News & Media

“I might not survive this pandemic but right now I am their mother”

May 11, 2020

A Mother’s Day Tribute to Atsede Getaneth
By Tigist Gebru

“I might not even survive this pandemic but right now, the most important thing for me is my children. I cannot see them go hungry.”

Before COVID-19 reached Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Atsede Gataneth, a single mother who sells vegetables for a living, earned enough money to ensure her family had enough to eat and to keep her two daughters in school. But government measures to limit the spread of the virus, physical distancing, and increasing prices of basic commodities are pushing her towards desperation. Her story reflects the challenges of women in the informal sector across the Horn, East and Central Africa (HECA), who are struggling to make ends meet.

“It is not a good time to be in business, as a single parent, I have two daughters to look after,” says Atsede. She has been selling vegetables on the street for the past 13 years and it has never been worse. She wakes up at 6 am every morning to go to the market to buy and sell vegetables right on the roadside. On top of this, she used to walk from her informal settlement to up-market settlements to provides cleaning services. But, since COVID-19, most rich families she provides these services are ‘physical distancing’.

“I have been a single mother for the past 9 years. The father never helps any of his children, so I work hard to provide for them. Now, school is closed so the kids stay with me on the road.”

A month ago, she fell ill and had to undergo surgery. Due to the fear of getting the virus, she stayed away from her business for close to a month. “I reached a point where I could not afford to stay in bed anymore. With the excruciating pain from my surgery, I have to be back out on the street to do what I know best that helps me get money to live.”

“I have seen my daughters struggle and starve. Most times, I had had to leave home to work, even when I can no longer bear to hear them say they are hungry. I do not want to hear them say that anymore. I am their mother, I have to do something to help them. So here I am again, risking everything. I am weak and vulnerable, and I know I might not even survive this pandemic but right now, the most important thing for me is my children. I cannot see them go hungry.”

Like many workers in the informal economy, Atsede’s business is facing a huge decline. The government recently moved the biggest vegetable market in Ethiopia right in front of the street where she sells vegetables, as a measure to facilitate social distancing. Because of this, her customers no longer buy from her and instead go to the market across the road. “Nowadays, I barely get 20 birr,” which isless than a dollar per day.

“I would not mind living on a dollar if other food items were not too expensive. What hurts me the most is that, even after all this suffering, I am not able to provide the basics for my two children. I cannot even afford cooking oil and Teff. Washing clothes for rich people would have supplemented my income, but now, no one wants me around. That extra income would have helped, but now it is no longer there. I don’t have any other alternative, but I will die trying for as long as I live to bring food for my children,” says Atsede.

Atsede selling vegetables at the market. Photo by Tigist Gebru/Oxfam.

Mothers like Atsede who work in the informal sector are being hit hard. The informal economy accounts for 85.8% of employment in Africa. In Ethiopia, it comprises 50.6% of urban employment. As governments in the Horn, East and Central Africa region have called for ‘physical distancing’ and imposed lockdown measures, informal workers whose livings require social interaction are often unable to observe these measures. Being forced to work from home may mean giving up on their only way to earn an income. Many informal businesses are run by women such as Atsede whose lives and families depend on their income. These women have not been reached by economic stimulus packages or tax relief. Most relief efforts have built on pre-existing relationships between states, workers, and businesses in the formal sector, which have inadvertently deepened the gap between formal and informal economies.

It is critical the governments across the region enhance social protection systems to provide fast, direct support to people in need and develop policies that support the informal sector.

No one safe until we are all safe: NZ aid agencies call for global action on pandemic

April 28, 2020

Fourteen leading New Zealand aid agencies have today called on the New Zealand government to step in with immediate humanitarian assistance to save millions of lives in the world’s worst crisis and emergency situations.

The organisations have published a joint statement calling for extra humanitarian funding for people in places less able to fight the coronavirus pandemic, to prevent a catastrophic human toll in conflict areas and developing countries.

Ian McInnes, Council for International Development Chair and Tearfund CEO said: “New Zealand is in the extraordinary position of potentially beating Covid-19, but we can’t stop here. Opening our borders and resuming life as normal requires we now act to support communities far more vulnerable than our own, in countries with far weaker health systems and just as much to lose.”

