Media Releases

Extreme hunger has more than doubled in 10 of the world’s worst climate hotspots over past six years

September 28, 2022

Less than 18 days of fossil fuel companies’ profits would cover the entire UN humanitarian appeal for 2022

Ten of the world’s worst climate hotspots – those with the highest number of UN appeals driven by extreme weather events – have suffered a 123 percent rise in acute hunger over just the past six years, according to an Oxfam report published today.

Gabriela Bucher, Oxfam International Executive Director, said: “Climate change is no longer a ticking bomb, it is exploding before our eyes. It is making extreme weather such as droughts, cyclones, and floods – which have increased five-fold over the past 50 years – more frequent and more deadly.”

The brief – Hunger in a heating world– found that those 10 climate hotspots – Somalia, Haiti, Djibouti, Kenya, Niger, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, and Zimbabwe – have repeatedly been battered by extreme weather over the last two decades. Today, 48 million people across those countries suffer acute hunger (up from 21 million in 2016), and 18 million people of them are on the brink of starvation.

“For millions of people already pummelled down by ongoing conflict, widening inequalities, and economic crises, repeated climate shocks are becoming a backbreaker. The onslaught of climate disasters is now outpacing poor people’s ability to cope, pushing them deeper into severe hunger,” said Bucher.

For example:

Somalia is facing its worst drought on record, and famine is expected to unfold in two of its districts: Baidoa and Burhakaba. One million people have been forced to flee their homes due to the drought. The country ranks 172^nd out of 182 countries in terms of its readiness to cope with climate change.
In Kenya, the current drought has killed nearly 2.5 million livestock and left 2.4 million people hungry, including hundreds of thousands of children severely malnourished.
In Niger, 6 million people are facing acute hunger today (up 767 percent from 2016). Cereal production has crashed by nearly 40 percent, as frequent climatic shocks on top of ongoing conflict have made harvesting increasingly difficult. Production of staple foods such as millet and sorghum could plummet even further by 25 percent if global warming surpasses 2°C.
Burkina Faso has seen a staggering 1350 percent rise in hunger since 2016, with more than 3.4 million people in extreme hunger as of June 2022 due to armed conflict and worsening desertification of crop and pastoral lands. Global warming above 2°C would likely decrease cereal yields like millet and sorghum by 15–25 percent.
In Guatemala, a severe drought has contributed to the loss of close to 80 percent of the maize harvest and devastated coffee plantations.

“We spent almost eight days with hardly any food,” says Mariana López, a mother living in Naranjo in Guatemala’s Dry Corridor. Persistent drought forced her to sell her land.

Climate-fuelled hunger is a stark demonstration of global inequality. Countries that are least responsible for the climate crisis are suffering most from its impact and are also the least resourced to cope with it. Collectively responsible for just 0.13 per cent of global carbon emissions, the 10 climate hotspots sit in the bottom third of countries least ready for climate change.

In contrast, polluting industrialized nations such as those of the G20 – which control 80 percent of the world’s economy – are together responsible for over three-quarters of the world’s carbon emissions.

Leaders of these nations continue to support mega-rich polluting companies that are often big supporters of their political campaigns. Fossil fuel companies’ daily profits have averaged US$2.8 billion over the last 50 years. Less than 18 days of those profits would fund the entire UN humanitarian appeal for 2022 of US$49 billion.

Important policy changes are equally needed to address the double crisis of climate and hunger. Unless massive and immediate action is taken, hunger will continue to spiral.

“Ahead of UN General Assembly meetings this week, and COP 27 in November, leaders especially of rich polluting countries must live up to their promises to cut emissions. They must pay for adaptation measures and loss-and-damage in low-income countries, as well as immediately inject lifesaving funds to meet the UN appeal to respond to the most impacted countries.

“We cannot fix the climate crisis without fixing the systemic inequalities in our food and energy systems. Increasing taxation on super polluters could easily cover the cost. Just 1% of the fossil fuel companies’ average annual profit would generate US$10 billion, enough to cover most of the shortfall in funding the UN humanitarian food security appeal,” Bucher said.

Cancelling debt can also help governments free up resources to invest in climate mitigation.

“Rich and most polluting nations have a moral responsibility to compensate low-income countries most impacted by the climate crisis. This is an ethical obligation, not charity,” said Bucher.

Notes

Download Oxfam report Hunger in a Heating World.

