Media Releases

Oxfam New Zealand responds to the Government’s support of our Pacific neighbours

May 17, 2021

Oxfam New Zealand welcomes the Government’s ongoing support to Pacific countries as they respond to the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, but say it must not come at the expense of other important development action. Since July 2020 Oxfam New Zealand has been requesting the New Zealand government give more aid to our Pacific neighbours.

Oxfam New Zealand’s Communications and Advocacy Director Jo Spratt says that New Zealand’s Aid Programme has put development projects in the Pacific on hold and redirected the money to fund New Zealand’s coronavirus response:

“New Zealand’s aid supports crucial development work, like building the health systems that countries need to roll-out vaccines and education systems that teach people the critical thinking required to negotiate vaccine misinformation. We risk cutting the long-term development activities that are helping to prevent the spread of pathogens like coronavirus, and build resilient systems to enable countries from Papua New Guinea to Cook Islands to respond when they do happen. It is critical that we see an aid increase in the Budget next week.

“With vaccinations beginning to roll-out, countries will soon open their borders, and the Aid Programme will need new funds to ensure it can support the worthy development projects that are on hold. Next week a new three-year aid budget will be announced in Budget 2021. Our immediate coronavirus response must not come at the cost of the long-term work required in the Pacific.”

Oxfam New Zealand is part of the Big Hearts Connected World Campaign to support the people that the coronavirus pandemic has hit the hardest across the world. The Big Hearts campaign is asking the government for at least NZD $500 million new aid funds over the next three years. The campaign gathered the support of more than 3,000 Kiwis via an online petition and hundreds of hand written notes that was accepted directly by the Minister.

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For more information or interview opportunities please contact:

David Bull | Oxfam New Zealand | 0274 179 724

Global Report On Food Crisis ‘Grim’

May 10, 2021

The Global Report on Food Crises 2021 was released last week reiterating the need for inclusive and sustainable food systems across the world. The report is described as ‘grim’ by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres due to the shocking number of people who are in desperate need of food and good nutrition. As Guterres explains, “Conflict is the main reason [for the need], combined with climate disruption and economic shocks, aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

In a statement, Oxfam International’s Global Advisor for Emergency Food Security and Livelihoods Emily Farr said, “Oxfam is deeply concerned by the findings from the Global Report on Food Crises released today, which show that the confluence of conflict, economic shocks including from COVID-19, and extreme weather exacerbated by climate change has radically increased extreme hunger and inequality around the globe. Over the last year, 20 million more people – equivalent to the population of Mumbai – were pushed into a hunger crisis, but this is only an escalation of a deadly trend: there has been a 56% increase in the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity in the 39 countries monitored in the report since 2016. 

“Conflict is driving extreme hunger, and its impact is only growing. It is an unacceptable failure and violation of human rights that in countries like Syria, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic, more than half the population does not have access to enough food to meet their basic needs, or that 15.8 million children in the 55 profiled countries are suffering from the severe weight loss called wasting due to poor nutrition and disease.

“The warnings keep coming – from the farmers unable to grow enough food to eat and sell, from the community and civil society leaders calling for more support before food crises spiral out of control, from the UN calling for a global ceasefire in light of the pandemic. This report is unfortunate proof that these warnings have gone unheeded, and that millions of lives are on the line. 

“This report underscores that the current efforts to fight hunger are falling short. The international community must work together, right now, to stop this terrifying trajectory. It’s time to take our hard-learned lessons and apply them in a radical new approach to address the drivers of hunger: conflict, poverty, inequality and climate change. With the political will, urgent and strategic funding, and local communities and women in the lead, we can address this. We’re calling on the international community to remember that these staggering statistics each represent someone enduring great and needless suffering – and to act with renewed urgency, cooperation, and generosity to tackle hunger now.”   

Read the full Global Report on Food Crises here: GRFC 2021 | fightfoodcrises.net

Notes:

Across the 39 countries that have been analysed in all five years this report has been produced, there is a 56% increase in people in Crisis or worse (IPC 3 or above): from 94.2 million in 2016 to 147.1 million in 2020.
In July 2020, Oxfam published a report, The hunger virus: how COVID-19 is fuelling hunger in a hungry world | Oxfam International
In October 2020, Oxfam published a report, The Hunger Virus: ” Abysmally low” funding for 55m people facing extreme hunger in seven worst-affected countries | Oxfam International

For more information and interview opportunities please contact:

DAVID BULL | Media Lead Oxfam New Zealand | +64 0274 179 724

Oxfam India welcomes the US decision to back IP waiver for COVID-19 vaccines

May 10, 2021

The Biden Administration has caused a domino effect following the news that the USA will support the People’s Vaccine. World leaders are taking to Twitter to announce their support of the waiver including the New Zealand Government.

This news is especially critical for India where infections are soaring to over 400,000 new cases per day. Vaccines are in short supply, and the country has significant untapped capacity to produce for India’s needs and for the rest of the world. In a statement release by Oxfam India, CEO Amitabh Behar said:

“We awake today in India with some fresh new hope that there is a genuine solution possible ahead of us – that we have been heard – and that our country as well others suffering the horrific effects of rampant Covid-19 infections and death will not be forgotten and left behind.

