Early efforts to control the global arms trade date back almost 100 years to when members of the League of Nations tried unsuccessfully to develop an agreement in the wake of World War I. Ten years ago, when Oxfam joined Amnesty International and the International Action Network on Small Arms to formally launch the Control Arms Campaign, only three small countries--Costa Rica, Cambodia, and Mali--supported the idea of a treaty. Today, the vast majority of world governments now agree with them as consequences of the poorly regulated trade make headlines almost daily.

The suffering in Syria, where armed conflict continues to rage two years after an uprising, is but one example. Within the country, nearly seven million people need humanitarian assistance and more than one million others have fled to neighboring Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.

“Millions of people around the world have stood up and called for governments to put an end to the irresponsible arms trade and develop rules of behavior that put human rights and the protection of civilians at the center of arms trade decisions,” said Scott Stedjan, a senior policy advisor for humanitarian response at Oxfam America. “The most heart-rending appeals are from civilians who have endured the chaos and horror of unregulated combat, irregular combatants, and loose arms flowing over borders.”

The treaty—the world’s first—will require governments to determine whether the arms they want to sell or transfer could be used for human rights abuses, violation of humanitarian law, or terrorism. If there is a major risk of that happening, the new global norm that the treaty will eventually establish would make those transfers very difficult.

The treaty will come into force 90 days after 50 countries have ratified it. But first, world governments must sign it, a process that will begin in just a few weeks. Many governments will be watching to see how the US handles this next step. As a leading exporter representing about 70 percent of the global arms market, the US carries enormous clout: The decisions it makes will, inevitably, influence those of other countries. By signing swiftly, the US will signal the urgency of this historic opportunity.

An estimated 1,500 people a day lose their lives because of armed violence. The treaty won’t stop that overnight, but it will begin to change the way in which countries buy, sell, or transfer the arms that have brought devastation to countless families and communities around the world.

Chávez suffered harsh physical and psychological abuse from her husband. The police had to rescue her twice from the brutal beatings and take her to the hospital. Her husband was imprisoned both times. After the second incident, Chávez moved out and set up a new home on her own, taking a job selling Avon products door to door so she could feed her children.

Now, at 30, Chávez lives alone with her four daughters, and has become a leader to the women in her community. When she speaks, it’s with no bitterness in her voice. As she tells the story of how she got where she is today, her tone is soft yet determined.

“A little over a year ago I started to get involved. It was the political campaign for the mayor’s elections,” recalled Chávez “One of the candidates said: ’Gather votes for me and I will help you.’ I said to myself: “I have to get ahead! I will gather women. We will support the candidate mayor, and then help will come for us. I gathered almost 335 women. Now, I’m their leader and I got to know the government institutions. That is how it all started.”

The candidate Chávez rooted for won the election and is now  the mayor of Santiago Atitlán, a municipality of the department of Sololá, Guatemala. However, with his election, the much hoped for help for the women did not come.

But that didn’t stop Chávez. Through the Municipal Women’s Office she got involved in Oxfam’s Campaign for the Prevention of Gender Based Violence. Chávez receives training and information on women’s rights, on where to go for help, and on how to help other women.

“They come to me all beat up, and I won’t permit that,” says Chávez. “I take them in; I tell them a man who does that is not a man. Take a decision. Let’s go and denounce him. Let’s put an end to this. You can do it. You can work and earn your own money. Maybe it won’t be much, but you will be at peace. That’s what I do now, and I like it so much.

“Come here and sleep the night here, I tell them. Tomorrow I will accompany you and we’ll start fixing things. Oh, how I would like to run a shelter for women!”

The 335 women Chávez gathered for the mayoral campaign, are now part of a formal organization they named “Flower of Atitlan,” headed by Chávez. She visits communities, gives talks on women’s rights, and accompanies battered women. Oxfam offers her training and educational material to use.

