News & Media

Millions of swarming locusts devastate crops

January 29, 2020

Swarms of locusts that are sweeping across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia could grow 500 times bigger by June and invade Uganda and South Sudan unless they are immediately brought under control, says Oxfam.

The plagues have hit the region at a time when it is already facing very high levels of food insecurity after countries there had been hit by huge droughts and in some areas flash floods.

“Currently, 25.5 million people in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda are already suffering from hunger and severe malnutrition. These infestations of hundreds of millions of locusts need to be quickly contained before the next main cropping season of March to July,” said Lydia Zigomo, the Regional Director of Oxfam in Horn, East and Central Africa (HECA).

A large desert locust plague can contain up to 150 million individuals per square kilometre, with half a million locusts weighing approximately one tonne. One tonne of locusts eats as much food in one day as about 10 elephants, 25 camels or 2,500 people. The insects can destroy at least 200 tonnes of vegetation per day.

“Ethiopia has been in continuous drought since 2015 and then recently hit with floods that have all but destroyed the harvest. This locust infestation has now destroyed hundreds of square kilometres of vegetation in the Amhara and Tigray regions since November 2019. The cyclone in early December 2019 made the presence of locusts stronger. Local authorities are addressing the situation, but they need more help,” Zigomo said.

The locust swarms have increased significantly over the past month in across 13 Kenyan counties including Isiolo, Samburu, Wajir, Garissa, Tana River, Marsabit, Laikipia, Mandera, Kitui, Baringo, Meru, Embu and Turkana. These same counties have experienced devastating droughts and floods in recent years and over 3 million people there have been facing extreme levels of food insecurity. The swarms are destroying pasture for livestock and which will likely devastate the upcoming planting season.

In Somalia, tens of thousands of hectares of land have been affected in Somaliland, Puntland and Galmudug (Mudug), as mature swarms hit the Garbahare area near the Kenyan border. Locusts are also reported to be travelling south to Somalia’s Gedo region leaving a trail of destroyed farms. Operations are underway in the northeast (Puntland) to control the swarms that continue to move towards the central and southern areas. Insecurity in some of these parts is hampering efforts to survey and control the infestations.

Oxfam is part of a network of local partner organisations that is monitoring how much further damage the locusts will cause to local food crops. “We are making plans that include providing cash assistance to people most-in-need, particularly small-holder farmers and pastoralists, so they are able to buy food and fodder for their livestock,” said Zigomo.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) estimates that Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia need $70m between them to tackle the plague. Oxfam is calling on donors to fund this response immediately, in order to avoid more people falling hungry and using up whatever assets they have to buy food.

PACIFIC GAME CHANGERS

January 29, 2020

Christine Nurminen, left, with members of Oxfam’s local partner Touching the Untouchables (TTU) and OiPNG team. Henganofi district, Highlands PNG FLOW project, September 2019.

Challenging the international development sector

The recently established Māori and Pacific thought-leadership group Pacific Koloa Collective is the first of its kind for the international development sector in New Zealand. Chairing the unique group is former Pasifika Education Centre (PEC) Chief Executive Christine Nurminen, who towards the end of last year, left PEC to start a new journey as the International Portfolio Manager (Pacific) at Oxfam New Zealand.

When Christine, a former Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) employee, initially arrived in the development and humanitarian sector, she says she immediately saw a need for the international development sector in New Zealand to re-think its values, assumptions and understanding of Pacific peoples in the region. A collective such as this one is essential in New Zealand, Christine says.

Result Project, Tonga — Christine Nurminen, right, with coconut farmer ‘Etita and Tanginoa Tu’iono who had worked closely with our local partner Tongan National Youth Council. Vava’u island, Tonga RESULT project, September 2019.

“There is a lot at stake for New Zealand when defining the Pacific, especially when looking to deepen New Zealand’s influence and relationships within the region.

“For the first time in the international sector here in New Zealand, indigenous Māori and Pacific development, humanitarian practitioners and advocates have been drawn together from different organisations to represents the value of diverse Pacific worldviews, different Pacific language skills to share our years of service and expertise to Pacific peoples to shape doing development differently.”

Fast fashion gets the boot in 2020

January 28, 2020

Is it time you ditched fast fashion for a more ethical and sustainable lifestyle?

