealth of the elite.

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