The Future is Equal

Reports

Somalia food and livelihoods alert

An Oxfam survey of households living in poverty across South Central Somalia and Puntland has found that recent poor rains, falling incomes and high food prices are increasing the risk of preventable disease and forcing people to rely on aid. The situation in the south of the country remains critical with alarming malnutrition figures. Almost three quarters of people questioned are concerned they will not have enough to eat over the next four months because of the loss of livestock and livelihoods during last year’s drought, and continued insecurity and poor rains this year. Since the assessment took place flooding in Hiran and predictions of flooding elsewhere in South Central Somalia is likely to make the situation worse.


Our land, our lives: Time out on the global land rush

Land seven and a half times the size of the New Zealand was sold off globally in the last decade, enough to grow food for a billion people. This is the equivalent to the number of people who go hungry in the world today. Already an area of land the size of Auckland is being sold to foreign investors every four days in poor countries. As the world’s leading standard-setter and a big investor itself, the World Bank should freeze its own land investments and review its policy and practice to prevent land-grabbing. In the past the Bank has chosen to freeze lending when poor standards have caused dispossession and suffering. It needs to do so again, in order to play a key role in stopping the global land rush.


Ubi jalar and Papuan economic development: A source of life and livelihood for the Papuan people

Working through local partner Yayasan Pendidikan Usaha Mandiri (YAPUM), Oxfam is encouraging a sweet potato renaissance in the highlands of Jayawijaya District, Papua. By equipping subsistence farmers with new skills, the Ubi Jalar project is building stronger local economies, reinforcing the use of a traditional crop, helping crop diversification and playing a critical role in enhancing the region’s food security.


Extreme weather, extreme prices: The costs of feeding a warm world

Climate change is making extreme weather – like droughts, floods and heat waves – much more likely. As the 2012 drought in the US shows, extreme weather means extreme food prices. Our failure to slash greenhouse gas emissions presents a future of greater food price volatility, with severe consequences for the precarious lives and livelihoods of people in poverty. This research shows how extreme weather events in a single year could bring about price spikes of comparable magnitude to two decades of long-run price rises. It signals the urgent need for a full stress-testing of the global food system in a warming world.