The FSIN began producing the Global Reports on Food Crises in 2017. Sum of the population in IPC3+ food insecurity in the ten countries in 2016 (See GRFC 2017, p. 21) was 21.3 million and in 2021 (See GRFC 2022, pp. 30 – 33) was 47.5. The percent rise is therefore 123 percent.
The calculations of those facing starvation in the 10 countries is based on the total number of people at IPC 4 level of food insecurity and above in 2021, according to the GRFC 2022, see Understanding IPC classification
The 10 worst climate hotspots were calculated looking at countries with the highest number of extreme weather-related UN appeals since 2000, where climate was classified as a “major contributor” to these appeals. Source: Oxfam’s “Footing the Bill” report May 2022.
The 10 countries had the highest number of appeals linked to extreme weather, where climate was a major contributor to the appeal, according to the methodology outlined in the Oxfam (2022) Technical Note UN Humanitarian Appeals linked to Extreme Weather, 2000-2021.
The figure on fivefold increase in climate disasters is according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes (1970–2019) (WMO-No. 1267), Geneva.
The sum of cumulative carbon emissions of the 10 climate hotspots for 2020 is 0.002 trillion tons of carbon – that is 0.13 percent of the world emissions (1.69 trillion tons of carbon) in same year. Source Our World in Data.
The sum of cumulative carbon emissions of the G20 countries for 2020 is 1.299570755 trillion tons of carbon, which is 76.60 percent of global carbon emissions (1.696524177 trillion tons). Source Our World in Data.
The rank of 10 climate hotspots is 34 percent according to calculations of percentiles of the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) index scores of the 10 climate hotspots. ND-GAIN scores for 2020 retrieved from the ND-GAIN website.
For the fossil fuel industry’s daily average of US$2.8 billion in profits over the last 50 years, which is also an annual average of US$1.022 trillion, we used this 2022 article from the Guardian: Revealed: oil sector’s ‘staggering’ US$3bn-a-day profits for last 50 years. Based on the daily average, we calculated that less than 18 days of company profits would cover the full UN global humanitarian appeal for 2022 of US$48.82 billion. We used the annual average of US$1 trillion to calculate the returns from an extra 1% tax on fossil fuel profits (US$10 billion). The Guardian (2022). Revealed: oil sector’s ‘staggering’ US$3bn-a-day profits for last 50 years.
UN humanitarian appeal for 2022 is found at https://fts.unocha.org/appeals/overview/2022, last visited 30 August 2022. The food security portion of the appeal is US$15.9 billion, of which US$10.4 billion is unfunded as of 8 September 2022.

World leaders’ UNGA pledge to vaccinate world falls woefully short as only a third of countries meet target

September 22, 2022

Two-thirds of countries are yet to meet the target of vaccinating 70 percent of people in all countries against COVID-19 set a year ago at the UN General Assembly, according to figures published today by Oxfam and The People’s Vaccine Alliance.

The campaign groups said there had been a massive failure to deliver on the promise despite President Biden persuading world leaders to commit to meeting the World Health Organization target.

They are calling for leaders to radically shift their approach for the current and future pandemics by prioritising sustainable, local manufacturing in all regions of the world to ensure developing countries get equal access to vaccines, tests and treatments. They said the continued approach of leaving Big Pharma in charge of the response has prolonged the pandemic for all of us and continues to cause havoc the world cannot afford.

The death toll from COVID-19 is four times higher in lower-income countries, where less than half (48 percent) the population have had their full initial round of vaccinations. At the current rate, it will take almost two and a half years for 70 percent of people in the poorest countries to be fully vaccinated. Meanwhile rich countries are already beginning to rollout booster programmes and in some cases fifth shots, using the new generation vaccines, the majority of which have been ordered by rich nations.

At the same time, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are continuing to reap huge profits while refusing to work with the WHO to share their vaccine technology, despite it being funded by public money.

Anna Marriott, Oxfam’s Health Policy Manager, said: “This massive failure to meet promises to protect the world from COVID-19 is indefensible. While the end of the pandemic should be in sight, hundreds of millions of people in developing countries are still unprotected from COVID-19. We are calling on President Biden and other world leaders not to turn their backs on them while the virus continues to kill and cause devastation to people’s livelihoods.

“It is time to radically redesign a system that puts pharma profits ahead of people’s lives. Developing countries need access to vaccines, tests and treatments at the same time as rich countries, not years later after people have died. We are seeing the same deadly inequality for COVID-19 treatments and now for monkeypox vaccines, governments must not allow this to continue.”

Lack of vaccination means the need for COVID-19 tests and treatments is even greater in poorer nations but inequality in access is even starker, yet rich nations are at this moment fiercely resisting any attempt to extend the WTO agreement on vaccines to tests and treatments. Reports from the ACT-Accelerator indicated that almost no doses of any outpatient antivirals are available in low- and middle-income countries.

