Media Releases

First Coronavirus Case Confirmed In Yemen

April 12, 2020

Photo: Moeen Alzuriqi (Protection Officer) at hygiene kit distribution in Alkoba IDP Camp, Taiz, Yemen. Hygiene kit distribution activities conducted by staff from Oxfam’s Taiz office took place over 3 days from 24th March 2020.

As the first case of coronavirus is confirmed in Yemen, Muhsin Siddiquey, Oxfam in Yemen’s Country Director said:

“The first confirmed case of coronavirus in Yemen is a devastating blow to a country that is ill-equipped after five years of brutal conflict to contain its spread.

“Over 17 million people have no access to clean water. For a third of Yemenis who are living in crowded camps and shelters, social distancing and frequent handwashing are extremely difficult.

“Only half of Yemen’s health centres are functioning, and there are widespread shortages of medicine, equipment and medical staff.

“The spread of coronavirus just as aid to parts of the country is reduced could be catastrophic for millions of people already living on the brink.

“The ceasefire must be urgently agreed by all parties to allow full, safe humanitarian access to ensure Yemeni families have the best chance to contain the virus.”

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Notes to editors

Oxfam is responding to the threat of the coronavirus pandemic in Yemen by ramping up public health promotion and awareness-raising initiatives as well as through the distribution of hygiene kits throughout the country. Our team is responding by training community health volunteers to raise awareness of the virus and help prevent the spread of the virus.
USAID has already announced a suspension in aid assistance to the North of Yemen.

Half a billion people could be pushed into poverty by coronavirus, warns Oxfam

April 9, 2020

The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic could push half a billion more people into poverty unless urgent action is taken to give real support to developing countries, said Oxfam today. The agency is calling on world leaders to agree an ‘Economic Rescue Package for All’ to keep poor countries and poor communities afloat, ahead of key meetings of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and G20 Finance Ministers’ next week.

Oxfam’s new report ‘Dignity Not Destitution’ presents fresh analysis which suggests between six and eight per cent of the global population could be forced into poverty as governments shut down entire economies to manage the spread of the virus. This could set back the fight against poverty by a decade, and as much as 30 years in some regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa. Over half the global population could be living in poverty in the aftermath of the pandemic.

The analysis, published today, was conducted at Oxfam’s suggestion by researchers at King’s College London and the Australian National University.

An ‘Emergency Rescue Package for All’ would enable poor countries to support their people through actions such as cash grants to those who have lost their income, and could be paid for through a variety of measures, including the immediate cancellation of USD$1 trillion of developing country debt payments in 2020.

Rachael Le Mesurier, Executive Director of Oxfam New Zealand said: “Families across the world and here in New Zealand are feeling stressed and scared. What this coronavirus pandemic shows is how poverty and crisis compound each other. When you’re living in a refugee camp or squatter settlement in a poor country, you live hand-to-mouth. Your government can’t afford to provide social protection measures so when you lose your job, you’re on your own.

“This is the reality for many people across the world and in our neighbourhood. For example, almost half of Vanuatu’s economy is reliant on tourism and hospitality, which has now been obliterated by border restrictions to stop the coronavírus – many people have lost jobs.

“On top of this, now, thousands of people are crammed into evacuation centres following Category 5 tropical cyclone Harold. Houses have been flattened and livelihoods destroyed. With the economic slowdown from the coronavirus and now this, they’re facing twin disasters, and the risk that if coronavírus was in the country, it would spread like wildfire with people sheltering in close confines and water cut off in affected places.”

Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam International Interim Executive Director said:

“The devastating economic fallout of the pandemic is being felt across the globe. But for poor people in poor countries who are already struggling to survive there are almost no safety nets to stop them falling into poverty.”

Many wealthy nations have introduced multi-billion-dollar economic stimulus packages to support business and workers, but most developing nations lack the financial firepower to follow suit. The UN estimates that nearly half of all jobs in Africa could be lost. Micah Olywangu, a taxi driver and father of three from Nairobi, Kenya, who has not had a fare since the lockdown closed the airport, bars and restaurants, told Oxfam that “this virus will starve us before it makes us sick.”

Delivering the USD$2.5 trillion the UN estimates is needed to support developing countries through the pandemic would also require an additional USD$500 billion in overseas aid. This includes USD$160 billion which Oxfam estimates is needed to boost poor countries’ public health systems and USD$2 billion for the UN humanitarian fund.