Fast fashion in 2020 is unsustainable, and we need to keep brands accountable. We have seen a lot of positive changes last year, within New Zealand, and around the globe. We have seen New Zealand actively trying to reduce our carbon emissions, the rise of electric vehicles and the banning of single use plastics.

Unfortunately the fashion industry seems to be dragging the chain, and remains one of the world’s largest polluters. The industry is the second largest consumer of water and is responsible for 8-10 per cent of global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined, according to the United Nations Environment Program.

According to Fee Gilfeather, a sustainability expert at Oxfam, it would take 13 years to drink the water that is used to make one pair of jeans and one T-shirt.

Being the change you want to see means joining with a growing number of consumers who want to know where and how their clothes are produced and are increasingly demanding ethical practices and responsible retailing.

Rubbish — Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash

So what simple things can we do to make a change?

Here are five solutions to try:

Shop with the end in mind
In Britain, the Environmental Audit Committee reported on the problem earlier this year and found that the UK buys more clothes than any other country in Europe, throwing away 1 million tonnes annually with 300,000 tonnes going to incinerators or landfills. Think to yourself, will I still wear this item in a year’s time?
Buy quality ethical and fairtrade goods
Purchasing products that are fair-trade certified can reduce poverty, encourage environmentally friendly production methods and safeguard humane working conditions. One example of a fair trade factory is Freeset, a group of social enterprises focused on creating positive employment opportunities for women affected by sex trafficking in West Bengal, India. Freeset Bags & Apparel manufactures bags and T-shirts, Freeset Fabrics is a weaving business and Freeset Business Incubator is focused on facilitating the establishment of new freedom businesses. Make sure to also check out our range of ethical, fairtrade items in the Oxfam Shop. Each item is handcrafted with love and comes with a positive story from the person who made it.
Buy secondhand or recycled
Inditex, the retail giant that owns Zara, H&M and many other brands, announced a sustainability pledge in July 2019, saying it wants all its clothes to be made from sustainable or recycled fabrics by 2025. Every week 11 million items of clothing end up in landfill, putting increasing pressure on our planet and its people – this throwaway fashion culture is unsustainable. But there is something you can do to help. You can join ‘Second Hand September’ and pledge to say no to new clothes for 30 days.
Buy once, buy well
In 2015, a sustainability report by Nielsen found that 66 per cent of consumers are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly clothing. Use Tear Fund’s buying guide to help you make better choices. You can read their 2019 Ethical Fashion Report here
Or buy nothing at all
Practice the habit of going through a day or week without buying anything. You could join the Buy Nothing Day (BND) movement – an international day of protest against consumerism. In North America, the United Kingdom, Finland and Sweden, Buy Nothing Day is held the day after U.S. Thanksgiving, concurrent to Black Friday; elsewhere, it is held the following day, which is the last Saturday in November – 28 November 2020 in New Zealand.

Work towards changing your own shopping habits, and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re part of a positive trend for good.

Tearfund Fashion Report 2019 — *Tearfund 2019 Fashion Report*

As the EAC says;

“We’re seeing a huge rise in public demand over not just better products, but better buying habits. And we’re looking at a generation that is applying scrutiny, that is wanting to know that brands are accountable.”

Read the full story here

Oxfam reaction to International Court of Justice decision on Myanmar

January 24, 2020

Reacting to today’s decision by the International Court of Justice to order Myanmar to carry out emergency provisional measures, Oxfam’s Head of Humanitarian Campaigns, Fionna Smyth, said:

“This ruling is an important step towards justice and accountability for the Rohingya people. We urge Myanmar to implement these measures immediately and call on all nations to support this independent judicial process.

“Rohingya people along with many other ethnic groups in Myanmar tell us that they continue to face violence and abuse. Over 100,000 Rohingya people remain confined to squalid camps where they have no access to emergency healthcare or formal education.

“As a matter of urgency, the Myanmar government should grant Rohingya people full citizenship, freedom of movement and basic human rights. It should also give investigators, humanitarian agencies and the media full access to central and northern Rakhine.

“More than 100 civil society organizations across Myanmar have voiced their support for this case and other ongoing accountability processes. We support their calls for justice.”