The campaign groups said this persistent gap demonstrates the massive failings in the international response to COVID-19, which continually ignored the need to diversify manufacturing so that developing countries could make their own doses and manage their own supply concurrently with deliveries to rich countries. They are calling for leaders to:

Implement an immediate extension of the June 2022 WTO decision on COVID-19 vaccine patents to include tests and treatments – there can be no justification for delay.
Support and protect the World Health Organisation led mRNA technology transfer hub, including demanding Moderna withdraw patents in South Africa and ensure the hub has freedom to develop Covid-19 and other life-saving vaccines now and into the future.
Deliver a Pandemic Treaty that delivers life-saving vaccines, tests and treatments as global public goods, free of the monopoly control of pharmaceutical corporations.
Commit to an unprecedented scale up of financing to strengthen country health systems in low and middle-income countries and global funding support to close the vaccination coverage gaps for low- and middle-income countries that have yet to hit the 70 percent target.
Reject Big Pharma led proposals – the so-called Berlin Declaration – which would leave full control of who lives and who dies in their hands.

A recent report found that a combination of unpredictable vaccine supplies, lack of antiviral treatments and poor funding for health systems led to lower vaccination rates in developing countries, and that vaccine hesitancy was being used as an excuse to mask the international failures in the COVID-19 response.

Maaza Seyoum, Global South Convenor of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said: “Everyone everywhere should have access to the tools needed to fight a pandemic, But COVID-19 has been a case of survival of the richest. For most of this pandemic, big pharmaceutical companies left people in developing countries to die without vaccines and treatments while they sold doses to rich governments in the global north.

“Now, big pharma is trying to rewrite history, claiming that the industry will voluntarily ensure global access to medicines in the next pandemic. We know from COVID-19 that this isn’t true. Governments cannot rely on the good will of pandemic profiteers to do the right thing. We need to overhaul this system to put human life before private profit.”

The People’s Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of over 100 organisations, have distributed posters across New York, host of the UN General Assembly, describing the COVID-19 pandemic as “survival of the richest”.

Notes to editors:

A discussion hosted by the People’s Vaccine Alliance and others on ensuring justice, equity and human rights in response to global health threats, will take place on Thursday 22 September at 12.30PM US time at the Yale Club in New York. Media interested in attending can register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScKU8MtTbqFumoM-mntjTzrW8MUPXV9DwYmX3dWruo7M7LP_Q/viewform

A map of locations where photographers can find Survival of the Richest posters is available here. The red “Dedicated Site PVA” marking will be maintained by campaigners throughout UNGA high level week: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1chRWsUsTHA4BoBXxFPbh5LqtmNeVfFI&usp=sharing

A recent report from Matahari Global Solutions, Treatment Preparedness Coalition and the People’s Vaccine Alliance found that unpredictable vaccine supplies, lack of antiviral treatments and poor funding for health systems led to low vaccination rates and limited the ability to treat patients. https://itpcglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Mapping-Access-Gaps-in-COVID-19.pdf

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA) is pressuring governments to take a greater role to fund, support, de-risk, and provide data for research and development. But they want governments to hand companies a monopoly on the resulting drugs and to waive liability for any adverse impacts. In return, the industry claims it will do better to improve “equity” in the next pandemic, proposing the same voluntary measures that failed during COVID-19 in a lobbying paper dubbed the “Berlin Declaration”.

Data sourced from Our World in Data on 14.9.22

A search of the 194 members of the WHO on Our World in Data found that 60 countries have reached the 70 percent target, 129 are below and 5 have not reported any data.
The rate of people being fully vaccinated is based on the number of people who were reported as fully vaccinated between 07/06/2022 and 04/09/2022 – 37,253,644 people or 418,580 per day on average. 70 percent of the population of low-income countries, minus those who have already been fully vaccinated is, 368,878,851. Dividing this figure by the daily average rate of vaccination gives 881 days until the target is reached. This figure does include Rwanda who are the only low-income country to have already reached the 70 percent target, but it is not possible to exclude them from the dataset we are using – the difference including them makes to the overall figure is negligible though.

Humanitarian organisations estimate one person dying of hunger every four seconds

September 19, 2022

As world leaders gather for the United Nations General Assembly, 238 civil society organisations demand urgent action to save lives now.

With one person estimated to be dying of hunger every four seconds, 238 local and international non-governmental organisations are calling on leaders gathering at the 77th UN General Assembly to take decisive action to end the spiralling global hunger crisis.