“I am in a city where every fifteen minutes a family is losing a loved one. I am in a country which is the world’s pharmacy hub and yet people here are dying, gasping for breath. There is no-one I think in India who doesn’t know of friends or family or colleagues who have not had Covid. We are a country that is united in fearful expectation but now given a life-line in the possibility of more vaccines, which India requires quickly and in large numbers. The US decision to back the waiver of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines has taken us one step closer to having a true peoples’ vaccine – behind which India can throw its own manufacturing weight.”

Oxfam New Zealand has been a part of the choir lobbying for the New Zealand Government to back the waiver of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines and also welcomes the USA’s support. Jo Spratt Communications and Advocacy Director of Oxfam New Zealand said:

“This is a huge first step to make sure that everyone, everywhere can get a vaccine, and put an end to this pandemic that is causing so much suffering. But the fight is not over. Leaders in Europe and other rich nations must follow the Biden Administration’s lead and ensure the waiver covers all coronavirus technologies – things like PPE, ventilators and tests. We will be watching as EU and India leaders meet on Saturday 8th May, and hope Europe will signal its clear support for the TRIPS waiver.”

Notes to editors

The People’s Vaccine Alliance is a movement of health, humanitarian and human rights organisations, past and present world leaders, health experts, faith leaders and economists advocating that COVID-19 vaccines are manufactured rapidly and at scale, as global common goods, free of intellectual property protections and made available to all people, in all countries, free of charge.

For more information and interview opportunities please contact:

DAVID BULL | Media Lead Oxfam New Zealand | +64 0274 179 724

New Zealand Announces Support For The People’s Vaccine

May 6, 2021

Moments after the USA announced its support for the People’s Vaccine, a tweet from Minister Damien O’Connor went live saying, “[We] warmly welcome and strongly support the proposal for a TRIPS waiver for vaccines.” A huge win for the people, but Oxfam New Zealand says the fight is not over yet.

Oxfam New Zealand’s Communications and Advocacy Director Jo Spratt said about the tweet, “This is a huge first step to make sure that everyone, everywhere can get a vaccine, and put an end to this pandemic that is causing so much suffering. But the fight is not over. We need to get other countries over the line to support the waiver, and make sure it covers all coronavirus technologies – things like PPE, ventilators and tests.”

A poll released from Oxfam New Zealand today showed that there is overwhelming support among New Zealanders for a People’s Vaccine. 74% of New Zealanders said they want the government to make pharmaceutical corporations share their coronavirus vaccine knowledge and technology. An action that would move towards ending the human and economic suffering of the coronavirus pandemic.

This change in position from the US and New Zealand is a testament to the everyday people taking action in global solidarity to end COVID for all: more than 2 million people who signed global petitions for a People’s Vaccine – including thousands here in Aotearoa.

For more information and interview opportunities please contact:

DAVID BULL | Media Lead
Oxfam New Zealand | +64 0274 179 724

Over 5 million people face extreme hunger as the Tigray conflict surges past six months – Oxfam

May 4, 2021

Planting season comes to a halt as thousands of farmers lost tools, seeds and livestock

Six months since the conflict erupted in Tigray, thousands of farmers have nothing to plant ahead of the rainy season as the crisis compounded by climate-fuelled locust devastated their tools and livestock and pushed over 5 million people to extreme levels of hunger, warned Oxfam today.

Gezahegn Kebede Gebrehana, Oxfam’s Country Director in Ethiopia said:

“Farming should be beginning now ahead of the long rainy season in June, but it has come to a total halt due to conflict and the absence of rain. Many farmers have no seeds to plant, and their oxen and tools were looted or destroyed in the conflict. Trade and market exchanges have stagnated as people fear a resurgence of fighting.”

More than 25% of the total production of Tigray was already destroyed in the last harvest, mostly by locust swarms. Most families have already depleted their food stocks. If this agricultural season is missed, the next harvest opportunity will not come for an additional 18 months.

Fantu Gezay, a farmer and a single mother of six living in Raya Azebo Woreda, Tigray told Oxfam: “The conflict erupted when farmers were about to harvest the produce left from the locust invasion. Whatever remained from the locust was destroyed by the war, and we couldn’t harvest the Teff and Maize crops.”

Nearly 1.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes in Tigray; thousands of families are crammed in small rooms in schools or churches. Women and girls face an additional risk in such conditions. Shelters have no partitions and lack gender segregation which puts them at risk of sexual and gender-based violence.

Freweyni Gebregzabher, from the Raya Azebo Woreda Agriculture Office, said: ‘‘My uncle was harvesting his sorghum crop a day before the war broke out. The next morning as the fighting intensified, he was shot dead while hiding in a church, and all his property was destroyed.”

