Media Releases

Syria marks 10 years of conflict

March 17, 2021

Are Syria’s broken people being forgotten after 10 years of conflict?

Ten years on, the Syrian conflict continues to cause misery for the millions who have fled and those who are still trapped inside the country. Along with the Council for International Development, 12 New Zealand aid agencies are thankful for caring Kiwis who have supported their work among Syrian refugees and for New Zealand Government funding but are urging the government to remember those who continue to suffer.

In February, the UN reported a funding gap of 9.81 billion US dollars to meet the needs of suffering Syrians. This shows the scale of the continuing humanitarian need and the economic cost of 10 years of conflict in Syria has been put at 1.2 trillion USD. At $US19.4 billion, humanitarian aid to Syria over that time has been just 1.6 per cent of that amount.

New Zealand aid agencies are grateful for the New Zealand Government funding they received that supported their work among refugees up until May 2017. However, with no diplomatic end in sight for the devastated country, New Zealand aid agencies are asking the New Zealand Government not to abandon the people of Syria and release more much-needed funding so that they can carry on supporting Syrian refugees.

CEO of Tearfund NZ, Ian McInnes says, “On the 10th year of Syria’s war, we collectively urge the New Zealand Government and the International Community to continue investing in long-term solutions for Syrian children so that the past decade does not define their future. Aid remains a lifeline for all war-affected Syrians who are still struggling to access critical services including health, nutrition, education and protection.”

National Director of World Vision NZ, Grant Bayldon says, “As the war has gone on, the suffering of the people has increasingly been forgotten. As funds have dried up, so has the help that many Syrian families need to make it through.”

Executive Director of Oxfam NZ, Rachael Le Mesurier says, “With the ongoing impact of Covid-19, escalating climate change and a global economic recession, aid agencies face some tough decisions but this is not the time to lose focus on Syria. We urge the New Zealand Government to renew its efforts to influence world leaders to find a political solution that could bring this conflict to an end and make further financial aid available to New Zealand aid agencies to help Syrian families and communities traumatised by ten years of war.”

CEO of UNICEF NZ, Michelle Sharp says, the decade-long war in Syria has had an unimaginable toll on children. “Today, more than six million children need assistance, half a million are chronically malnourished, and in the last year alone, the reported number of children in psychological distress has doubled. Every child has the right to safety and we must urgently reimagine a better world for Syrian children.”

CEO of Save the Children NZ, Heidi Coetzee, says the children of Syrian are paying the ultimate price of this deadly and prolonged conflict. We call on political leaders to urgently bring about a peaceful resolution to this conflict that has gone on 10 years too long.

Key Stats

Over 5.5 million Syrians live as refugees in the region. More than six million Syrians are displaced within the country.
Approximately one in four people in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee. (About 1.5m refugees)
More than half of Syria’s infrastructure has been destroyed
Though Syria accounts for less than one per cent of the world’s population, its people make up nearly one-third of refugees worldwide.
Approximately 50 per cent of all registered Syrian refugees are under the age of 18 and millions have grown up knowing nothing but conflict.

Covid-19 cases (15-03-2021)

Syria: 16,401 cases 1094 deaths
Lebanon: 415,000, cases 5,334 deaths

The 12 Council for International Development affiliated aid agencies are: ADRA, Anglican Missions, Caritas, CBM, CWS, Hagar, International Needs, Oxfam, Save the Children NZ, Tearfund, UNICEF and World Vision.

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Media Contacts:
Helen Manson
helen@tearfund.org.nz
022 5861567

Gabriel Thomas
Gabriel.Thomas@worldvision.org.nz
+6421360098

In response to calls for a waiver of Trade and Intellectual Property Rules (TRIPS) for COVID-19 vaccines.

March 12, 2021

In response to calls for a waiver of Trade and Intellectual Property Rules (TRIPS) for COVID-19 vaccines, which is backed by more than 100 mostly developing countries, being blocked again at World Trade Organisation talks by rich countries, Oxfam’s Health Policy Manager, Anna Marriott, said:

“This is a massive missed opportunity to speed up and scale up the production of lifesaving vaccines worldwide by waiving the intellectual property barriers that prevent more qualified manufacturers joining the effort.