Organisations from 75 countries have signed an open letter expressing outrage at skyrocketing hunger levels and recommendations for action. A staggering 345 million people are now experiencing acute hunger, a number that has more than doubled since 2019.

Despite promises from world leaders to never allow famine again in the 21st century, famine is once more imminent in Somalia. Around the world, 50 million people are on the brink of starvation in 45 countries.

Mohanna Ahmed Ali Eljabaly from the Yemen Family Care Association, one of the letter’s signatories, said:

“It is abysmal that with all the technology in agriculture and harvesting techniques today we are still talking about famine in the 21st century. This is not about one country or one continent and hunger never only has one cause. This is about the injustice of the whole of humanity. It is extremely difficult to see people suffering while others sharing the same planet have plenty of food. We must not wait a moment longer to focus both on providing immediate lifesaving food and longer-term support so people can take charge of their futures and provide for themselves and their families.”

Sumaya, a 32-year-old mother who lives with her four children in a displacement camp in the Somali region of Ethiopia, is one of the millions facing catastrophic levels of hunger.

“No water, no food, a hopeless life,” she said. “Above all, my children are starving. They are on the verge of death. Unless they get some food, I’m afraid they will die.”

The global hunger crisis has been fuelled by a deadly mix of poverty, social injustice, gender inequality, conflict, climate change, and economic shocks, with the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine further driving up food prices and the cost of living.

Those with the power and money to change this must come together to better respond to current crises and prevent and prepare for future ones.

NOTES TO EDITOR

The calculations of the estimated mortality rate from hunger per second was calculated by applying the IPC crude death rate cut offs for IPC Phase 3, minus a normal daily death rate of 0.22 per 10,000 people per day, to the recent Global Report on Food Crises mid-year update for 2022 (released 12/09/22) figure which is 205.1 million people in IPC Phase 3 Acute Food Insecurity or worse (IPC Phases: 3 Crisis, 4 Emergency and 5 Catastrophe), which require immediate humanitarian assistance. This would equal between 7,745.7 and 19,701.7 people dying daily as a result of acute hunger, and between 5.39 and 13.69 people dying per minute. That translates to one person dying every 4.25 – 12 seconds. This is a conservative estimate since the death rates for people in IPC Phase 4 and 5 are significantly higher.
Current acute hunger levels are 345 million; they were 135 million in 2019. (https://www.wfp.org/publications/wfp-global-operational-response-plan-update-5-june-2022).

Press release endorsed by:

Concern Worldwide
Islamic Relief
Oxfam International
Plan International
CARE International
World Vision International
Save the Children International
Action Against Hunger

Oxfam reacts to The Lancet COVID-19 Commission’s report

September 15, 2022

Responding to The Lancet COVID-19 Commission’s report on lessons for future pandemics, Anna Marriott, Health Policy Manager at Oxfam and Policy Co-Lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:

“The Lancet Commission details the utter failure of rich country leaders and pharmaceutical companies to ensure the tools needed to end this pandemic were accessible to everyone, everywhere. The findings of this commission should shame the international community. Nationalism, racism, profiteering, and an overreaching intellectual property system all prevented lower-income countries from accessing or producing vaccines.

“It is vital that we learn the lessons of this report, end pharma’s deadly monopolies and build more capacity for the development and manufacturing of vaccines, tests and treatments in low and middle-income countries. Governments need to act immediately to extend an agreement made earlier this year on overriding COVID-19 vaccine patents to cover lifesaving treatments and tests. And they must safeguard World Health Organisation backed efforts to produce mRNA vaccine manufacturing on every continent from the threat of litigation from companies like Moderna. The pandemic treaty currently under discussion needs to make clear that saving lives must come before profits and decisions about who lives and who dies are never again outsourced to the CEOs of big pharma.”

Notes:

Read the Lancet Commission report here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01585-9/fulltext

Read more about how Moderna’s patents threaten the WHO-backed South African mRNA hub: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-13/groups-ask-ramaphosa-to-protect-mrna-use-against-moderna-patents

Oxfam responds to latest analysis from IPC on the situation in Somalia

September 13, 2022

In response to the latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Classification System (IPC) on the situation in Somalia, Parvin Ngala, Oxfam’s Regional Director for the Horn, East, and Central Africa said:

“The situation in Somalia is rapidly deteriorating and the warning that famine is expected as early as October highlights the increasingly narrow window of time to reduce the accelerating loss of life and prevent further suffering.