“Before, I didn’t feel the same strength I feel today,” says Chávez. “Everything that I’ve been through, it has strengthened me a lot. I’m not afraid anymore. If something happens, we shouldn’t keep quiet. We have to make it public.  We women have rights, too!”

And it is making a difference. In the areas where Oxfam is working, Ali says, people are reporting that they like our sanitation facilities and can now access water easily.

“In Syria, many people had a good life before. Now, they are desperate.” – Sahar Ali

Lebanon is also receiving refugees in large numbers, but many of the new arrivals are dispersed throughout communities. There, as Ali reports, Oxfam’s discussions focused on our work to help families survive the winter months.

“People liked the materials we distributed to help them stay warm in winter,” she says, referring to the heaters, fuel, mattresses, warm clothes, plastic sheeting, and other materials that an Oxfam partner provided.

But there is a downside to handing out goods: although emergency distributions can help quickly meet the most urgent needs of a community as a whole, they rarely target individual household needs with precision. In one of the focus groups with refugees, a woman explained that she had received a clothing voucher, but she had no children to buy clothes for so she gave it away. Another woman gave away the diapers her family received.

“What’s really needed is cash,” says Ali, “so people can buy what they need most.”  One family might need food, another might need medicine, and another might be unable to afford shelter.

So, in both Lebanon and Jordan, Oxfam will soon begin providing cash payments to vulnerable families.

“People here really appreciate that Oxfam talks to them and tries to understand and address their needs,” says Ali.

Ali is no stranger to displacement. She has spent the last eight years helping manage Oxfam’s humanitarian programs in Darfur and, more recently, South Kordofan.   

“Displacement is a harsh experience—in Sudan or Syria,” she says. “You can see when you look in people’s eyes how painful it is. They have left behind simply everything.”

And, she says, “they are dreaming of home.”

Oxfam urgently needs your help to keep pace with the refugee crisis. Donate now.

Read more about Oxfam's programs for Syrian refugees.

Improving access to clean water

Al-Basha and other members of Oxfam’s team in Zaatari focus on addressing the severe water and sanitation problems in the crowded camp. To combat the threat of waterborne diseases like cholera, Oxfam provided water tanks and taps to help 10,000 people get access to clean water, and has installed sanitation facilities including toilets, showers, and laundry areas. Work is underway to install 13 Oxfam tanks to facilitate water access for everyone in the camp.

More than 19,000 people have benefited from these efforts so far, and Oxfam hopes to reach even more in the weeks ahead.

“I wanted to help people here, to try to do something more for the community," says Al-Basha of her reasons for joining the effort. But she admits her first visit to the camp was a bit of a shock.

Over the past two years, over one million people have fled the deadly conflict in Syria into neighboring countries. With a daily influx of 2,500 to 3,000 Syrians crossing into Jordan each day, Zaatari is now equivalent in size to the fifth-largest city in Jordan.

"It was the first time I have ever been to a refugee camp and, honestly, it was overwhelming," she says. "I realized this job was going to be totally different in terms of what it required of me than my previous work.”

Al-Basha and her fellow engineers draw up plans, advise contractors, and carry out on-site inspections to ensure safety standards are met at every stage of construction. Her day-to-day work involves overseeing and inspecting the work of the (all-male) laborers and making sure everything goes according to plan—or if it doesn't, finding solutions to daily problems.

“It's been a life-changing experience for me,” says Al-Basha. “Helping to change people's lives is not an easy thing to do.”

A role model for the next generation

Amid a sea of male construction workers and site workers, Al-Basha stands out from the crowd. She explains that, while there are many women engineers in Jordan, most work in offices rather than at construction sites. “I've been working as an engineer for the last six years and I'm always the only female engineer on-site," she says.

Al-Basha says she is determined to show that women engineers are just as capable as their male counterparts. She hopes to pass on some basic engineering and plumbing skills to some people in the camp, and to get women in the camp more involved with the work Oxfam is doing.

"Every day, big groups of women and children follow me as I work in the camp," she says. "The girls say they see me as a kind of role model and say they'd like to do work like me when they are older.”

