When we do work in places like China and Vietnam, research tends to be really effective as a way of getting change, whereas in more open places, mobilization and the creation of public pressure through the media often seem to be the things we try.

Activists can get very preachy about things. It's more about understanding people's own experiences and tapping into them.

What you don't do is just say, "I've got all the ideas and all the knowledge, and listen to me."

The question, "When did you last listen to a poor person properly and try to understand what's going on inside their own experience?" enables you to connect.

People think there's a single solution to complex problems, and the solution is often making an enemy of a group of people - pulling back and rejecting the other.

The death of deference seems to be general at the moment, so everybody has to earn their reputation and trust all over again. You don't just get it by virtue of being a professor or a politician or anybody else.

If you were disabled in Russia, you had to re-register every year, and it took up to six months to re-register, so people who lost limbs in Afghanistan had to prove that their leg hadn't grown back.