Media Releases

Oxfam Congratulates President-Elect Joe Biden

November 9, 2020

Oxfam congratulates President-elect Joe Biden in his hard-fought election victory to be the next President of the United States, and calls on him to deliver on a bold, new agenda that takes to scale fighting against structural injustices of poverty and inequality, and immediate action on climate change.

“After such a divisive moment in our history, we must all come together— across political parties and physical borders — to tackle our biggest challenges, from COVID-19 to climate change, from inequality to injustice,” said Abby Maxman, President and CEO of Oxfam America. “Americans across the country have shown tremendous resilience during a pandemic that has brought so much hardship for many of us, dealing with the grim realities of lost jobs, lost loved ones, a health crisis, social distancing, virtual schooling, and social uprising. As we recommit ourselves to pursue climate, gender, racial, and economic justice in the United States and around the world, we must put on our masks, roll up our sleeves, and get to work.”

Oxfam urges President-elect Biden to urgently follow through on his campaign promises to work with Congress to enact a transformational COVID-19 recovery plan that puts an end to the pandemic, saves the economy, and tackles the root causes of economic inequality that have been severely exacerbated by this crisis.

Specifically, we are calling on President-elect Biden and Congress to:

Enact a People’s Vaccine that is free and accessible to all, based on need not wealth.
Pass a multi-trillion-dollar economic recovery plan that challenges corporate power and invests in millions of dignified, green jobs for the people hardest hit by COVID, especially women and people of color.
Work in partnership with our allies to provide significant new funding and debt-relief to the global fight against COVID-19.

To truly address the root causes of our current crisis, this plan must include reforms that protect the rights of workers and be paid for by finally ensuring the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share of taxes.

Oxfam looks forward to working with President-elect Biden to usher in a new era that will prioritize peace, health, gender justice, and environmental integrity; enshrine, promote, and protect the human rights of all, recommit to multilateralism, and seek to tackle income inequality once and for all.

“This pandemic has shown us how our gravest challenges in the US are often the same challenges people face around the world,” said Maxman. “Systemic racism, economic inequality, gender discrimination, unequal access to healthcare, climate change, the refugee crisis: these issues can only be solved if we stand up for the equal rights of every person and commit to reaching beyond our borders. We call on President-elect Biden to strengthen alliances and fight for dignity for all.”

Super Typhoon Goni makes landfall in the Philippines

November 3, 2020

More than 2 million people impacted as Super Typhoon Goni sweeps across the Philippines

Oxfam is working with local partners and coordinating with local governments in the Philippines to assess the damage and needs of affected communities following Super Typhoon Goni’s four landfalls yesterday and early this morning.

At least two million people or 400,000 families have been affected, with thousands of homes damaged or destroyed, and at least 10 people killed, according to the latest government figures. The intense storm also caused major damage to crops, with an estimated 20,000 farmers impacted.

The world’s strongest typhoon this year has now passed through the Philippines and weakened after hitting the densely populated capital, Manila, early this morning.

Oxfam Philippines’ Humanitarian Lead Rhoda Avila said:

“We have experienced terrible wind speeds, lashing rains and devastating flooding. Buildings have been destroyed and whole villages are under water and mudflows.

“We will be conducting assessments of affected areas with our partners as soon as we can get access, but conditions are very difficult. Roads are flooded and power is down in many areas making communications with some parts impossible.

“We also have to work with the threat of COVID-19 transmission in mind to protect both our emergency response teams and the people they are helping.”

Oxfam has been trialling a new disaster relief system in various parts of the country. B-READY identifies vulnerable people in several communities who are likely to be affected when a typhoon sweeps through their community. Once the exact path of the typhoon is confirmed, cash transfers to those people are then triggered to enable them to prepare by securing their properties and ensuring they have enough provisions to get through the first few days.

Oxfam is working with local partners Humanitarian Response Consortium, Aksyon sa Kahandaan sa Kalamidad at Klima (AKKMA) and Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA), Community Organizers Multiversity (COM), and People’s Disaster Risk Reduction Network (PDRRN).