It’s these young people, she says, who make her job such a rewarding experience.

"We're surrounded by children for most of the day. We walk together, we eat together, we share stories and dreams,” al-Basha says. “When the time comes to leave the camp, we get into our car, tired and exhausted with messy hair and dirty jeans, with our faces a bit more darkened by the sun than the day before.

"We're thinking about how lovely a shower will be, but [then] the kids come and say 'see you tomorrow' and we close the doors with a big smile. ... We start thinking about what can we do next for those kids."

Donate now to support Oxfam’s efforts to aid refugees from Syria.

Reporting from Jordan and above photo by Caroline Gluck.

The details of the budget might still be hidden if it were not for the courage and conviction of one man—Alexis Nkurunziza.

Working with CLADHO, an umbrella of human rights organizations in Rwanda, Nkurunziza conducted the research to complete Rwanda's Open Budget Survey 2012. Progress had been made between 2008 and 2010, but the score in 2012 indicated that the Government of Rwanda was shielding the budget and financial activities from public view.

International media covered his report, which in turn caught the attention of top government officials. Nkurunziza, his colleagues at CLADHO, and the Ministry of Finance met several times about it. Despite some very difficult moments, Nkurunziza held fast to his principles about what is required for citizens to hold the government accountable for its management of the public's money.

"It was a small price to pay for promoting the cause of good governance and transparency," he says.

His sacrifice eventually triggered the Government of Rwanda to reverse course and to release the budget. Nkurunziza turned a difficult interaction into an opportunity to liaise more closely with the government.

"The government recognized that they have challenges to overcome, and they have accepted to involve us," Nkurunziza explains.

Using USAID funding provided initially through a Millennium Challenge Corporation Threshold Program, and then with the support of Norwegian People's Aid, Nkurunziza and CLADHO assisted the Rwanda Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to develop The Budget of Rwanda: a Citizens Guide 2012-2013. (See right. Nkurunziza is also pictured holding it.) The guide helps educate Rwandan citizens about the purpose of the national budget and how they can get involved in developing and monitoring it at both national and local government levels.

CLADHO also hosts forums in rural and urban areas where citizen groups can weigh in on their priorities for public spending, which is vital given the discrepancy between citizens' and governments' concerns. In one district recently, Nkurunziza reports that the citizens gathered were very clear about what support they needed.

"They said, ‘We have requested clean water for five years, but the government has built a marketplace. We already have three marketplaces.'"

By making the budget guide less technical and more user-friendly, it can reach and be understood by as large a segment of the public as possible, enabling the Rwandan government to become more responsive to its citizens.

And that is why to Alexis Nkurunziza, the price is worthwhile.

In recent years, the US government launched policy reforms that make US foreign aid more accountable to you and local leaders like Alexis Nkurunziza.

Aid works best when it supports local actors to take action and change the circumstances which place or keep them or their fellow citizens in poverty—supporting them to build a dream, build a business, support their family, or help their community.

That's why Oxfam America is working to deepen the US government's commitment to making aid more effective. They can do so by putting more US aid dollars directly in the hands of people like Alexis Nkurunziza.

Read more stories at: www.oxfamamerica.org/aidworks

Note: Oxfam America doesn't take federal funds, but we do support effective development programs. In 2012, the Aid Effectiveness Team conducted research to highlight effective uses of the 1% of foreign aid the U.S. government spends on poverty reduction and other life-saving assistance. The people featured in this series are not necessarily receiving direct assistance from Oxfam.

The four leaders were kidnapped on Sunday, March 17, from the village of El Volcancito in the San Rafael Las Flores municipality of the Department of Santa Rosa. One of the hostages, Exactacion Marcos, was found dead the next day.

Local groups had organized a community consultation in which citizens cast votes in favor or against the mining project known as "The Escobal.” The project is located 2.5 kilometers east of the San Jose, municipal head of San Rafael Las Flores. Its operations would impact more than 3,000 people living in the area.