Oxfam together with our local partners – the Organization for Rehabilitation and Development in the Amhara region (ORDA), and the Development and Inter-Church Aid Commission (DICAC) – have already reached 32,786 people in Tigray and north Amhara region with food, sanitation, and hygiene kits, as well as protection programmes. Oxfam urgently needs USD 10.78 million to support 225,000 people in Tigray and Amhara region by November, and help provide food, water, and sanitation facilities, as well as urgently needed hygiene and sleeping material.

Oxfam calls upon the international community to support the humanitarian response in Ethiopia to help quickly mobilize resources and save lives. To date, despite rising humanitarian needs, only 58% of the total USD 1.3 billion Humanitarian Response Plan for the country, has been funded.

Parvin Ngala, Oxfam’s Acting Regional Director in Horn East and Central Africa (HECA) said: “We are urging parties to the conflict to agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities and find a peaceful resolution to this crisis. This will allow humanitarian agencies to reach people in need, for them to restart their lives. An end to the human rights violations and the fighting can enable farmers to plough their fields and plant their crops in the coming months that will prevent millions from starving.”

Above: Fantu Gezay, a farmer and a single mother of six living in Raya Azebo Woreda, Tigray told Oxfam: “The conflict erupted when farmers were about to harvest the produce left from the locust invasion. Whatever remained from the locust was destroyed by the war, and we couldn’t harvest the Teff and Maize crops.”

Notes to the Editor

Hunger figures are from UN OCHA report as of 27^th April 2021. 2 million people in Tigray are now in urgent need of food assistance.
Oxfam has established offices in South Tigray at Mehoni Town and Southeast Tigray at Mekelle City (capital of Tigray Region), which will also oversee activities in Central Tigray.
Since the early 1970s, Oxfam has been working in Ethiopia to save lives and help over 1.8 million most vulnerable people out of poverty. Working closely with partners, we provide clean water, sanitation, and food, as well as assist marginalised farmers to get out of poverty through long-term development projects. Oxfam works on ending gender injustices and helping women.

Oxfam responds to deadly COVID-19 wave in India

April 30, 2021

Oxfam responds to deadly COVID-19 wave in India

Oxfam India has deployed teams to five of the worst-hit states in India where a second wave of coronavirus is sweeping the country. The international organisation is urgently appealing for $2 million to fund its emergency response to the crisis. Oxfam New Zealand is contributing to this worldwide effort and raising funds for Oxfam India’s response.

Teams have already started providing face masks, hand sanitizer and other protective equipment in parts of Maharashtra following a request from state health authorities. Distribution of PPE to 500 frontline health workers will begin in Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the coming days.

Oxfam India is procuring oxygen tanks, beds, digital thermometers, and other medical equipment to help government hospitals where supplies are desperately low. We are also preparing to provide food rations and cash support to stranded migrant workers and other marginalised groups, and handwashing stations in public spaces.

Pankaj Anand, Humanitarian and Programmes Director, said: “I do not know of a single family that has not seen at least one of its members infected. The surge in coronavirus cases has caught the country off guard. We are seeing hundreds of thousands of new cases every day and many more deaths. The health infrastructure in India is bursting at the seams [under huge pressure] and there are widespread reports of shortages of oxygen and other medical supplies in large cities.”

Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India, said: “Our immediate priority is to supply hospitals and health workers with medical equipment and PPE so they can continue treating those who are sick. But to avoid a worse humanitarian disaster it is vital we stop the spread and so we are also preparing handwashing stations and awareness campaigns to help people stay safe. We are particularly concerned about migrant workers and other marginalised groups who may be stranded in the open and will be hit hardest by lockdowns and the economic shock. Oxfam India is preparing to provide food rations and cash assistance to help the most vulnerable people to survive the coming weeks.”

Spokespeople available for interview via Skype or phone

To arrange an interview, please contact:

Tejas Patel tejas@oxfamindia.org +91 9999105600

Savvy Soumya Misra savvy@oxfamindia.org +91 98187 79535

Matt Grainger matt.grainger@oxfam.org +447730680837

Nesrine Aly nesrine.aly@oxfam.org +447503989838

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Notes to editors:

Oxfam India will begin supplying PPE to 500 frontline health workers in five states in the coming days. It is also procuring oxygen tanks and masks, beds, digital thermometers and other medical equipment to help supply government hospitals, as well as 900 emergency food rations to support the most marginalized groups. Oxfam India and its partners are monitoring the situation in 16 states across India.

Since the first outbreak of COVID-19 last year, Oxfam India has been working to provide food, PPE, safety kits, cash assistance and livelihoods training across 15 states (Assam, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana). Oxfam India is committed to reaching the most vulnerable and marginalized groups including Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims and women and girls.

The sudden disruption caused by lockdowns has had a severe impact on daily wage labourers, migrants and informal workers who are struggling to feed themselves and their families. The sudden spike in cases COVID-19 in states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi has resulted in many migrant workers becoming stranded in railway stations, bus terminals or at their places of work. Oxfam’s field teams report that these groups, who are often excluded from government support, need food and handwashing facilities to reduce their chances of becoming infected.