Elsie Delva is from Carrefour Feuilles, a poor neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince. She lost everything in the earthquake. Like thousands of other women and men who lost their livelihoods, she has the right to start rebuilding her life.
News & Media
Learning from experience: Sustainable economic development in the Pacific
This original research from Oxfam New Zealand aims to learn about economic development in the Pacific from some of the organisations that are doing it successfully. The Pacific has been buffeted by natural disasters, economic volatility, occasional social turmoil and rising numbers of young men and women with unmet expectations. To help overcome these hardships and build a better future for growers, craftspeople and their families, development must be sustainable, generate broad-based benefits, appropriate to the local culture, and scalable to make a significant contribution to the region’s needs. There are important lessons to be drawn from some of the most exciting initiatives in the Pacific.
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In pictures: Pakistan floods, six months on
One year on after the devastating flooding, hundreds of thousands of Pakistani people remain in camps. Oxfam is on the ground providing food, clean water, sanitation kits and hygiene supplies.
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The $100 billion questions
The World Bank last year estimated that US$75-100 billion per year is needed for poor countries to adapt to climate change, if global warming levels remain at 2 degrees Celsius. The non-binding pledges made at Copenhagen last year by rich countries will see levels move towards a staggering 4 degrees Celsius. The US$100 billion a year pledged by rich nations at Copenhagen is nowhere near enough the amount needed to adequately help vulnerable nations deal with the ramifications of climate change.
In this report, published to coincide with the re-opening of climate negotiations in Bonn, Oxfam argues that climate finance needs to be doubled to at least US$200 billion per year by 2020. The report shows how rich countries can raise hundreds of billions of dollars in public finance each year, using methods that won’t break the bank. Increasing the amount of climate financing is a critical investment between rich and poor countries in creating a common future. Reducing the impacts of climate change runs deeper than rich countries simply cutting down on their emissions – how rich countries help developing countries curb their emissions is equally as important. More money is needed to foster cleaner development in developing countries.
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The Global Economic Crisis and Developing Countries
Behind the official statistics, farmers, manufacturing workers, migrant workers, waste-pickers, and women working unpaid in the home all over the world are asking the same question: ‘What hit us in 2009?’. Oxfam’s research on the global economic crisis in 12 countries, involving some 2,500 individuals, is combined in this report with the findings of studies by universities, think tanks, and international organizations. Oxfam’s report reveals the depth and complexity of the impacts of the global economic crisis, and the vulnerabilities and resilience of poor people and countries worldwide. The crisis has highlighted social protection as a development issue, and the importance of managing risk and volatility at all levels. This crisis will not be the last, but if one of its lessons is that reducing vulnerability and building resilience are the central tasks of development, then future crises may bring less suffering in their wake.
Ethiopia: Rain does not come on time anymore
Small scale farmers and pastoralists in Ethiopia are set to be the most negatively impacted by climate change, facing increased poverty, water scarcity, and food insecurity. The news does not bode well for a country where eighty-five percent of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. The rain fed agricultural sector is particularly vulnerable to the growing inconsistencies in weather and when there is a lack of pasture or water, pastoralists face an enormous loss of livestock.
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