“Rich countries are vaccinating at a rate of one person per second yet are siding with a handful of pharmaceutical corporations in protecting their monopolies against the needs of the majority of developing countries who are struggling to administer a single dose.

“It is unforgivable that while people are literally fighting for breath, rich country governments continue to block what could be a vital breakthrough in ending this pandemic for everyone in rich and poor countries alike.

“During a pandemic that is devastating lives across the planet, governments should be using their powers now, not tomorrow, to remove intellectual property rules and ensure pharmaceutical companies work together to share technology and fix raw material shortages, all of which are standing in the way of a massive scale up in production.”

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Oxfam is part of The Peoples’ Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of global and national organizations and activists united under a common aim of campaigning for a ‘People’s Vaccine’. The call for a People’s Vaccine is backed by past and present world leaders, health experts, faith leaders and economists. For more information visit: https://peoplesvaccine.org

Rich nations vaccinating one person every second while majority of the poorest nations are yet to give a single dose

March 10, 2021

US, UK and EU blocking proposals at WTO to help poorer countries get vaccines more quickly

One year on from the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the People’s Vaccine Alliance is warning that developing countries are facing critical shortages of oxygen and medical supplies to cope with COVID-19 cases yet the majority have been unable to administer a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. In contrast rich nations have vaccinated their citizens at a rate of one person per second over the last month.

Many of these rich nations, including the US, UK and EU, are blocking a proposal by over 100 developing countries to be discussed at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) today, which would override the monopolies held by pharmaceutical companies and allow an urgently needed scale up in the production of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines to ensure poorer countries get access to the doses they desperately need. New Zealand has not yet indicated its support for the waiver.

While more poor countries will see the arrival of doses in the coming days from the World Health Organisation’s COVAX facility, the amounts available mean only three per cent of people in those countries can hope to be vaccinated by mid-year, and only one fifth at best by the end of 2021.

Almost one million people worldwide have signed a call by the People’s Vaccine Alliance – a group of campaigning organisations including Oxfam, Frontline AIDS, UNAIDS, Global Justice Now and the Yunus Centre – for rich nations to stop protecting big pharma monopolies and profits over people’s lives. On 11 March protests will take place outside pharmaceutical headquarters as part of a global day of action by activists across the world.

Recent public opinion polls carried out by YouGov for the Alliance in the US, France, Germany and the UK found that on average, across these countries, more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of people thought that governments should ensure vaccine science and know-how is shared with qualified manufacturers around the world rather than remaining the exclusive property of a handful of pharmaceutical giants and that vaccine developers should be adequately compensated for this.

Oxfam International’s Executive Director, Gabriela Bucher, said: “Around the world, two and a half million lives have already been lost due to this brutal disease and many countries are battling without adequate medical care and no vaccines. By allowing a small group of pharmaceutical companies to decide who lives and who dies, rich nations are prolonging this unprecedented global health emergency and putting countless more lives on the line. At this crucial time, developing countries need support – not opposition.”

The Alliance warned that in South Africa, Malawi and other African nations history is in danger of repeating itself. Millions of people died in the early 2000’s because pharmaceutical monopolies had priced successful treatments for HIV/AIDS out of reach at up to USD$10,000 a year.

Lois Chingandu, activist and Director of Evidence and Influence at Frontline AIDS, said: “Here in Zimbabwe, I have lost many dear friends, struggling to breathe in their last moments. It is a cruel irony that activists who fought tirelessly for free medicines for HIV/AIDS are now being killed by COVID-19 because, yet again, pharma profits are being put ahead of people’s lives.”

Pharma monopolies were eventually overruled allowing the mass production of cheap effective treatment for those living with HIV/AIDS, meaning millions of people are alive today who would otherwise have perished.

On 10-11 March, more than 100 developing countries, led by South Africa and India will again make the case at the WTO for a waiver of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), which would remove legal barriers for more countries and manufacturers to produce the vaccines, protect their people and join the economic recovery ahead.