Super Typhoon Goni (known locally as Rolly) is the Philippines’ 18th tropical cyclone for 2020.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Siony is expected to make landfall in Cagayan Valley (in the northeast of the island of Luzon) later this week, according to the state weather bureau PAGASA. Cagayan Valley is the same area ravaged by Mangkhut, a powerful super typhoon, in September 2018, the strongest storm that year.

An average of 20 tropical cyclones form within or enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility each year. Goni is the third consecutive typhoon in two weeks.

Oxfam NZ reacts to announcement of new foreign minister

November 2, 2020

Oxfam says the appointment of Hon Nanaia Mahuta as the new Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade is welcomed and the aid agency looks forward to working with her over the next term.

Oxfam New Zealand executive director Rachael Le Mesurier said: “As a Māori woman and the first woman in New Zealand’s history to hold this portfolio, Nanaia Mahuta will bring a valuable perspective to her new role and we are pleased to congratulate her on her new position.

“New Zealand’s relationship with our overseas neighbours is taking an ever more crucial place in today’s world, with global heating, a global pandemic and inequality all issues we are best equipped to face if we act together as a strong global community.

“With this in mind, we look forward to working with Hon Mahuta to place New Zealand at the forefront of decisive action for a more just and sustainable world, including ensuring our aid levels can meet the rapidly growing need across the world and that we are standing in solidarity with our Pacific neighbours in our collective action against climate injustice.”

Western Sahara: Oxfam’s reaction to MINURSO renewal

November 2, 2020

In reaction to the UN Security Council’s renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSU) 27 October, Oxfam in Algeria Country Director, Haissam Minkara, said:

“Oxfam welcomes the decision but warns of the continued suffering of over 170,000 Sahrawi refugees in Algeria as the conflict marks its 45th year this October. Sahrawi refugees have endured decades of exile, living in the most inhospitable Algerian Sahara and surviving almost entirely on humanitarian aid.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has fuelled chronic hunger and poverty in the camps even further – in April 2020, Oxfam and other agencies launched a joint appeal calling for $14 million to meet the immediate needs of the Sahrawi refugees in the wake of the massive impact of the pandemic. Six months on, this appeal is only 60% funded. Meanwhile, the number of households able to eat a healthy diet had dropped to a shocking 23% from an already meager 44% in December 2019. Nevertheless, achieving a peaceful resolution to this protracted conflict remains deprioritized by the international community.

“Oxfam calls for the immediate appointment of a new UN Personal Envoy for Western Sahara to restart the peace process without any further delay. After 18 months without an Envoy, the positive momentum towards a political solution that former Personal Envoy, Horst Koehler, had begun has been lost, and the sense of frustration and abandonment within the Sahrawi refugee camps continues to grow.

“In light of the conflict’s 45th anniversary, Western Sahara and the Sahrawi refugee crisis are an important reminder that if the international community does not actively pursue solutions to secure sustainable peace and security, Sahrawi refugees are set to live in deepening hunger, poverty, and further denial of their fundamental rights. The international community must live up to the expectations of the Sahrawi people and achieve a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution which provides for self-determination in line with international law.”

Notes to editors

Since 1975 Algeria has hosted a large proportion of the Sahrawi population in refugee camps near the city of Tindouf, the majority of whom are dependent on humanitarian aid to sustain basic needs such as access to food, water, and shelter.
The camps are situated in a particularly hostile environment, with temperatures reaching up to 50 degrees Celsius in summer, frequent sandstorms, constant drought, and rare but devastating floods. As a result, refugees suffer from persistent levels of food insecurity and malnutrition and have limited opportunities for self-reliance.
For more on food insecurity in the Sahrawi refugee camps: https://bit.ly/3ofdEQ9
Oxfam has been active in the camps since 1975, and over the years, our work has evolved from emergency aid to the multifaceted provision of humanitarian support, resilience programming, and capacity building activities.
For more on Oxfam in the Sahrawi refugee camps: https://www.oxfam.org/en/what-we-do/countries/algeria

The Hunger Virus: ” Abysmally low” funding for 55m people facing extreme hunger in seven worst-affected countries

October 13, 2020

The threat of “Covid famines” and widespread extreme hunger is setting off every alarm bell within the international community, but so far sluggish funding is hampering humanitarian agencies’ efforts to deliver urgent assistance to people in need.