After the consultation, the four leaders, known for defending the rights of local citizens, were kidnapped. Rigoberto Giron and Rodolfo López Aguilar managed to escape. A third man, Roberto González, a community administrator and Xinca parliament president, was released the next day.

Oxfam is calling on the government of Guatemala and the national justice system to investigate these crimes quickly and effectively, and to prosecute the perpetrators. Oxfam also urges the government to end the persecution of those who are making legitimate demands for social justice.

Threats to people’s security, criminal activities, and violence around mining projects are all on the rise, yet the government continues to grant licenses without respecting the free, prior, and informed consent of the people who could be affected by the projects. This is increasing unrest across the country.

Oxfam expresses its support for and solidarity with the victims of last week’s violence and with the local and national organizations that are facing threats because of their defense of the public’s legal right to know and decide what happens to the natural resources of their country.

Take action

Join Oxfam in demanding that the Guatemalan government protect the lives and rights of all its citizens.

“Hopefully, this project, now and later, can help us and others. Syria is destroyed and it will need people to rebuild it,” said Hamida. “We can help people who have psychological problems or need cash assistance.  Syrian women have lost a lot and many need someone to take their hands and help them to rebuild and rehabilitate their lives.”

Hamida is one of five women citizen journalists for the Voice project in Khaldiyyeh, a host community for refugees in the Mafraq governorate in northeast Jordan. The women are trained to collect stories and take photos throughout their communities. They meet once a week with the Voice project team in Amman, the capitol of Jordan, for awareness-raising sessions on various topics, including women’s leadership and time management. They are paid 170 Jordanian pounds (around $240) per month.

Hamida is originally from Homs, a city in western Syria badly affected by the civil war, where she was a housewife and her husband ran a supermarket. The family left for Jordan eight months ago after a bomb fell nearby, half-destroying their home.

“My life was turned upside down by the crisis. In Syria, my husband used to take care of everything and provide for us. I dealt with the children. But now, I have to work…I don’t want to stay with my hands folded as a person; I want an outlet to do something; to get our concerns heard. I feel relieved to be doing this and to have people listening to us. My freedom as a woman started with the beginning of this project,” said Hamida.

“There are a lot of things that have shocked me since I started this work.  I have seen many people living in houses that aren’t even fit for animals; I’ve seen many refugees who don’t know what to do, or where to turn; I’ve met many people who have suffered injuries from the war.

“I felt that this project gave me back my humanity that I’d lost for a while. It let me scream out loud.”

Hamida hopes the Voice project will not only help women refugees rebuild their lives, but also show the world that Syrian women are strong, successful, and supporting their families in crisis.

“I’ve come across some stories where women are trying to work even more than men here…Most men here are in a psychological state where they are very depressed. They’ve been used to be able to provide for everything and now feel they can’t do anything.

“Sometimes I think the outside world has a wrong view of Syria and women’s roles. They should know that Syrian society is open-minded, that women often work. Women are loved by their husbands and children and they really want to see us grow.

“I feel free and liberated doing this work.  It has given me a lot of confidence…I have to stay strong and not give up. My family and husband depend on me… But more important to me than the monetary help we get from the project is the psychological support it’s given me.”

Take action

Find out how you can support Oxfam’s efforts to aid refugees from Syria.

So what can we do to right this wrong? We can start by understanding that food is truly global.

Farmers, companies, and consumers are all interconnected; each of our actions can affect countless others. Take cocoa, the key ingredient in your favorite chocolate bar. Many farmers in the developing world grow food for local markets, but an increasing number cultivate crops like cocoa to sell to multinational companies. Today, 90 percent of the world’s cocoa is grown by some 5.5 million smallholder farmers.