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, one of the leaders of the People’s Vaccine Alliance said: “For the rich world, this proposed act of human solidarity to ensure that medicines and vaccines get to the whole human family simultaneously is in their own self-interest, not just an act of charity.

“We should act now. There is no going back. It is totally unfair that rich countries, who have enough vaccines to protect their citizens, are blocking the TRIPS waiver, which could help poorer countries get the vaccines they need.”

All the leading vaccine developers have benefited from billions of dollars in public subsidies, yet pharmaceutical corporations have been handed the monopoly rights to produce and profit from them.

At the same time qualified vaccine producers all over the world stand ready to produce more vaccines if they were allowed access to the technology and know-how now being held under lock and key by these companies. New capacity could be brought on stream within months. Suhaib Siddiqi, former director of chemistry at Moderna, producer of one of the first approved vaccines, said that with the blueprint and technical advice, a modern factory should be able to produce vaccines in at most three to four months.

France has called for the expansion of production in developing countries, and the US has moved to achieve the same domestically. But so far both countries continue to defend the monopolies of pharma corporations.

To control the virus, enough doses of vaccines need to be produced in different geographies, priced affordably, allocated globally and widely deployed for free in local communities. Thus far, the world is failing on all four fronts.

Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director UNAIDS, said: “Amid so much personal selflessness, sacrifice and heroism, the People’s Vaccine Alliance denounces the hypocrisy, emptiness of human solidarity and myopic self-interest that defeats efforts to control the virus in countries. Only a truly global mobilization of vaccine production to rapidly scale-up the total number of low-cost doses available will get the job done.”

Nick Dearden, Director of Global Justice Now, said: “One year into the global pandemic, it’s an outrage that vaccine factories are lying idle, unable to produce COVID-19 vaccines because rich countries are prioritising the patents of pharmaceutical companies ahead of the lives of people across the world. A global suspension of patents is needed to speed up the production of these vaccines everywhere.”

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Notes to editors:

Drawing on data from OurWorldInData, Bloomberg, John Hopkins University and additional searches, of the 79 low and lower-middle income countries, as classified by the World Bank, the majority (at least 47 countries) are yet to vaccinate anyone. This figure is accurate as of 4 March and factors in reported planned deliveries of COVAX vaccines in the coming days even if vaccines are yet to be administered. We recognise that more unreported COVAX shipments may arrive in the interim.
Since the start of 2021 high income countries have on average vaccinated citizens at a rate of one dose per second. This is based on the average daily COVID-19 vaccination doses administered between 1 January and 2 March 2021 and was drawn from OurWorldInData for countries classified as ‘High Income’ by the World Bank. An hourly rate was calculated by assuming countries are vaccinating 8 hours per day which was then divided into minutes and seconds. The average of these per second rates for these 68 high income countries was then calculated at 1.1 doses per second or 66 per minute. The average figure includes six High Income countries that have not yet begun vaccinating citizens.
The YouGov poll results for the individual countries were: US – 69 per cent, France – 63 per cent, Germany 70 per cent and the UK 74 per cent, which gives a combined average across the countries of 69 per cent. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1,351 adults in the US, 1788 adults in the UK, 1010 adults in France and 2039 adults in Germany. Fieldwork was undertaken between 23 – 26 February 2021. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all adults (aged 18+) in each individual country of the US, UK, France and Germany.
Last week, The Associated Press found factories on three continents whose owners said they could begin producing hundreds of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines on short notice, if only they had the blueprints and technical know how to do so.
Countries like South Sudan, Yemen and Malawi have seen dramatic surges in cases in recent months. Malawi saw a 9500 per cent increase in cases as the South African mutation spread through the country and two of their cabinet ministers died in one day.