“The severe challenges responding to the devastation of Cyclone Harold in places like Vanuatu show, right on our doorstep, the double-whammy of a crisis situation with coronavirus. In crises like this, people are living in makeshift shelters, crowded close together, sharing water sources with often hundreds of others, and very basic, or no, health services.”

“Pandemics know no borders, and neither does compassion. We must not leave anyone behind as we fight this virus. The New Zealand government is rightly taking radical action to eradicate it from our nation and support people through these hard times, even as many of us worry about our health and our jobs. Across the world the coronavirus is threatening to set the fight against poverty back by decades, but we can turn the tide by increasing funds for vital humanitarian work, especially through NGOs who know their local communities and have strong relationships with people in need.”

According to the group, millions of lives are at stake in developing countries that have limited resources, weak health systems and high debt levels. Imperial College estimates that without interventions at least 40 million people across the world may die.

As a first step towards New Zealand’s fair share, the letter calls on the government to provide NZ$25million in immediate, additional humanitarian funding as part of an emergency coronavirus response to boost life-saving assistance for people already living in the world’s worst crisis and emergency situations.

Needs were already high before coronavirus hit. Now they are even higher, the agencies say we must provide more resources and not divert support already committed to poor countries. The group asks the New Zealand government to help free up spending for global public health by advocating for the immediate cancellation of all external debt payments due to be made in 2020 by developing country governments, and to protect and maintain existing commitments to aid and climate finance.

The aid agencies are currently responding to the global pandemic in developing countries, partnering with local organisations to provide access to soap and clean water, promote good hygiene, and provide accurate information to communities on how to protect themselves against the virus.

-ends-

Notes to editors:

– Signatories to the open letter include Care, Caritas, CWS, Council for International Development, Engineers Without Borders, FairTrade A/NZ, Family Planning, Hagar New Zealand, Oxfam, Rotary New Zealand, Tearfund, Transparency International New Zealand, UnionAid, World Vision.

The new OECD data shows that overall aid spending from 30 OECD members totalled USD 152.8 billion in 2019. This was a 1.4 percent increase from 2018. Rich countries only committed 0.30 percent of their gross national income (GNI) to development aid, down from 0.31 percent in 2018, and well below the 0.7 percent they promised back in 1970. In 2019, just five countries – Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom – have lived up to this promise. Overall, despite significant need, total humanitarian assistance fell by 2.9 percent in 2019.
The proportion of bilateral aid spent in low income countries was up by 0.4 percent.
New Zealand gave NZ$46 million in humanitarian assistance in 2018, which was 11 percent of the total aid budget. This was an increase on previous years, placing New Zealand in about the middle of the pack for humanitarian assistance amongst OECD peers.
New Zealand gives approximately 0.28% of Gross National Income to overseas aid. The internationally agreed target is 0.7% of GNI to overseas aid.
The coronavirus will most likely have a devastating impact in developing countries.
With limited resources, high debt levels, massive capital outflows and weak, underfunded and unequal health systems, poor countries are ill-equipped to protect their populations and their economies. Without urgent action, the economic, social and health toll in these countries will be incomparably devastating. The recent Oxfam report ‘Dignity not Destitution’ found that the economic fallout of the pandemic could force half a billion people into poverty unless dramatic action is taken. 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.
The United Nations has called for US$2 billion in urgent humanitarian assistance for the people living in the worst crisis situations, to begin to fund the Global Humanitarian Response Plan. UN estimates developing countries need US$500bn in aid to face the Coronavirus. On 30 March 2020, the UN called for a US$2.5 trillion coronavirus crisis package for developing countries. This includes: a US$1 trillion liquidity injections to be made available through the expanded use of special drawing rights; the cancellation of US$1 trillion of debts owed by developing countries this year; and US$500 billion in overseas aid to fund a Marshall Plan for health recovery and dispersed as grants.

Open letter – seeking urgent humanitarian assistance for world’s most vulnerable people

April 28, 2020

An open letter to the New Zealand Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Finance, from fourteen leading New Zealand international aid agencies.

