News & Media

Oxfam supports Global Day of Action for a Robin Hood Tax

February 16, 2011

February 17 marks the Global Day of Action for a Robin Hood Tax. Hundreds of campaigning organisations from over twenty countries, including Oxfam, will be calling on governments to support a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) on the millions of large transactions that take place every day between financial institutions. It is expected that a tiny tax of only 0.05 per cent on banking transactions could produce billions of dollars to help repair the human damage caused by the global economic crisis, protect public services at home, fight poverty abroad and help foot the bill for climate change.

Oxfam pays tribute to Egypt’s civil society

February 15, 2011

As citizens around the world witness the events which unfolded in Egypt on February 11, Oxfam congratulates the Egyptian people and expresses its admiration and respect for all those who persisted in their call for freedom and democracy in a courageous and peaceful manner.

G20 must help resolve bankers’ tax and looming food crisis

February 15, 2011

As the G20 meets in Paris this week, Oxfam calls on the world’s leading economies to act now to stop the price of basic foods from surging further out of the reach of poor people. G20 leaders must also commit to a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) to help millions of people hit by the economic crisis and climate change.

Whose aid is it anyway? Politicizing aid in conflicts and crises

February 10, 2011

The effectiveness of international aid, both in meeting urgent needs and in tackling entrenched poverty, is being undermined in some of the world’s poorest places. While effective aid has helped save lives, protect rights and build livelihoods, some donors’ military and security interests have skewed global aid spending; and amidst conflict, disasters and political instability have too often led to uncoordinated, unsustainable, expensive and even dangerous aid projects. Skewed aid policies and practices threaten to undermine a decade of government donors’ international commitments to effective, needs-focussed international aid. This paper sets out how these commitments are being disregarded, and how this trend can be reversed.

Download file:

bp145-whose-aid-anyway.pdf

Oxfam warns against using aid for political and military purposes

February 9, 2011

Donor governments are now spending proportionately more aid on countries they consider politically and militarily important while overlooking equally severe needs in crises elsewhere, said Oxfam in a new report ‘Whose Aid is it Anyway?’, released today. Since 2001 there has been a growing trend of aid being used to win “hearts and minds” in conflicts. Unfortunately, this aid is often poorly conceived, ineffective, and in some cases has turned beneficiaries and aid workers into targets for attack.

Sri Lanka flood disaster deepens

February 7, 2011

The disaster in Sri Lanka is deepening as a result of a second wave of flooding in the country. One million people in Sri Lanka have already been affected by the first wave of flooding.