Power, People and Planet

"There is no alternative to alliances and there is no alternative to solidarity"

Born in Mumbai, Lysa John started out building grassroots campaigns around urban poverty, governance and housing rights. Since then she has worked with Save the Children International and as Head of Outreach for the UN High Level Panel on the Sustainable Development Goals, and today describes herself as “a relentless enabler of activism.” She currently serves as the Secretary General of CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organisations and activists. 

In this episode Lysa and Kumi discuss the future and vulnerability of citizen action and civil society, the limitations of international organisations, and the growing dangers of the widening inequality gap. They also speak about her early work as a grassroots organiser in Mumbai, outdated geo-political thinking and her idea that "the present system is not merely broken but deliberately malevolent".

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Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Lysa on Twitter: @lysajohn

CIVICUS on Twitter: @CIVICUSalliance

CIVICUS website: https://www.civicus.org/

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Learn more about Power, People & Planet by visiting: https://powerpeopleplanet.org

Subcribe to Kumi Naidoo's Power People and Project for more updates and episodes! https://www.powerpeopleplanet.org/

“What we need are good politicians… who understand how basic access to water and sanitation is, if you want to deliver on any other development priority ”

Lawyer and human rights activist Catarina de Albuquerque made history as the first person to serve as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation (2008 - 2014). She currently serves as CEO of Sanitation and Water for All, a global multi-stakeholder partnership with the goal of ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation worldwide.

In this frank and powerful conversation, Catarina and Kumi discuss the vital but often overlooked topics of water and sanitation. While access to these have been human rights since 2010 (thanks in part to Catarina’s work) she explains the ongoing crises and impacts that continue to affect billions in both the Global North and South. Water and sanitation, as you will hear,  are not just matters of health and well-being but impact every aspect of human development from security, to education, to national prosperity. 

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Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Catarina on Twitter: @CatarinadeAlbuq

Sanitation and Water for All website: https://www.sanitationandwaterforall.org/

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Learn more about Power, People & Planet by visiting: https://powerpeopleplanet.org

Subcribe to Kumi Naidoo's Power People and Project for more updates and episodes! https://www.powerpeopleplanet.org/

“There are no prisons big enough for ideas. They can’t put our ideas behind bars. Your movement and what you work for will always be bigger than you.”

Disha Ravi is an Indian climate and environmental activist. She is a founder and active member of Fridays For Future India with a focus on “MAPA” (most affected people and areas). Her arrest and detention by the Indian government in February of 2021 was met with widespread international condemnation. 

In conversation with Kumi, Disha shares her perspective as a youth climate leader from the Global South. She explains what it means to be part of a movement that is bigger than oneself, how the climate struggle differs between rich and poor countries, and speaks passionately about what brings her inspiration and keeps her fighting.

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Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Disha on Twitter: @disharavii

Disha on Instagram: @disharavii

Fridays For Future website: https://fridaysforfuture.org

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Learn more about Power, People & Planet by visiting: https://powerpeopleplanet.org

Subcribe to Kumi Naidoo's Power People and Project for more updates and episodes! https://www.powerpeopleplanet.org/

“The social contracts can always be negotiated. I think our responsibility actually is to be constantly negotiating what that social contract looks like. How we relate to each other. How we live with one another.”

Dr Amara Enyia is a community organizer, lawyer and political strategist. A former candidate for Mayor of Chicago, she is currently the managing director of Diaspora Rising, an advocacy hub dedicated to strengthening the bonds amongst members of the global Black family.

In this conversation, Kumi and Amara take an in-depth look at the relationship between cities and their residents, the intersection between environmental & urban justice issues, and what it means to be an organiser and activist on both local and international levels.

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Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Dr Amara Enyia on Twitter: @AmaraEnyia

Amara's website: https://amaraenyia.com

Diaspora Rising website: www.diasporarising.org

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Learn more about Power, People & Planet by visiting: https://powerpeopleplanet.org

Subcribe to Kumi Naidoo's Power People and Project for more updates and episodes! https://www.powerpeopleplanet.org/

“Understanding that actually power lies inherent in us. It’s the responsibility and the rights and the beauties and the power to actually change society from within and outside.”

Ashish Kothari is an Indian green activist, scholar and co-founder of the Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group. He has served as chair of Greenpeace India, on the board of Greenpeace International and has been active with a number of people’s movements. He has also been part of the Indian government’s Environmental Appraisal Committee and other government initiatives.

In this episode, Kumi and Ashish discuss alternatives to how societies can govern themselves, the need for radical ecological democracy and how activists can fight back against increasingly hostile governments.