We all want to live in a caring society

January 20, 2020

Let’s make 2020 the year we reset our economies to care for each other, not billionaires’ fortunes.

Click here to tell New Zealand’s political leaders that it’s time to build a caring economy by taxing wealth properly, and ask what they are going to do about it in the election.

We all want to live in a world that values and acknowledges what we do and who we are.

But right now the economy is enriching and protecting the vast fortunes of a privileged few, while billions of people struggle to stay afloat. Oxfam’s new report ‘Time To Care‘ reveals that women around the world are working 12.5 billion hours a day to cook, clean, care and do so much more, for poverty wages or nothing at all. Meanwhile the richest 22 men in the world own more wealth than all the women in Africa.

Unpaid care work

Women’s unpaid and poorly paid care work is the foundation for our economy – and our society. But this work is not recognised or valued. Meanwhile, a handful of people are amassing vast fortunes that they will never be able to make use of. This great divide exists because of the way we have designed our economies to value the wealth of the privileged few, mostly men, more than the billions of hours of the most essential work – the unpaid and underpaid care work done primarily by women and girls around the world. Tending to others, cooking, cleaning, fetching water and firewood are essential daily tasks for the wellbeing of family and whanau, communities, whole societies and the functioning of our economies.

Because this work is not recognised, supported or valued, it means that women and girls miss out on other opportunities. Of course, care work is an important part of showing love and care for other people in our families and communities, and we do this with love and care. But the vast amount of care work across the world is mundane, such as trekking hours a day to get safe water and firewood to cook with. Other care work, such as taking older relatives to health appointments, can interfere with paid employment. Across the world, 42 percent of women cannot get jobs because they are responsible for all the caregiving in a household, compared to just six percent of men.

Women also make-up two-thirds of the paid care workforce. Jobs such as nursery workers, domestic workers, and care assistants are often poorly paid, provide scant benefits, impose irregular hours, and can take a physical and emotional toll. In New Zealand, this is reflected in the fact that women have a higher in-work poverty rate in comparison to men. This inequality is at its highest when looking at couples with children: when the female is the main earner, these homes have an in-work poverty rate of 12.3 per cent, compared to 3 per cent if the male is the main earner.

How can we change this?

The good news is that we can fix this. We can recognise, support, redistribute and reduce the care work that women do. We can put the economy on the right track so that it values the right things – including the care work of millions of women and girls – instead of billionaires’ wealth.

One way of supporting, redistributing and reducing women’s unpaid and poorly paid care work is to provide free and accessible public services for all. People in our governments can make sure that women can get safe water close to their homes so they don’t have to spend hours walking for it. Governments can provide teacher aides and caregivers, paid at least a living wage, to support women who care for children with disabilities and people who are sick at home. Governments can invest in public transport and transport services to make travelling to and from schools, hospitals and childcare centres cheaper and easier for women. Policy actions like these will reduce the amount of unpaid care women and girls do, so that they can get an education, earn a decent living, and have a say in how our societies are run.

Of course, governments need to fund these services. This is where tax systems come in. The only way we can get the services that benefit all of us is through our collective contributions to these services, through taxes. At the moment, across the world, wealthy individuals, families and corporations are not properly taxed. We need to start taxing wealth properly, and change the international tax rules to stop corporates avoiding making their fair contribution in countries where they work. This revenue will provide people in government with much-needed resources to invest in supporting and valuing the care work that women and girls do.

The extreme inequality we witness today is not inevitable. It is the result of the choices we make about how we build economies and societies that are about human well-being, and that value what we truly value. Together, we can reset the economy to look after each other, not billionaires’ fortunes. Properly taxing wealth can help us do that, and build a world where all people flourish in a human economy.