“Despite numerous alarms raised over the past two years, nearly 6.7 million people are facing very high levels of hunger with nearly 2 million acutely malnourished children – over 50 percent of the total population of children in Somalia. And if the world does not act now, at least 300,000 people will be in famine or similar conditions before the end of the year. The number of people caught up in the crisis is almost double the number of those affected by the famine in 2011 that killed over a quarter of a million people – half of them children under the age of five.

“Humanitarian assistance has helped save lives, but due to low levels of funding this assistance is now expected to decrease sharply and the situation worsen significantly.

“Across East Africa, Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia are facing the worst drought in 40 years and South Sudan is suffering a fifth consecutive year of severe flooding. On top of ongoing conflict, the COVID-19 economic fallout and surging food prices, these climatic shocks have decimated crops and livestock and eroded people’s ability to cope.

“With the dire situation in Somalia likely to worsen further into 2023 as an unprecedented fifth consecutive failed rainy season is predicted; warnings can no longer be ignored. World leaders and the international community must act now.”

EU Energy Windfall Tax: European countries must aim for 50 – 90 percent rate

September 10, 2022

Today, European energy ministers agreed on a package of emergency measures to curb the surge in energy prices. The package includes two measures to capture extraordinary profits from energy and fossil fuel companies. This follows the European Commission’s proposal on 14 September.

In response, Chiara Putaturo, Oxfam EU Tax expert, said:

“It is great news that European countries have, for the first time ever, agreed to capture some of the extreme excess profits of companies. But now they need to be far more ambitious. This means taxing all sectors profiteering off the global crises at a higher tax rate of between 50 and 90 percent and go beyond 2022.

“If European countries fail to be ambitious, they will only get the crumbs of the colossal corporate profits. Some European countries are already leading the way like Greece with a rate of 90 percent and Spain which is planning to capture excess profits made by banks. European countries must also design the tax in a way to capture the profits hidden in tax havens.

“In the long-term, work must be done at the global level to implement permanent windfall taxes that capture all excess profits and redistribute the revenues fairly to countries where companies have their real economic activity rather than funnelling them away in tax havens. This is the way to fight inflation and inequality. It is sheer madness that we are living in a world where companies are cashing in on the pain of ordinary people, people who are struggling to put food on the table and heat their homes.”

Notes:

Oxfam experts are available for interview or comment.

Today, European Energy Ministers agreed on a package of emergency measures to curb the rise in energy prices. This follows the European Commission’s proposal on 14 September. The final package includes:

A “temporary solidarity contribution” on fossil fuel companies to recoup one-third (33 percent) of excess profits made in 2022 and/or 2023. Excess profit is defined as profit exceeding the average of the last four years (2018 – 2021) by 20 percent. This is a threshold rate and EU countries can apply a higher rate. Revenue will be funnelled to consumers and companies to cushion the impact of high energy bills, and to invest in green energy.
A price cap on revenue made by non-gas energy companies (wind, solar, nuclear, etc): The cap will be set at 180 euros per megawatt hour and the price difference will be recycled back to consumers and decarbonisation technologies, like renewable energy.

Countries have until 31 December 2022 to implement the measures if they do not already have an equivalent measure in place.

Oxfam recently published a new media briefing, The Case for Windfall Taxes. It includes new data on how much excess profits companies have made and how much revenue a global windfall tax could recoup.

1000 of the world’s biggest companies have recorded excess profits of 1.15 trillion dollars in 2020 and 2021 compared to the pre-pandemic period – an increase of 68.5 percent.
We could raise more than 1000 billion dollars globally with a tax of 90 percent on the windfall profit of 1000 of the world’s biggest companies.

Many European countries have already introduced or are in the process of introducing a windfall tax – for a full list, see the table in Oxfam’s recent media briefing, The Case for Windfall Taxes. Oxfam recommends countries implement their own measures if they are more ambitious than the EU proposal.

Oxfam calls for a windfall tax that:

is ambitious, sector-wide, and automatic;
has a rate between 50 – 90 percent (if the tax base is calculated only on excess profit and exceeds 10 percent of the average of the previous years);
prevents an increase in consumer costs by stopping companies from passing on the costs to consumers;
redistributes revenues to those most affected by the crisis, both at home and abroad;
uses a tax base that captures the most excess profit and takes into account the real economic activity of a company in a country. A 2020 analysis showed that some EU countries would capture more excess profit by designing a tax base that takes into account the real economic activity of the company rather than profit.

The IMF recently suggested a permanent coordinated windfall tax (a) targeting economic rents (defined by the IMF as returns in excess of the opportunity cost of the investment – this means an amount of money earned that exceeds that which is economically necessary) and (b) based on the globally consolidated profit of multinationals (global profit of the entire group) allocated to countries according to sales.