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Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Ashish Kothari on Twitter: @chikikothari
Kalpavriksh website: https://kalpavriksh.org

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Learn more about Power, People & Planet by visiting: https://powerpeopleplanet.org

Subcribe to Kumi Naidoo's Power People and Project for more updates and episodes! https://www.powerpeopleplanet.org/

"Health is a public good. So if we have a market system that's not working for the public good, then that needs to change."

Dr Tolullah Oni is a public health physician and urban epidemiologist. She grew up in Lagos and today is a Clinical Senior Research associate with the University of Cambridge as well as an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town. She is also Founder of UrbanBetter, an Africa-led, youth-privileged, science-based and equity-centred learning collaborative designing health and sustainability in cities.

In this episode, Tolullah explains the deeper structural issues that surround public health, how cities can play an important role in health, and the failures the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed in our systems.

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Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Tolullah on Twitter: @DrTolullah
UrbanBetter website: https://urbanbetter.science/

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Learn more about Power, People & Planet by visiting: https://powerpeopleplanet.org

Subcribe to Kumi Naidoo's Power People and Project for more updates and episodes! https://www.powerpeopleplanet.org/

"There's nothing like watching the home that you live in being demolished by bulldozers to make you politically conscious."

Growing up in Cape Town's District 6 in the 1970s, Tasneem experienced racial segregation, forced eviction and discrimination first hand. Her anti-apartheid activism eventually took her into politics, serving as a provincial environment minister in South Africa’s post-apartheid ANC government. As a radical minister within a conservative bureaucracy, Tasneem fought to connect environmental issues to poverty and development.

Since then, Tasneem has served as WWF's head of global climate policy, going behind the scenes as head of delegation at the Paris Climate Talks, and now leads the Climate Action Network – the planet’s largest coalition for climate justice.

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Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Climate Action Network website: https://climatenetwork.org

Social media: @TasneemEssop, @CANIntl

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Learn more about the Power, People & Planet podcast, subscribe and find more episodes:

https://powerpeopleplanet.org

Subcribe to Kumi Naidoo's Power People and Project for more updates and episodes! https://www.powerpeopleplanet.org/

“Due to COVID 19 people have been questioning their basic contract. Is this government protecting me, and are these politicians doing what they claim to do, which is to look after us and to protect our health?”
 
Once a British diplomat and now self proclaimed 'gentle anarchist', Carne Ross describes how solving today’s problems starts with shedding our assumptions about what works and what is possible. Drawing inspiration from diverse movements and places - the ancient Greeks, the philosophy of anarchy, and a Brazilian city - Ross reveals practical steps for re-imagining democracies so that they are capable of tackling the biggest challenges of our times.

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Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Carne Ross on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/carneross
Carne's website: http://www.carneross.com
Independent Diplomat: https://independentdiplomat.org

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Learn more about Power, People & Planet by visiting:
https://powerpeopleplanet.org

Subcribe to Kumi Naidoo's Power People and Project for more updates and episodes! https://www.powerpeopleplanet.org/

“We need to centre care, care in the widest sense of the word, as we try to rebuild in this post COVID era.”

Aruna Rao is a feminist, an activist, and the co-founder of Gender At Work, an international network dedicated to building new cultures of equality and inclusion.

In a passionate and wide-ranging conversation that opens with Aruna’s rendition of the spiritual Wade in the Water, Kumi and Aruna explore hope, fear, Black Lives Matter, intersectionality and structural change. They ask whether we have been failed by the institutions that were set up to protect us – the police, social services, the UN, development charities and aid agencies – and whether it’s better to try to change them from within, or tear them down and start again?

This episode was recorded on Juneteenth 2021, a date that celebrates African American culture and the end of slavery – as well as the first Juneteenth to be recognised as a US federal holiday.

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Produced by the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy: https://greeneconomycoalition.org

G@W’s website:  https://genderatwork.org
Aruna’s podcast, “Feminists Rethinking Transformational Strategies”:  https://genderatworkpodcast.org

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Learn more about the Power, People & Planet podcast, subscribe and find more episodes:
https://powerpeopleplanet.org

Subcribe to Kumi Naidoo's Power People and Project for more updates and episodes! https://www.powerpeopleplanet.org/

Feeling at all freaked out by the state of the world at the moment? Wondering what you can do about it? Join Kumi Naidoo, the veteran social and environmental justice campaigner, to tackle some of the biggest issues of our time. In each episode Kumi is joined by activists, artists and community leaders who are dismantling our broken system - and building something better in its place. Hear their stories. Learn what has kept them fighting. Find out how we all can make a difference.

Subcribe to Kumi Naidoo's Power People and Project for more updates and episodes! https://www.powerpeopleplanet.org/