For more information, or to arrange an interview please contact:

Kelsey-Rae Taylor on kelsey-rae.taylor@oxfam.org.nz or 021 298 5894

Growing Hunger with the Climate Crisis and the Pandemic in the Central American Dry Corridor

March 4, 2021

The Faces of Hunger in Central America report, published today by the Consortium of Humanitarian Organizations that includes Acción contra el Hambre, COOPI, Trócaire, Oxfam, and We World-GVC, describes the food insecurity situation for the most vulnerable population in the Central American Dry Corridor as a result of recurring droughts, Covid-19, and the hurricane season.

This research reveals that drought events in 2018 and 2019 left 72% of the subsistence farmers facing moderate or severe food insecurity by August 2019. With the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020 and the impacts of Tropical Storms Amanda and Cristobal and Hurricanes Eta and Iota, hunger in the region has grown more severe. The report concludes that 86% of the households in the dry corridor are currently facing food insecurity.

“The impact of climate change in the form of droughts and heavy rains, combined with the pandemic, violence, and limited state capacity to deploy social protection systems, could leave 7 million people in extreme poverty. The number of people in Central America in food insecurity could grow by 120% by the year 2030 if we don’t act now” stated Gloria García Parra, the Oxfam Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Central America is responsible for only 0.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but the region is among the areas most affected by climate change. In addition to climate issues, the Dry Corridor faces other hazards including unemployment and violence, which can exacerbate hunger, especially for the most vulnerable households.

Violence and unemployment: Approximately 8,000 homicides were reported in 2020, and the countries of the region faced growing social discontent for problems such as corruption and limited access to quality public services. Approximately 8.3 million jobs were lost due to the pandemic in the region, and the outlook for 2021 is not encouraging, with projections of rising unemployment and extreme poverty rates reaching 22.8% in Nicaragua, 22.7% in Guatemala, 11.9% in El Salvador, and 22.2% in Honduras, according to the report.

Covid-19 and migration: The pandemic continues to wreak havoc. As of February 25, approximately 406,000 positive cases and 12,400 deaths had been reported. These figures do not consider the likely under-reporting in the region. Despite the rising infection rates, a significant number of people view emigration as an option to escape the constant state of crisis, and migrant caravans travelling to the United States have been an ongoing phenomenon.

Women and girls bear the brunt: The report describes that in addition to taking responsibility for care work, women and girls are the last to eat, prioritizing feeding men and boys to protect the household labor force. According to the report, 7 out of 10 households with severe food insecurity are single-parent families.

“The situation in the region can deteriorate if concrete actions are not taken in the short term. According to the World Food Program, 8 million people may go hungry in the Central American Dry Corridor in 2021”, concluded Gloria García Parra.

Nearly 40 per cent of Yemen families forced into debt to pay for essentials – Oxfam

February 18, 2021

Nearly two out of every five families in Yemen buy food and medicines using debt, according to Oxfam research published today.

Yemeni families are trapped in a cycle of informal debt, living precariously and reliant on good will of shopkeepers as they lurch from one month to the next.

Many told Oxfam they can’t borrow the money they need for essentials unless shopkeepers know they have a monthly income and for many this means the money they receive from humanitarian agencies.

Last year, donors only provided half of the aid money needed for the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and with the 2021 UN humanitarian need budget for Yemen due out imminently, Oxfam is urging the international community to be generous when pledging funds.

The research found that Yemeni shopkeepers estimate that the number of families using debt to buy food has risen by 62 per cent since the conflict in Yemen started in 2015. Pharmacists in Yemen estimate an increase of 44 per cent in debt being used to purchase medicines.

Layla Mansoor,31, and her family were forced to flee from their home in an active conflict zone in Hodeidah three years ago – they escaped with barely more than the clothes on their backs. Layla says she is often in debt to the shops she buys their food from and each month they owe between 10,000 and 12,000 YER (around USD $11-$15). Her family can’t afford to eat meat or fish except on rare occasions. She said:” At the moment we’re living a nightmare. Thankfully, until now, we haven’t needed any kind of medical treatment – but I’m afraid that we won’t afford it, if one day we do.”

