By Amita Bhakta
It was on a bright spring day in the UK that I travelled to Oxford to attend the Marmalade Festival, organised by the World Skoll Forum and the Old Fire Station. I had not heard of the event until a friend had told me about it whilst I was at a conference in India at the start of the year. The Marmalade Festival connects people from around the world, using global/local, strategic/grassroots perspectives, with a focus on changing systems through the lens of people, power and place. In this article, I share some of my highlights and reflections from my time at Marmalade.
Water and the ‘climate whiplash’
As a WASH expert, it was only inevitable that I’d be catching my train over to Oxford just in time to attend a session led by WaterAid, on the ‘climate whiplash’ (along with familiar faces in the sector). It was reiterated that the water crises facing different populations around the world is about more than just climate; locally-led solutions need to be key to addressing them. Simply providing infrastructure is not enough. Policy for WASH and climate needs to be co-created, and there needs to be a way forward from traditional community-based management models from the 1980s that are simply no longer working in climate stressed areas. As the WASH sector stands in the face of rollbacks to international overseas aid, speakers at the session highlighted critical elements needed in navigating the climate crisis. Young people make up a significant proportion of the population in the Global South and need to be involved in government engagement in climate and WASH. WASH solutions which aim to support people to live with the impacts of climate change should build on indigenous knowledge. Along with it, the era of cuts to aid requires us to rethink the ways WASH and climate are financed. In the long term, a shift is ultimately needed from one of aid, to one of government and local control of finance.
Whose reality counts in the era of artificial intelligence?
Artificial intelligence (AI), whether we like it or not, has become part of the fabric of human society. As someone who has spent most of their career drawing on Robert Chambers’ work on ‘Whose Reality Counts?’, I was naturally driven to attend a session at Marmalade of the same name. What was fascinating about this session was the focus on the need for local knowledge, and the many things that AI would simply miss: everyday issues in communities, what needs to be repaired in sectors such as textiles, the challenges for populations such as women and girls who are less engaged with technology, and the risks posed to children walking through fields to school through venomous snake bites around the world. AI simply cannot replace the vast local knowledge out there. The US Trump Administration’s dismantling of USAID and the loss of decades of knowledge serves as a reminder to us all: data is political. What I saw is that whilst there is potential to use AI to refine and help us to solve problems, it still requires us to consider whether the algorithms are indeed rooted in local knowledge, and to question: who gets to define the knowledge? Which language is it in and what work is needed to ensure that local perspectives come into systems? And, how do we ensure that qualitative data and stories from the ground can shine through?
Degrees of change: heat, pregnancy and the systems we need
This session, led by Kite Insights and Project Dandelion, provided a stark reminder of our humanity in the context of global challenges. In a changing climate with extremes in temperatures, the global population continues to rise, and women around the world are going through pregnancy, childbirth and caring for babies even as the environment around them shifts. The speakers at this poignant session highlighted the plight of pregnant women engaged in some of the most marginalised work in the world. A construction worker in her third trimester forced to abort her baby after fainting and falling. The miscarriage of a salt pan worker with limited access to water at work. And, the tragedy of the pregnant brick kiln worker who died alongside her baby and older child after drinking poisoned water at work. These stories, whilst difficult to hear, should serve as a reminder of the need for clear heat action plans across cities around the world, and the urgency of these to protect maternal health.
Linking governments and non-profit organisations
Having witnessed first-hand in India through my work with colleagues at a non-profit in Ahmedabad the key role that they have to play in working with government at different levels, I was drawn to a session on what governments need to do to partner with non-profit organisations. What was clear was that for all the emphasis on positive, grassroots approaches in development, they alone cannot be enough for real progress to be achieved. The speakers reflected on the active role required by governments around the world to set priorities in partnership with grassroots organisations, so that appropriate funding can be sought. There were some interesting observations made in the session about the potential leadership of governments in creating programmes and allocating different ministries to spearhead them, how they could be viewed as ecosystems and the need for good partnerships. Yet, some questions remain in my mind several weeks after returning from the festival: how do we build these partnerships in different political contexts? Can non-profit organizations truly lead in certain countries? And, how can non-profits speak with one voice with governments when public assets such as WASH are concerned?
Art, activism, and fairtrade: Bringing farmer voices to the world
I had the pleasure of joining a captivating session on how art is being used globally as a form of activism by the Fairtrade Foundation. I was really struck by how street art has been used as a powerful way to highlight the stories of fairtrade farmers across the world from Asia, Africa and Latin America in the big cities of the ‘Global North’ such as Los Angeles. In the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, artists from around the world were drafted in to paint large murals of farmers on the sides of buildings, to tell their stories and the impact of fairtrade on them. In the session, what really inspired me was that this was not just about the Fairtrade Foundation painting the farmers’ pictures. They placed an emphasis on closing the loop, inviting the farmers to see their murals with their faces on, as a way of showing their appreciation. But behind this was the stark stories of their lived realities: being unable to afford to farm sustainably (and a key reason behind higher prices for Fairtrade products), the need to protect farmers in a global economy and the importance of South-to-South trade in ensuring this, and the importance of diversification to prevent oversupply. As part of the session, we became artists ourselves, and had the opportunity to create cards to send to fairtrade farmers as a small token of our appreciation for their hard work. Fairtrade is more than livelihoods; it is a way of life that has the potential to connect us globally.
Water is the backbone of climate resilience- so why isn’t it funded that way?
It was only apt that I started, and ended, my time at Marmalade with a WASH session! The session by WaterAid began with the participants pairing up, turning their backs on each other, changing their appearance (e.g. changing hairstyle, removing a jacket) and then testing each other on what they had done to change their looks. Behind the fun and games however, there lay a more serious message: change can only be made if you do it yourself. The session then went into deeper discussions on the key lessons from around the world, led by experts from organisations including Water for People, Aguaconsults and the Osprey Foundation. Water for People reflected on how close collaboration with the government was key to the success of the Jal Jeevan Mission in expanding access to water for rural communities in India. At the same time, there were honest reflections from Aguaconsults on how the WASH sector still needs to do more to speak the language of and unlock climate finance. To do this, as the Osprey Foundation stated, WASH needs to be seen both as part of sustainability and something that needs to be sustained. In practice, this means incorporating climate resilience as part of due diligence, giving it time to take effect, and channelling funding towards enablers as well as deliverers. Levers that need to be pulled to change the direction of funding for WASH, include building capital markets, learning what the priorities are, driving political prioritisation in government and taking local politics into consideration. Tapping into cross sector collaboration, such as bringing energy into the water sector, is also key.
The road beyond Marmalade 2026
Although I was only at Marmalade for a few days, I left with a sense that the sessions I went to managed to bring across the realities of the progress being made on the ground – and the stark challenges ahead as we face aid cuts – in a way that was accessible to all. Whether you were a WASH expert, interested in food or climate, there were similarities in the need to connect people on the ground to those at the top. Our work has barely begun, and it is more important now than ever that we find the routes to connect community to government and beyond.