Unpaid care work traps millions of women in poverty

January 20, 2020

Care worker tending to her husband — Arlene Cinco is a shop owner and mother to 4 children in the Philippines. She spends all day working to earn money and doing all the care work for her family. Arlene’s husband, Eduardo, suffered from a stroke in 2016 and was consequently paralysed. She works several jobs to earn money for food, electricity, school fees and her husband’s medicines. Photo: Jed Regala/Oxfam

New Oxfam Report Reveals Sexist Economy

Women and girls put in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work each and every day, a contribution to the global economy of at least $10.8 trillion (NZD$16 trillion) a year, and more than three times the size of the global tech industry, reveals a new report from Oxfam today ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

Oxfam’s report, ‘Time to Care’, shows how our sexist economies are fuelling the inequality crisis – enabling a wealthy elite to accumulate vast fortunes at the expense of ordinary people and particularly poor women and girls:

The 22 richest men in the world have more wealth than all the women in Africa.
The world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60 percent of the planet’s population
Getting the richest one percent to pay just 0.5 percent extra tax on their wealth over the next 10 years would equal the investment needed to create 117 million jobs in sectors such as elderly and childcare, education and health.
The minimum estimated value of unpaid care in New Zealand is NZD$41.4 billion.

Global inequality is shockingly entrenched and vast and the number of billionaires has doubled in the last decade. Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar, who is in Davos to represent the Oxfam confederation this year said: “The gap between rich and poor can’t be resolved without deliberate inequality-busting policies, and too few governments are committed to these.

“Women and girls are among those who benefit least from today’s economic system. They spend billions of hours cooking, cleaning and caring for children and the elderly. Unpaid care work is the ‘hidden engine’ that keeps the wheels of our economies, businesses and societies moving. It is driven by women who often have little time to get an education, earn a decent living or have a say in how our societies are run, and who are therefore trapped at the bottom of the economy,” added Behar.

Davos 2020, Women cleaning — Ruth is a mother of 7 in the Philippines. She is the first to wake up, feeding the kids and getting them ready for school, and the last to sleep after she cleans the house and washes everyone’s clothes. *If Ruth had more free time, she would want to run her own small business. Photo: Jed Regala/Oxfam*

Women do more than three-quarters of all unpaid care work. They often have to work reduced hours or drop out of the workforce because of their care workload. Across the globe, 42 percent of women cannot get jobs because they are responsible for all the caregiving, compared to just six percent of men.

Women also make up two-thirds of the paid ‘care workforce’. Jobs such as nursery workers, domestic workers, and care assistants are often poorly paid, provide scant benefits, impose irregular hours, and can take a physical and emotional toll.

The pressure on carers, both unpaid and paid, is set to grow in the coming decade as the global population grows and ages. An estimated 2.3 billion people will be in need of care by 2030 – an increase of 200 million since 2015. Climate change could worsen the looming global care crisis – by 2025, up to 2.4 billion people will live in areas without enough water, and women and girls will have to walk even longer distances to fetch it.

The report outlines practical and powerful ways we can recognise, reduce and redistribute this care work. One solution is to make essential public services and infrastructure free and available to all – services like primary healthcare, public transport, early childhood education, water, and care for people who are sick or older. This can be funded through taxing wealth.

Oxfam New Zealand’s executive director Rachael Le Mesurier said Kiwis have an opportunity during an election year to challenge the status quo and demand politicians create change.

“This year, we need to put the global economy on the right track so that we value the right things – including the care work of millions of women and girls – instead of billionaires’ wealth.

“Extreme inequality exists because we have designed our economies to spiral wealth to the very richest people, at the expense of ordinary people. But we can build an economy that values everyone, not just the wealthy elite.

“Governments use tax revenue to invest in the public services that are vital to reducing inequality and poverty. By taxing wealth properly and increasing investment in public services, we can recognise women’s care work for the massive contribution it is to our societies, and help reduce the unfair burden of care work on women so they can get an education, earn a decent living, and have a say in how our societies are run.

“Let’s reset the economy to look after each other, not billionaires’ fortunes. Properly taxing wealth can help us do that.”

Notes

The report, summary and methodology document explaining how Oxfam calculated the figures is available here.

Oxfam’s calculations are based on the most up-to-date and comprehensive data sources available. Figures on the share of wealth come from the Credit Suisse Research Institute’s Global Wealth Databook 2019. Figures on the very richest in society come from Forbes’ 2019 Billionaires List. Billionaire wealth fell in the last year but has since recovered.

Oxfam is part of the Fight Inequality Alliance, a growing global coalition of civil society organisations and activists that will be holding events from 18-25 January in 30 countries, including India, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, Uganda and the UK, to promote solutions to inequality and demand that economies work for everyone.

Currencies were converted using Reserve Bank of New Zealand figures on 31 December 2019.