Pushing the limit: From Go Push Go to Steps Ahead
“Ballot on the Beach reached it’s climax outside the Labour Party Conference headquarters, when Oxfam’s very own Pushpanath Krishnamurthy led campaigners in a unified vote for change at the sea front ballot boxes. An astounding 61,552 votes were cast”
- UK based Trade Justice campaign message, image c. Oxfam, GB
From motivating concert attendees a
nd artists at Glastonbury’s world-famousmusic festival to educating and mobilising campaigners and entrepreneurs in Gavipuram, India, Pushpanath Krishnamurthypromotes a pioneering, visionary approach to popular campaigning, with an emphasis on real empowerment and change. Over three decades and across three continents he has gained a legendary status for his quality coaching and powerful motivational speaking, particularlyon Trade,Climate Change and Poverty. Always tempering his engaging and charismatic rhetoric with human stories and powerful statistics, Push has extensive experience working with all ages and audiences in developing and developed countries. He is a charismatic leader- hundreds of people have followed him on awareness-raising walks, as well as a warm and nurturing coach, with successes including training up Ugandan smallholder farmers who had never been outside their communities to go to the UN and speak about the impact of climate change. Push has been sought out by many respected businesses, associations, and charities for his abilityto distil complex issues into compelling messages for audiences, and inspiring real action and commitment by grassroots constituencies. Push deploys a blend of traditional advocacy and new approaches on issues ranging from personal empowerment to participatory development; environmental assessment and gender. In trainingsessions Push demonstrates considerable strengths and success in building capacity of teams and planning stunt action. Whilst currently working with the Centre for Social Markets on Social Enterprise and Sustainable Coffee, Push is also available as a freelance consultant for motivational speaking, facilitation, training, as well as planning and mobilisation on a wide range of social issues. Talk: @btinternet.com
Support: www.gopushgo.com for climate Justice walks in India, Africa and Europe
Connect: Facebook.com and Linked.in Pushpanath Krishnamurthy
Recent Projects and Approach
Most recently Push has been working on Urban Poverty in India, leading a research team that has been looking at entrepreneurship and sustainability as solutions for forging partnerships. He has being working withThe Centre for Social Markets on sustainable coffee, developing partnerships with growers groups such as the Karnataka Growers Federation. He is developing a range of stunt actions based on the idea of backward motion to draw attention and inspire action on Developmental Justice, empowerment of urban populations, organic and Fair Trade farming business practice. You can read more here on his policy practice blog. Previously Push spent much of his professional career at Oxfam, where he acquired legendary status for his pioneering work on campaigns such as Make Trade Fair, the Climate Change Hearings, HIV/ AIDS, etc. Push has also worked in rural banking and with numerous NGOs, thought and business leaders as well as academic and political institutions. In December 2009, Push embarked on a Walk for Climate Justice to raise attention to the issues of climate change and poverty at the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen. In 2011, he is repeated this effort in a Walk for Climate Justice in the southern India state of Karnataka, to raise attention to the plight of small producers such as coffee growers in an era of climate change. In leading multi-national, cross-cultural teams in developing and implementing cutting-edge popular campaigns, Push has developed a unique, action oriented approach to train and empower people to actto achieve success in any context. He calls his approach ‘STEP-IN-ACTION’ and focus around activities on ‘taking a first step’, ‘stepping forward’, ‘stepping up’, ‘step along’, ‘step aside’ and ‘step for real action’. This energising, participatory session is peppered with practical suggestions on skills and techniques, as well as personalised with insightful stories of real change achieved by others who ‘stepped up’. In addition Push offers other training approaches tailored to his participants’ and organisations’ needs, drawing on a diverse range of influences- from street theatre to business theory. More about Push
With a diverse and respected career as a Campaigner and Environmentalist, Push describes himself foremost as an anti-poverty activist and development interventionist.Push’s talents and energies have taken him across the world, and he has lived for periods of time in India, Southern Africa and East Asia, building extensive networks and contacts in each region. His wife and children have travelled with him, and whilst his kidshave grown upmoving around the world, Push holds both British and Indian citizenship, and has made Oxford in the UK his family base for the last decade. This base, and the support of his truly global family and supporters, provides much of the energy, strength and motivation for Push’s work, along with his commitment to social issues and passionate stance against all kinds of injustice. He is currently training for his next awareness-raising walk.
“All in all, if I have to sum up in one word what I experienced, worth cherishing, from that meeting, it is 'VALUES'.Thanks so much for inspiring me”. Gaurav, a participant in a gathering at which Push spoke. Select Recognition, Feedback and Coverage
2012 Advisory panel at Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF)
2007 IIFA Award, UK
Recipient of the medal of Honour from Ho chi Minh city from Vietnam government
Finalist for Oxfam’s Global Activist award
Feedback on training sessions and leadership:
‘A really inspiring account of the position which Campaigning now holds within our overall approach to delivering on the mission. Great to be lead through the process via skilled facilitation without PowerPoint - passionate and inspiring.’
‘His engagement with the West Timor re-strategising has been equally exemplary. On the one hand we now have a team, which understands fully the value of strategic alignment with corporate goals, however, but they can also see that inside the bureaucratic monolith that is Organization there is ample space for activists who are committed to winning the fight against global injustice. This is inspiring for all concerned, and at this end it builds an informed and committed team who will drive us forward over the coming years.’
‘Push has shown himself to be an intuitive leader, prompting staff in a way which inspires them. He also has a deft touch in bursting any egotistical bubbles in a way which ensures that the person never takes offence-that is aremakable and rare skill’
Country Director for Indonesia, Oxfam. Feedback from audiences
‘I thought it was really motivating talk and Push is also really good humoured… it's really great and inspirational to hear someone with such enthusiasm and passion, it reminds us why we are here and what we're working towards. He was excellent.’
‘All my old campagning juices have started to flow... so well done Push, and thank you.’
‘You are like my lighter who sparks a thought and it burns and burns and burns until it finds the darkness it is supposed to chase away’
Some News Coverage
Express News Service, 22 Apr 2012
BANGALORE: Environmental activism reached a different level when close to 200 students of BNM Institute of Technology (BNMIT) pushed their two wheelers backwards to spread awareness about the impact of carbon emissions on the environment on Friday. […]
“The whole idea of pushing bikes backward is to make a point that carbon emissions are bad. Who better than youngsters know how to use their bikes wisely? Bikes have power, and the students today are saying that the power comes at a cost,” said Pushpanath Krishnamurthy, renowned environmental activist and global executive at Centre for Social Markets, the NGO that supported the initiative. Pushpanath, who embarked on a 15-day walk from Baba Budangiri to Mysore last November, said, “It is true that environmental activism needs to gather more momentum. As for me, I do it because I believe in it. We have to make youngsters believe that there is need for activism. I am for skepticism, not cynicism.”
Guardian, December 2009
As politicians and delegates plan their journeys to the climate summit in Copenhagen next month, a deal on emissions is not the only thorny issue ahead. There's also the important matter of how to get there with the lightest possible carbon footprint. Pushpanath Krishnamurthy, or Push as he is more usually known, set out on foot from Oxford yesterday morning, hoping to cover 10-15 miles a day. […]
"I am so angry about the way that the African people, the developing countries, who have done so little to cause climate change, are the first to suffer, and lose their homes. But Gandhi said that we should use that anger as energy. This is a personal walk of redemption." […]
So it falls to Push … to remind us all what the conference is really all about. "I've seen so much suffering," says Krishnamurthy. "This is a way to try to amplify those voices, from the mountains of Papua to the wetlands of Bangladesh."