Dear Prime Minister Ardern, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Peters, and Finance Minister Robertson,

We thank you for the unprecedented steps your government has taken to protect people in New Zealand from the coronavirus and its impacts. Today, we ask that you extend assistance to people in places far less able to withstand this pandemic.

With your inspiring leadership and guidance, here in New Zealand we have accepted the need for radical action to stop the coronavirus and are coping as best we can. Yet, as you know, even with all your government has done to support people through these hard times, people remain worried about their health and their jobs.

Like here, family life has been turned upside down across the world. It’s hard to imagine families crammed into refugee camps in Iraq and Syria, or in the squatter settlements on the outskirts of Port Moresby, living in close quarters, with no clean water close by, no soap, and the knowledge that there will be little help from struggling public health systems.

We’ve all become experts at hand washing and staying at home as we try to stop coronavirus and save lives. It is not easy, but we know how crucial it is to stop the virus. What would it be like trying to do this at a single tap in your part of the refugee camp, that 250 other people also rely on? This is the reality for more than 900,000 people in Cox’s Bazaar refugee camp in Bangladesh.

It is for these people that we ask your government to respond immediately to the unprecedented global coronavirus crisis by doing the following.

Provide NZ$25 million in immediate, additional humanitarian funding as part of an emergency coronavirus response to boost life-saving assistance for people already living in the world’s worst crisis and emergency situations.
Advocate for the cancellation of all external debt payments due to be made in 2020 by developing country governments.
Protect and maintain existing commitments to aid and climate finance.

Coronavirus is anticipated to exact a catastrophic human toll in developing countries. Governments are taking rapid measures to stop the virus’s spread, but with limited resources, high debt levels, and weak health systems, they struggle to protect their citizens and economies. Imperial College estimates that without interventions at least 40 million people across the world may die.

The coronavirus has spread to every corner of the globe, but so can our compassion. We request that New Zealand contribute to the collective pandemic response: no one is safe until we are all safe, and New Zealand is in a position to help.

Yours sincerely,

Care
Caritas
CWS
Council for International Development
Engineers Without Borders
FairTrade A/NZ
Family Planning
Hagar New Zealand
Oxfam
Rotary New Zealand
Tearfund
Transparency International New Zealand
UnionAid
World Vision.

COVID-19: 50 million people threatened by hunger in West Africa

April 21, 2020

According to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the impact of the coronavirus pandemic could increase the number of people at risk of a food insecurity and malnutrition from 17 million to 50 million people between June and August 2020.

As Ramadan begins this week, eight regional and international organizations warn of the impact of the coronavirus combined with the lean season and conflict and insecurity, which will stretch the West Africa population in a period of fasting and sharing for some.

Food workers are struggling to continue their activities and see their livelihoods threatened. Measures must be taken to protect the most vulnerable and ensure food production, so that hunger and malnutrition are no longer a daily threat.

In the region’s main cities as well as in rural areas, despite Governments efforts, many communities are today facing difficulties in accessing food markets, with prices increasing quickly and many basic commodities becoming less available, the consequences of restrictive measures put in place, confinement or curfews, border closures and insecurity in certain areas.

In Burkina Faso, Amadou Hamadoun DICKO, President of the Association for the Promotion of Livestock in the Sahel and Savannah (APESS) says: “In a few days the 100 kg bag of millet has gone from 16,000 to 19,000 CFA and the litre cooking oil has almost doubled. Likewise, for breeders, the price of a bag of cotton cake to feed their animals has increased. With the virus, in addition to insecurity, I wonder how Ramadan will be lived this year“.

The coronavirus crisis combined with insecurity is exacerbating the threat of market stability and hitting an already very fragile food situation with full force. In countries facing humanitarian crises, access to food has become very difficult. In Burkina-Faso or Niger, humanitarian aid is unable to reach and cover the food needs of thousands of displaced persons, and the emergency has become vital.