A new Oxfam analysis says that the international community’s response to global food insecurity has been dangerously inadequate. The report, “Later Will Be Too Late”, is aimed at the Committee for World Food Security’s (CFS) high-level event today which is hoped to “keep food security and nutrition front-and-centre of the global sustainable development agenda”.

In Yemen, DRC, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Somalia – that is, five of the seven countries where severe hunger continues to increase – donors have so far given no money at all for the “Covid-related nutrition assistance” part of the UN’s USD$10.34b humanitarian appeal.

This is despite more than 55 million people in those seven worst-affected countries, including Afghanistan and South Sudan, facing severe-to-extreme levels of food insecurity. There are now famine-like conditions in some parts of South Sudan and Burkina Faso.

Hunger levels in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo are worse now than in 2017 when the threat of four famines was looming and only averted by a last-minute declaration by the UN that pushed donors into giving massive support.

As of today, donors have pledged just 28% of the UN Covid appeal that was launched back in March this year. Every sector including gender-based violence (58%), protection (27%), health (26.6 %) and water, sanitation and hygiene (17.2%) are chronically under-funded. But some of the worst funded sectors are food security (10.6%) and nutrition (3.2%).

The UN has divided its humanitarian appeal into “Covid” and “non-Covid”-related needs. In six of the seven countries where severe hunger is rising, donors have provided less than 40% of the funding they need for Covid-related food security.

“Even one of the first hunger ‘hot-spots’ in Africa – Burkina Faso – has only been able to secure less than half the humanitarian assistance it needs,” said Oxfam International interim Executive Director, Chema Vera.

“Three years ago, following an extraordinary food crisis, the international community rallied in the promise we would never see these levels of hunger again. And yet here we are again, with relative indifference. Millions of people simply cannot afford delay,” he said.

The economic fall-out of the coronavirus pandemic is both ripping away people’s resources to feed their families and those available to the international community amid all the competing priorities. “2020 is a perfect storm – we know that – but our primary aim must surely be to help keep people alive,” Vera said.

“The CFS must raise the alarm at the UN that famine is imminent on its watch and not enough is yet being done to stop it. We need a fairer and more sustainable food system that supports small scale producers. Years of neglect mean that million upon millions of people remain unnecessarily vulnerable to shocks like Covid, climate change and conflict.”

“In July we warned that by the end of this year more people could be dying from Covid-related hunger than from the disease itself. There is overwhelming evidence that money spent on preparedness and prevention not only saves lives today but can break the costly cycle of poverty and hunger and give people hope for tomorrow”.

“The international community should fully-fund the UN appeal now and accompany this by the strongest political action to support the Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire. We must break this horrific, never-ending bond between conflict and hunger.”

Notes to the editor

Donations to fund the humanitarian response for Covid are reported by the UN OCHA FTS on 30 September 2020..
Only 28% ($2.85b) of the $10.19b requested in the UN Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID-19 has been funded. Breaking that figure down by sector, it falls to 10.6% ($254.4m provided out of $2.4b requested) for food security and a paltry 3.2% ($7.9m provided, $247.8m requested) for nutrition. Source: UNOCHA as of 30 Sept 2020

Oxfam congratulates the UN World Food Program for its Nobel Peace Prize – Reaction

October 12, 2020

Oxfam congratulates the UN World Food Program for its Nobel Peace Prize. It is a timely and urgent recognition to the work that WFP does in fighting the scourge of global hunger. At a time when more than 135 million people in 55 countries around the world are facing severe to crisis levels of food insecurity, this recognition must also be a clarion call for wider and immediate action.

The UN’s $10.3b humanitarian appeal is today barely 40% funded – and within that, the money needed for global food security and nutrition are the most under-funded parts of the entire appeal. The international community should fully-fund the UN appeal now and accompany that with the strongest political action to support the Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire.

We must break the bond between conflict and hunger and work collectively towards peace. It would be terrible if this year, as we congratulate the WFP for a hugely-deserved Nobel Prize, would end with the world again forced to bear witness to mass death from starvation.