Ibrahim Alwazir who carried out the research for Oxfam in Yemen said: “To struggle this hard to be able to provide food and medicine for one’s family is an avoidable hardship that millions have to overcome on a daily basis. We need peace so no more Yemenis are forced to flee their homes and live in poverty. Peace will allow people to rebuild their lives and businesses, but we need support to help communities to do that. This war has turned my country into the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and it’s only getting worse. We all just want to get back to normal life.”

Some 24.3 million Yemenis, over 53 per cent of the population, currently need humanitarian assistance. This year, 16.2 million Yemenis will rely on food aid to survive, with 17.9 million lacking access to healthcare in a country where only half of health facilities are fully functional. It is estimated that in parts of Yemen one in five children are severely malnourished and will grow up with life-long medical conditions if they do not get more food.

Oxfam, along with other agencies in Yemen, provides support for struggling families in the form of cash transfers which allows people to choose what they buy and helps stimulate local markets.

Many families who are struggling with debt say that they are living permanently in arrears – using their transfer to pay off what they owe and then run up more debt as they wait for their next aid payment. This situation is worsening because high levels of inflation, fuelled by the conflict, mean that the value of money is decreasing. In practical terms the same amount of cash buys fewer groceries each month.

Hind Qassem, 45, was pregnant with her tenth child when her husband was killed by an artillery shell forcing her to flee with her children. At first, they lived under a plastic sheet, relying on leftovers given by neighbouring families. Three of her sons suffer from sickle cell anaemia and need blood transfusions every month. She said: “Now, I receive YER 45,000 (around US$70) every month, yes, it is not enough to cover all our needs but it helps a lot. I am now able to pay for my children’s treatment and buy some flour and vegetables for us to eat. Shops will now allow us to buy food on credit because we are receiving monthly assistance.”

Food shop and pharmacy owners both told Oxfam staff that they allow customers to buy items on credit because they sympathise with the harsh difficulties they are facing. Some also said that it makes economic sense for their business and pharmacy owners also said they did not want to feel responsible for someone’s death if they refused credit for medicines.

Grocery store owner Abdulkareem Salaeh from Sana’a said: “We are left with no choice (but to offer credit) people are desperate, and we are struggling to keep the business going. While some are able to pay, others can’t and that’s a problem. We only agree to lend people with a reliable source of income, like employees, business owners, daily wage labourers or those receiving humanitarian aid, else it will be a loss that we can’t afford. We are barely able to cover operational costs and the costs of goods we sell. It’s unfortunate!”

Grocery shop owners have told Oxfam that debt is most often used to buy basic commodities like bread, flour, sugar, rice, legumes and cooking oil. In pharmacies, debt is typically used to buy medicines for diabetes and high blood pressure or for fevers and diarrhoea in rural areas.

Concerned business owners told Oxfam that they feel the debt situation is unsustainable as their customers are increasingly unable to pay off all their debt each month and so the rising levels of debt their businesses are carrying mean their future is looking uncertain.

If business owners stop allowing them credit people will be unable to eat, driving higher levels of malnourishment. Oxfam is also worried that if shop owners do not have funds to replenish stock the resulting shortages will drive food prices even higher.

Notes to editors:

Research findings are based on 30 surveys by Oxfam in Yemen of grocery and pharmacy store owners across Sana’a, Hajjah, Ibb and Aden Governorates in November and early December 2020. All surveys were collected near poor and densely populated neighbourhoods within cities and suburban areas, with some of them being close to IDP settlements where humanitarian aid groups are active

Oxfam is supporting Raghad Jubran, one of 1690 families (11,830 people) in Bani Thawab sub-district of Abs district in Hajjah governorate.

Aid relief information and update

Health care facility information from UN Yemen HRP 2020

Figures for numbers facing starvation and reliant on food aid taken from here

Child malnutrition figures from UNICEF

For more information, or to arrange an interview please contact:
Kelsey-Rae Taylor on kelsey-rae.taylor@oxfam.org.nz or 021 298 5894

Air NZ “bought share of the blame” for Yemen humanitarian catastrophe with Saudi contract – Oxfam

February 12, 2021

Air New Zealand’s contract with the Saudi military is an unacceptable breach of international obligations and New Zealanders’ trust, said Oxfam today, as the aid agency called for the government’s investigation to be made public.