“Governments must learn the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis where bailouts for banks and corporations were paid for by ordinary people as jobs were lost, wages flatlined and essential services such as healthcare cut to the bone. Economic stimulus packages must support ordinary workers and small businesses, and bail outs for big corporations must be conditional on action to build fairer, more sustainable economies,” added Veraa

Donate to our Covid-19 Emergency Response here.

Notes to editors

Oxfam is responding to TC Harold in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. The category 5 cyclone is the strongest storm to hit Vanuatu since Cyclone Pam in 2015.
The World Bank and IMF 2020 Spring meetings will take place virtually from 17-19 April. G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will meet virtually on 15 April.
Download Dignity Not Destitution: An Economic Rescue Package for All.
In 2018 there were 3.4 billion people living on less than USD$5.5 per day according to the World Bank. Researchers used mathematical models to predict how many more people would fall below World Bank poverty lines of USD$1.90, USD$3.20 and USD$5.50 a day based on a 5, 10 and 20 percent drop in income. A 20 percent drop in income would mean an estimated 547.6 million more people living on less than USD$5.50 a day. Taking the range of estimates into account researchers predict a 6 – 8 percent rise in poverty compared to 2018 levels.
News outlets are reporting over 1 million garment workers in Bangladesh have lost their jobs as a result of orders being cancelled or suspended. The percentage of women working in the Garment industry in Bangladesh is from the World Bank.
Figures for Ghana from Diloá Jacob Bailey Athias of Development Pathways, based on UNDESA population figures.
Figures for Ethiopia from Development Finance International.
Oxfam is scaling up its cash transfer programming and food assistance in vulnerable communities across the globe —from poor urban settlements in Bangladesh to rural indigenous communities in Guatemala. Oxfam has been a leader in cash transfer programming for more than 20 years; in Yemen, we provide cash to families displaced by the conflict to buy food; in Colombia, we provide cash to Venezuelan migrants on the move; and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which faced the world’s second largest Ebola epidemic in history, we distribute cash and vouchers to allow the most vulnerable households to buy food and basic necessities.
At Oxfam’s suggestion, researchers at Kings College London and the University of Australia calculated how many more people might be pushed into poverty by the global coronavirus crisis. The results of the analysis will be published in Oxfam’s briefing paper ‘Dignity not Destitution,’ on Thursday 9 April. A more detailed working paper on the analysis will also be published on the 9 April by the UN University World Institute for Development Economics Research.

For more information or to coordinate an interview, please contact Kelsey-Rae Taylor at Kelsey-Rae.Taylor@oxfam.org.nz or 021 298 5894.

Oxfam coordinates response to tropical cyclone Harold

April 6, 2020

Oxfam teams in the Pacific are working with partner agencies and governments in Vanuatu and Solomon Islands, to plan a response to Tropical Cyclone Harold.

The Category 5 cyclone, made landfall in Santo and Malo islands in Vanuatu’s northern Sanma Province this morning local time and the slow-moving storm is now moving into the Penama and Malampa Provinces. The three provinces have a population of 127,000 people, many of whom are considered high risk as their very livelihoods depend on their food and vegetable gardens.

Heavy rainfall and gale force winds are expected to cause damages to homes, buildings and flooding to low lying areas and river banks.

Oxfam in Vanuatu’s Country Director, Elizabeth Faerua reported that teams are on standby as the country braces for the impact of what is believed to be one of the worse storms since Tropical Cyclone Pam in 2015 devastated the country.

“There are reports of damaging gale force winds, heavy rainfall and flooding in low lying areas of Luganville, the second largest town in Vanuatu, and the power lines and communications lines in the north are currently down,” Mrs Faerua said.

“We are collaborating with our local partners and working with the National Disaster Management Office, Provincial Governments and Area Councils to respond accordingly.”

Oxfam will conduct a remote survey across all the provinces to better assess and identify a suitable response to support income and livelihoods of vulnerable households across Vanuatu.

Since Cyclone Harold’s departure from the Solomon Islands a day ago, the response in that country has been immediate, with local and international organisations responding to Government’s call for assistance.

This has been confirmed by Oxfam in Solomon Islands Country Director, Dolores Devesi, who has said our teams are already working along-side Government and sector committees in coordinating multi-agency assessments and responses.

The Oxfam Pacific team continues to engage at all levels; national and provincial governments, and with the communities, to coordinate thorough assessments on the ground, which will drive our response.

Up to 250 people per single water tap in refugee camps braced for arrival of coronavirus

April 6, 2020

Emergency WASH response to the conflict affected people in Taiz and Ibb Governorates of Yemen. Photo: Hitham Ahmed / Oxfam

Refugees living in camps are sharing one tap between up to 250 people and many have less than 3.5 square meters of living space per person which means it will make it extremely difficult to contain a coronavirus outbreak, Oxfam said today.