While the agricultural season is also beginning, producers and farmers are already severely affected economically by the crisis and have difficulties in accessing quality seeds and fertilizers. 30,5% of West Africa’s economy is devoted to agriculture, which is the largest source of income and livelihood for 70-80% of the population, mainly women who are on the frontline. “We have lost 75% of our market because of the lockdown of the city of Bobo Dioulasso,” says Mrs. Toe Hazara, who works at the Café Rio dairy in Burkina Faso. “This situation is unbearable because we can no longer support the expenses of our 13 employees and pay our suppliers“, she says.

Pastoralist communities, already hit hard by the impacts of climate change and insecurity, are also impacted, as they can no longer ensure the transhumance of livestock, made impossible by the closure of regions or borders, which risks increasing conflicts between herders and farmers.

“The introduction of curfews restricts the possibility of watering the animals at night, so the crowds around the water points are very high during the day”, says Ismael Ag, breeder member of the Billital Maroobé Network (RBM).

To overcome this crisis, farmers, herders, fishermen and food processors are counting on the support of the region’s Governments to carry out a production campaign that has begun in most localities. Ibrahima Coulibaly, President of the Network of Farmers’ and Producers’ Organizations of West Africa (ROPPA) said: “We also hope that political decision-makers and citizens will become more aware of the need to encourage local production and consumption, which has even more meaning and importance today”.

We, the leaders of peasant organizations and international NGOs call on all governments to control prices, to ensure the supply of food from family farms and the transport of goods across borders, but also to put in place social safety nets to help the most vulnerable.

In this global crisis, regional and international solidarity is also required and the support of donors to West African States, farmers’ organisations and civil society is urgently needed, to help them face this crisis in a fragile regional context.

The signatory organizations:

Action Against Hunger
APESS
Care
Oxfam
RBM
ROPPA
Solidarités International
Save the Children

New OECD figures show international aid woefully inadequate to fight the coronavirus crisis, says Oxfam

April 17, 2020

New OECD figures show international aid woefully inadequate to fight the coronavirus crisis, says Oxfam

Rich countries barely increased international aid by 1.4 percent overall in 2019, while they cut humanitarian assistance by 2.9 percent, according to figures published today by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Despite the small over-all increase, the current level of aid is far from enough for the world to tackle crises like the coronavirus and effectively achieve sustainable development, said Chema Vera, Oxfam International Interim Executive Director, reacting to the news:

“Current levels of aid from rich countries are woefully inadequate to help developing countries face the coronavirus crisis, which could force 500 million more people into poverty, and cause up to 40 million deaths. We can stop this pandemic’s spread if we act in every country and for every person. Governments need to radically and rapidly increase their aid now to a level we’ve never seen in our lifetimes.

“The coronavirus has caused widespread suffering in rich countries, overwhelming some of the best healthcare systems. In many poor countries, which face high levels of poverty and inequality, the challenges are even greater. The Central African Republic for example has only three ventilators, which are vital to treat Covid-19 patients.

“The UN estimate that developing countries need a USD$500 billion in increased life-saving aid now to have hope of tackling the coronavirus crisis. Rich countries should contribute their fair share by immediately injecting close to USD$300 billion in additional aid to fight the virus. This is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest men combined.

“Rich countries are facing tough times, and all that is needed is only a fraction of their trillion-dollar rescue programs to prevent millions dying and hundreds of millions falling into destitution. This would also mean that donors finally and collectively reach their 50-year-old promise to give at least 0.7% of their national income in aid.

Oxfam New Zealand’s Advocacy and Campaigns Director Joanna Spratt said: “Oxfam is asking the New Zealand government to step up to make sure we leave no one behind. As a first step, we’re asking for $25 million in extra emergency humanitarian funding. This is only 0.2% of what’s already been spent on domestic measures – a drop in the bucket. The coronavirus is a problem for us all and we need to make sure we help all countries to get rid of it, especially the poorest.

“Resources are needed now for public health, income support and protection from harm for the people in the most vulnerable situations across the world. In Papua New Guinea, for example, there are only 14 ventilators for their eight million people. The world’s response is only as strong as our weakest health system. Until we are all safe, no one is safe.”

Vera added: “Donors should now prioritise emergency support to the under-funded and ill-equipped public health systems in poor countries. They should also help countries improve social protection and provide direct support to people in need so they can deal with illnesses and income loss. This is particularly vital for women, who often have limited employment rights and are far more likely to be informal workers without any social protection. In 2018, less than one percent of aid was invested in social protection while more than four billion people don’t have formal social protection.”

