Mokoro's global evaluation of UNICEF's contribution to education in humanitarian settings has been a large project throughout this year, and we therefore felt this was an opportune time to convene a seminar exploring this nascent and important branch of humanitarian action. We were extremely excited to welcome several practitioners working at the forefront of Education in Emergencies (EiE) to speak at Wolfson College, Oxford. Our panel consisted of Hiba Salem (University of Cambridge), Allison Anderson (Brookings Institution), and Marie Tamagnan (Save the Children), all of whom brought a unique perspective on EiE gained through research and implementation across diverse contexts. For anyone unable to attend, or for attendees seeking a recap, we are happy to announce that the seminar video is now available to view online. Read more.

On 1st May 2019, Mokoro welcomed Rachael Knight to Oxford to share some of her experiences and insights gained from 15 years working at the forefront of community land rights. Rachael, an attorney with expertise in land tenure security, access to justice, and legal empowerment of the poor, helped to found Namati, a global legal empowerment organisation helping the disadvantaged to understand, use, and shape the law. Rachael is admired by many at Mokoro for her work defining and defending community land rights across Africa. A full write-up of the event, as well as a short piece by Robin Palmer on his delight at bringing Rachael to speak in Oxford, is available on our website. Read more.

A series of blogs have been published by WOLTS team members in recent months. Most recently, Jim Grabham has published a photo essay about one of our pilot research communities, Mundarara in Tanzania. The piece by Jim Grabham, titled "Are rubies undermining Maasai culture", shares insights gleaned from in-depth interviews with two participants in a one-year training programme on gender, land and mining that has been developed and carried out in Tanzania.

B. Munkhtuvshin, a key member of our WOLTS Mongolia team, has published a blog titled "Mongolian herder families are being split between countryside and town" looking at how changes in government policies around education impact negatively in unintended ways on the family life and livelihoods of Mongolian pastoral communities.

Narangerel Yansanjav, another key member of the WOLTS team, has published "Left behind - the Mongolian herders living at home with Mum". In her blog, Nara describes the plight of men in their mid-to-late 30s who lost out on their education due to past policy changes. Many who are still single provide welcome support for their mothers, enabling widows to keep herding, but those who are married often miss out on life with their young families due to a much more recent policy change. 

Robin Palmer has been collating a library of resources on land rights in Africa for almost 20 years. Every week he receives an email from the pressure group GRAIN offering updates on the global land grab and the varied responses to it. This week, when he read through the stories, they revealed a bleak picture of inequality, injustice, brutality and corruption, as well as the relationship with climate change. In Robin's latest article, he reflects on these 'grim times' as the protests of young people across the world remind him of the necessity of continued engagement at all levels, and at all ages. Read more.