The virus could also be catastrophic for people and places hit by conflicts, like Yemen, Syria and South Sudan, who are already struggling with malnutrition, diseases like cholera and a lack of clean water and health facilities.

The standards for refugee camps, agreed by agencies responding to humanitarian crises, were simply not designed to cope with a global pandemic. They state that there should be one tap for no more than 250 people and 3.5 square meters of living space per person.

In some cases, even these minimum requirements are not met. The sprawling Rohingya refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh is severely overcrowded with 40,000 people per square kilometre.

Malnutrition and diseases like dysentery, cholera and typhoid are already a high risk in Cox’s Bazar, undermining the health of these communities. There is also very limited access to basic health services, let alone more specialised care.

In Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, which was built for 3000 people but now hosts nearly 20,000 people, there are up to 160 people using the same dirty toilet and over 500 people per one shower. In some parts of the camp, 325 people share one tap and there is no soap. Fifteen to 20 people can be living in a single shipping container, or in tents or makeshift shelters.

Advice from the World Health Organisation states that people should stay a meter away from anyone coughing or sneezing, wash their hands frequently and seek medical help as soon as symptoms become apparent to avoid spreading coronavirus.

Oxfam’s global Coronavirus Response Operations Lead, Marta Valdes Garcia, said: “The death toll around the world is rising rapidly but this will be just the tip of the iceberg if and when the virus spreads to the world’s most vulnerable communities”.

“Camps for people who have been forced to flee their homes are simply not set up to cope with a pandemic like coronavirus. Aid agencies will need to work even harder to prepare for and deal with the arrival of this disease.

“While many nations are understandably focused on containing the spread of the pandemic amongst their own population, it’s crucial they don’t turn their back on millions of the most vulnerable people worldwide. The international community needs to mobilise huge resources behind developing countries to cope if we’re to honour the promise of “no-one is safe until we’re all safe”.

“Millions of people in countries for instance across central, southern and eastern Africa are already suffering chronic and severe food shortages and will be equally hit hard by the disease and any restrictions needed to help deal with it, which are likely to further compromise their food security as well as their jobs and livelihoods,” she said.

Oxfam’s expertise is in water, sanitation, hygiene and public health promotion – vital for any attempts to manage the rate of inevitable infections – and it is working closely with local partner organisations to increase the number of communal taps and water distribution systems, toilets and engaging communities on improved hygiene practices.

Women are usually hardest hit during emergencies and as they carry out most of the care work, are especially vulnerable to exposure to the virus. Oxfam is also concerned about risk of gender-based violence as families are forced to remain in their homes and support centres and networks are closed.

Communities, local organisations, women and refugee-led organisations are already mobilising, and Oxfam is working alongside them to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. Oxfam is also building up its work to help people in the poorest countries make a living and feed their families should coronavirus hit.

Beyond refugee camps, many other communities with whom Oxfam works are particularly vulnerable to the disease. In Gaza, where there are already 10 confirmed cases, there are more than 5,000 people per square kilometre and fewer than 70 intensive care beds for a population of two million. In Yemen, only 50 percent of health centres are functioning, and those that are open face severe shortages of medicines, equipment and staff. Around 17 million people – more than half the population – have no access to clean water.

Efforts to respond to humanitarian crises in several locations, like Yemen and Syria, were already underfunded. Now they must compete with each other for the resources to fight the Coronavirus all while the world reels from the economic effects of widespread shut-downs. The UN has called for $2 billion to fund a global coordinated response to coronavirus in vulnerable countries. Oxfam supports the UN call for a global cease-fire in order to help countries in conflict to cope.

Notes

The standards for size and capacity of refugee camps are set out here

Information on camp density in Bangladesh is available from UNHCR here

Oxfam is helping vulnerable communities affected by coronavirus, including:
Working with local partners to help 118,000 Rohingya people in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, and Rakhine state in Myanmar with clean water, soap and hygiene kits, as well as public health awareness information, including using female volunteers to disseminate hygiene and prevention awareness messages to women and girls at their doors. We are also supporting 5,000 vulnerable households in communities around Cox’s Bazar with water and sanitation.
Prompting hygiene awareness and hand washing to 76,000 Syrian refugees in Zaatari camp, Jordan and distributing soap in communities hosting Syrian refugees in Lebanon
Rehabilitating a hospital and its isolation unit that serves a community of 50,000 in Iraq
Planning to build or repair 107 water points for people in Burkina Faso who have fled fighting
Carrying out hygiene awareness training for refugees in the north of Uganda
In Yemen, Oxfam is training volunteers to raise awareness and promote hygiene amongst conflict-affected communities.