“This crisis is the time for bold and visionary choices for our collective future. It’s time for donors to profoundly transform their aid to build a world that is free from poverty, that is more equal, feminist and sustainable. As the coronavirus is threatening to set back the fight against poverty by decades, we must now act and build a better future.”

Notes to editors:

· Oxfam New Zealand aid expert Joanna Spratt is available for interviews

· The 2019 aid figures are available on the OECD website here.

· Slight increase in development aid: The new OECD data shows that overall aid spending from 30 OECD members totalled USD 152.8 billion in 2019. This was a 1.4 percent increase from 2018. Rich countries only committed 0.30 percent of their gross national income (GNI) to development aid, down from 0.31 percent in 2018, and well below the 0.7 percent they promised back in 1970. In 2019, just five countries – Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom – have lived up to this promise.

· Slight increase in aid to the poorest countries: The proportion of bilateral aid spent in low income countries was up by 0.4 percent. The coronavirus will most likely have a devastating impact in developing countries.

· With limited resources, high debt levels, massive capital outflows and weak, underfunded and unequal health systems, poor countries are ill-equipped to protect their populations and their economies. Without urgent action, the economic, social and health toll in these countries will be incomparably devastating. The recent Oxfam report ‘Dignity not Destitution’ found that the economic fallout of the pandemic could force half a billion people into poverty unless dramatic action is taken. 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.

· UN estimates developing countries need USD 500bn in aid to face the Coronavirus
On 30 March 2020, the UN called for a USD 2.5 trillion coronavirus crisis package for developing countries. This includes: a USD 1 trillion liquidity injections to be made available through the expanded use of special drawing rights; the cancellation of USD 1 trillion of debts owed by developing countries this year; and USD 500 billion in overseas aid to fund a Marshall Plan for health recovery and dispersed as grants.

· Methodology for calculating rich countries’ fair share of the coronavirus aid response: Oxfam bases its calculation of fair share on donors’ gross national income (GNI). The members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) together account for 59% of total global GNI, so their collective fair share of any appeal or aid pledging target is 59%. The fair share of any individual DAC member is their GNI divided by the DAC collective GNI and multiplied by the DAC fair share.

· Oxfam’s vision for aid in times of extreme inequality: In its 2019 report ‘Hitting the target, an agenda for aid in times of extreme inequality’, Oxfam set out a 10-point action plan for donors to beat poverty by fighting inequality through: more spending in health, education, social protection, water and sanitation and small-scale agriculture; support to build equitable tax systems in developing countries; support for active citizenship and to fight gender inequality. These recommendations are all the more acute today, as the coronavirus is showing how deep and growing inequalities undermine our ability to face existential threats.

According to the Forbes magazine, the three richest men in the world are Jeff Bezos (USD 138 billion), Bill Gates (USD 104.4 billion) and Bernard Arnault (USD 93 billion). Their combined wealth is USD 335 billion.

Love in the time of COVID

April 17, 2020

LEFT: Oxfam humanitarian specialist Darren Brunk; RIGHT: Oxfam New Zealand’s partner, the Tonga National Youth Congress put together a team of youth volunteers for their emergency response work in Tonga after Hurricane Harold struck last week. Here a TNYC worker uses Oxfam equipment to clean contaminated water for a community of 100 on the remote island of Nukunuku Motu.

I write this on a laptop propped up in a hastily-cleared space on the kitchen table, during that small window of opportunity that is a two-year-old’s afternoon nap. Only just a fortnight ago, rapidly rising infection rates of the coronavirus made a country-wide lockdown essential and upended the working world as we knew it.

Everyday life has been turned upside down here and around the world, and while sheltering mostly at home, Kiwis across the country are quietly worrying about the devastating impact of the coronavirus crisis on the future of work and exactly how we’re going to pay the bills, if and when this is all over. Given the unprecedented disruption and the evident health risks, it’s hard not to focus our concern on those closest to us.