The $3m contract, signed by Air New Zealand in 2019 to repair critical engine components for Saudi naval vessels, is more than twice the value of New Zealand’s humanitarian assistance last year to the conflict in Yemen – the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“With one hand, New Zealanders are donating critical funds through government and humanitarian agencies to save lives in Yemen, while with another, a New Zealand company, of which the New Zealand government is a majority stakeholder, is supporting a military accused by the UN of war crimes during this crisis,” said Oxfam New Zealand’s executive director, Rachael Le Mesurier. “The New Zealand public deserves an investigation that answers the question of whether or not this country has failed to live up to its legal and ethical obligations to the international community.”

Le Mesurier said the fact Air New Zealand could not answer whether its remaining military contracts were aiding international humanitarian crimes must spark a bigger conversation about how we hold New Zealand businesses to account. “It all points to the need for stronger measures to monitor and ensure New Zealand corporate compliance with human rights in their overseas operations.”

Since 2015, Saudi Arabia and its military coalition partners have been parties to the conflict in Yemen’s vicious civil war, leading the fighting and preventing shipments of life-saving supplies by air, land and sea– committing, the UN say, clear violations of International Humanitarian Law.

“Yemenis were looking to the people and Government of New Zealand to help put a stop to these outrageous violations; not enable them,” said Le Mesurier. “By providing services to the Saudi Navy, implicated in potential war crimes, Air New Zealand has bought a share of the blame for the resulting humanitarian catastrophe.”

After more than five years of war, over 24 million Yemenis – eighty per cent of the population – are in need of humanitarian assistance, with almost 4 million people displaced and half a million facing starvation. Saudi Arabia’s military has enforced intermittent blockades on Yemen’s ports, disrupting humanitarian access and preventing imports of food, water and medical supplies.

Le Mesurier said while it was good that Air New Zealand has since cancelled work on the contract, and the Government has announced it is investigating, it raises serious questions about the processes in place to monitor such deals. “Oxfam welcomes these first steps, but this contract suggests that many serious ethical failures occurred at many levels,” she said.

“Both Kiwis and the people of Yemen deserve better from the New Zealand government and the companies they trust. The prime minister must urgently deliver answers on whether this contract violated New Zealand’s international legal obligations, such as under the Arms Trade Treaty; and whether export control procedures were followed, and on what basis the contract was approved.

“If Air New Zealand – a company in which the government itself owns the majority of the shares – can circumvent export controls, what confidence do we have other companies aren’t doing the same?”, she asked.

Ibtisam Sageer Al Razehi, a 35-year-old former teacher and mother of three, lives with her children in the remains of the family house in Sa’ada city in Yemen, which was damaged by missiles and artillery fire. Her husband was killed by an airstrike in 2015.

“I lost my husband, my children lost their father, we lost the breadwinner and because of war I also lost my salary as our last hope for living,” she said.

“Humanitarian aid has decreased a lot; now we receive food every two months instead of every month. I appeal to the world to have mercy on the children of Yemen and stop this war. We are very tired of living in war for years, we lost everything beautiful in our lives, even the simple hope of peace.’’

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Notes to editors:

Article 6 of the Arms Trade Treaty prohibits the transfer of arms to countries where there is awareness of any war crimes or other serious violence against civilians. However, even where this threshold is not reached, Article 7.1 further requires that state parties ‘pursuant to its national control system, shall, in an objective and non-discriminatory manner, taking into account relevant factors, including information provided by the importing State in accordance with Article 8 (1), assess the potential that the conventional arms or items: […] could be used to:
- commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law;
- If, after conducting this assessment and considering available mitigating measures, the exporting State Party determines that there is an overriding risk of any of the negative consequences in paragraph 1, the exporting State Party shall not authorise the export.

For more information, or to arrange an interview please contact:

Kelsey-Rae Taylor on kelsey-rae.taylor@oxfam.org.nz or 021 298 5894