UN Climate Summit postponed as a result of Coronavirus

April 2, 2020

Responding to the announcement that the UN Climate Summit due to take place in the UK in November, has been postponed until 2021 as a result of the Coronavirus, Chema Vera, Interim Executive Director of Oxfam International said:

“This pause is understandable in light of efforts to stop the pandemic we all now face. But this should not mean pausing our vital efforts to respond to a climate crisis that is already threatening lives and pushing millions of people deeper into hunger and poverty.

“The UK, as host of the summit, can keep global momentum going by working with countries worldwide to commit to bold economic stimulus measures that will reduce carbon emissions as well as accelerate the recovery from coronavirus. Steps taken now to reshape the economy and clean industries of the future cannot wait.

“Governments are right now showing they are ready to cooperate. They should avoid repeating the same mistakes that were made after the 2008 global financial crisis when stimulus packages caused emissions to rebound.”

Health spending in poor countries must double immediately to prevent millions of deaths – Oxfam

March 30, 2020

Oxfam today called for a package of nearly US$160 billion in immediate debt cancellation and aid to fund a Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response, to help prevent millions of deaths as a result of the Coronavirus. The five-point plan would enable poor countries to take action to prevent the spread of the disease and build the capacity of health systems to care for those affected.

The pandemic has caused widespread suffering in rich countries, overwhelming some of the best healthcare systems in the world. But with the disease now spreading to many poor countries where high levels of poverty and inequality risk accelerating the disease, the public health challenges are even greater. Nearly 3 billion people across the developing world do not have access to clean water, millions more do not have access to adequate healthcare and live in crowded slums or refugee camps where social isolation is impossible. As women make up 70 per cent of health workers and carry out most unpaid care work, it will hit them the hardest.

Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam International Interim Executive Director said “In Mali there are three ventilators for one million people. In Zambia, one doctor for 10,000 people. We know from Oxfam’s experience of fighting Ebola that with rapid action, this disease can be stalled and its catastrophic impact stopped. But we must act now and on a scale never seen before.

“Without urgent, ambitious and historic action, we could easily see the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War Two.”

The Imperial College estimates that in the absence of interventions the Coronavirus could have led to 40 million deaths in the coming year. Oxfam calculates that doubling the health spending of the 85 poorest countries, home to nearly half the world’s population, would cost $159.5 billion dollars. This is less than 10 per cent of the US fiscal stimulus to fight Coronavirus. While some donor institutions have begun to increase funding, the scale is not anywhere near the immense size of the challenge.

Oxfam is working with local partners, ministries of heath and key UN agencies in 65 countries to respond to the crisis and help save lives. In Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh where over 855,000 Rohingya are living in makeshift camps, Oxfam is already scaling up preventive measures like soap distribution and handwashing stations at communal facilities to help 70,000 refugees. In Zaatari camp, Jordan – the largest Syrian refugee camp in the world – Oxfam has already started hygiene and hand washing awareness for 2,000 children and aims to reach 78,000 people with water, hygiene and sanitation. And in Burkina Faso, where 780,000 people are internally displaced (IDP), Oxfam is currently working in some of the largest IDP areas ensuring that both host communities and displaced people have access to safe, clean water. To meet the desperate humanitarian need now emerging, all governments must step up and fully fund the UN Global Humanitarian Response plan.

Oxfam is calling for the G20 and other national governments to tackle the virus head on by agreeing an ambitious Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response. The five-point plan calls for:

Huge investment in prevention. Public health promotion, community engagement, access for humanitarian workers and provision of clean water and sanitation, especially handwashing
10 million new paid and protected health workers. Together with urgent funding and equipment for local responders and humanitarians already on the ground
Healthcare must be free. All fees for health should be removed, and free testing and treatment delivered
Governments must requisition all private facilities. Governments must requisition all healthcare capacity in their countries, ensuring that all facilities, private and public are directed towards fighting this virus and meeting all other essential healthcare needs
Vaccines and treatments must be a global public good. Global agreement must be reached that vaccines and treatments, when ready, will be made rapidly available to everyone who needs it free of charge. The profits of pharmaceutical corporations cannot be put ahead of the future of humanity

Vera added “It’s understandable that national leaders are focused on helping their own citizens, but G20 leaders must also find the space for supporting poor nations too. We can only beat this pandemic if we act in solidarity with every country and for every person. No one is safe until we are all safe.”