Through my work as an international humanitarian, the focus of my attention is often jolted far from my immediate situation to places where the need is the greatest. For people already living in poverty or crisis situations, any spread of this coronavirus will be far deadlier than what we’ve seen already, elsewhere in the world. And some of these people living in crisis are closer to our shores than we think.

It’s hard enough here in New Zealand getting ahead of this tricky new disease – where water is free, we have space to distance from each other, and soap is cheap and plentiful. Imagine being a parent of young children in the world’s slums or refugee camps, where dwellings are crowded and soap, or even water, is a scarce commodity. In refugee camps where Oxfam works, hundreds of people share a single water tap.

Or right now in the Pacific, where Cyclone Harold has raced through the region as a monster Category 5 storm – that means big and mean – and carved a high-velocity path of destruction through the heart of Vanuatu, before hitting Fiji and Tonga. When it comes to cyclones, the slow-moving ones like Harold are the worst kind, causing mayhem in the way of landslides, significant flooding and storm surges, and leaving behind smashed buildings, torn-up gardens and broken power and water systems.

Meanwhile families face the terrible choice of staying home to face the storm, or cramming into over-crowded evacuation centres along with thousands of others, where they are vulnerable to infectious diseases like Covid-19.

Pacific Islanders know if coronavirus gets a foothold, the impacts could be especially bad. For now, island communities are keeping the global pandemic at bay, but coronavirus represents an ominous new threat for many of our Pacific neighbours living in already at-risk communities. The basic tools and protections we take for granted in our fight against this pandemic – healthcare, handwashing and physical isolation – are simply out of reach for many people living in extreme poverty or grappling with the devastation of a disaster such as Cyclone Harold.

Many Pacific communities are using this time to do what they can to prepare, though any such preparations are blown out the window when a cyclone sweeps through the village. For starters, disasters such as Cyclone Harold sabotage any preventative measures such as lockdown or distancing. It also totally undermines a country’s ability to fund their already thinly-stretched public health services. Economically, the cyclone is a double disaster for Vanuatu, as almost half of this island nation’s economy is reliant on the tourism and hospitality that was just stopped in its tracks by the recent border restrictions.

A coronavirus outbreak in the Pacific may also disproportionately affect women and girls. Women are the primary care givers in the family and are key health care frontline responders placing them at increased risk and exposure to infection. Coronavirus risks increasing women’s workloads, as they care for children as schools close and the sick. There is a risk of increased family violence when families facing huge economic and mental stress are forced into isolation, especially in a region where pre-existing rates of violence against women are already very high.

In most Pacific countries, access to quality health services including intensive care is limited. In PNG for example, there is 0.5 doctors for every 10,000 people; by contrast, New Zealand has 30. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, represent the single largest cause of premature mortality in the Pacific. These are some of the conditions for which this coronavirus presents the greatest risk.

The challenges are real, but the situation is not without hope. A pandemic of this size and speed is not something we have seen in recent times, but the world has plenty of experience fighting disease. And Oxfam, alongside other NGOs and local agencies have much experience to draw on in supporting Pacific communities to deal with the devastation and aftermath of cyclones. While at-risk communities in the Pacific and elsewhere in the world lack access to even the most basic coronavirus-fighting tools, it’s one problem that humanitarian organisations like mine can help fix.

There are basic things that save lives. We can distribute emergency sanitation and water kits, locally-sourced soap and other hygiene supplies from local markets; we can build hand washing points; we can install water purification plants in vulnerable communities to make contaminated water safe. We can build emergency toilets to improve sanitation conditions; we can use local water committees to share hygiene messages and identify people who may be at risk or infected. We know we can, because we do it every day, for millions of people around the world.

Despite the many challenges, Oxfam is right now supporting community health workers to help the people worst hit by this crisis. Today, like every day, teams are working hard to channel life-saving resources into some of the world’s toughest places, helping to save and change lives. The people living in these places desperately need help from all of us.

This global pandemic suggests a new era of solidarity and care for strangers. Troubling times remind us how much we love our friends and family – it’s also a moment to respond in a loving way to people we haven’t yet met.

– Darren Brunk works as a Humanitarian Specialist with Oxfam New Zealand.

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