The not-so-sweet facts about cocoa

• Most cocoa farmers and workers live below the poverty line, earning less than $2 a day.
• Less than 5 percent of the price of a typical chocolate bar goes back to cocoa farmers. The rest goes to the supermarket that sells the candy, plus marketing, transport, storage, and other costs.
• Many cocoa-growing areas have high rates of hunger and malnutrition.
• While women are integral to the production of commodities like cocoa, tea, and coffee, it is usually men who sell the crops to traders and control the cash received as payment.
• In West Africa, where most of the world’s cocoa comes from, women do nearly half of the labor on cocoa farms but own just a quarter of the land. They have fewer economic opportunities and, as workers, typically earn less than men. Cocoa farmers in Nigeria told Oxfam that women are paid $2 to $3 for a day’s work, while men earn about $7 a day.
• Although global demand for chocolate is rising, the production of cocoa has slowed significantly owing to a changing climate and an aging workforce. Millions of young people are giving up cocoa farming because of low pay and a lack of opportunities.

Felicia Adebowale, right, watches as her daughter Bose Adebowale dries cocoa beans outside their house in Ayetoro-Ijesa, Nigeria. Photo: George Osodi / Panos for Oxfam America

Three things you need to know

1. The biggest food companies have global reach. Three companies—Mars, Mondelez, and Nestlé—collectively buy more than 30 percent of the world’s cocoa. They are among the 10 biggest food and beverage companies in the world, which generate revenues of more than $1.1 billion a day. Though these companies employ millions of people in poor countries, they often know very little about the people who grow, process, and sell their products.

2. These companies could be doing a lot more for farmers, especially women. Oxfam’s Behind the Brands scorecard found that the 10 biggest food and beverage companies need to do a lot more to support farmers, communities, and our planet. Many also have major gaps in their policies to protect and promote women’s rights. For example, Mars, Mondelez, and Nestlé all need to show more awareness of issues facing women cocoa growers and workers.

3. Consumers like you can change how companies do business. Today, consumers are looking closer at company practices and making more-informed choices. Even the biggest companies care what customers think—so when you speak, they listen.

Now imagine if you are a woman, brought up having to obey the family dictum and with a limited circle of interaction. You may be seen as a burden to an impoverished family, yet have to bear the weight of caring for its members.

Imagine now you have summoned the courage to step up before a panel of local officials, all older than you, all male, and perhaps of another class and caste. What will you say?

Majeda Begum Shiru says that in her community of Patiya in the south eastern Chittagong district of Bangladesh, her fellow citizens are not afraid to speak up.

"The women say, 'I am unable to send my child to school. How do you plan to solve that problem?' Because of these kinds of questions being asked, [the officials] must answer to the public directly."

It was not always this way. Shiru herself rarely used to go into government offices. "Even if I did, I felt uncomfortable," she says. A local NGO, Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS), with support from USAID, provided public speaking and leadership training to Shiru and many other women, strengthening their confidence and ability to engage in public.

Today Shiru has become one of the locally-elected officials she used to fear.

Shiru is a leader in the District Public Policy Forum (see her pictured right with her with her fellow forum leaders), where citizens and civil society groups engage with local members of Parliament, departments of education and health, and local government officials to discuss issues of importance to the community. These forums in Bangladesh are supported by a USAID and Asia Foundation project called "Promoting Democratic Institutions and Practices", and in the Patiya District by USAID's local partner BNPS. The process of having regular forums such as these raises awareness of government's responsibilities among citizens, and can lead to reduced corruption or abuse of government funds when Parliamentarians are more connected to the issues the community faces on a day-to-day basis.

"Women can now speak out and voice out their problems directly. The MP [promises] his community that their concerns will be discussed in the house of Parliament," Shiru explains.

Strong women like Majeda Begum Shiru are using the forums to address the high rates of maternal mortality and primary school drop-outs in their area. Recently, during a District Public Policy Forum (DPPF) meeting in Patiya, the group Shiru leads to support the local hospital successfully advocated for adding an additional doctor to the gynecology ward and improvements to the ambulance. In response to calls from Shiru and the community to improve the education system, the local school will soon be providing breakfast and lunch for the students on a trial basis, in an effort to encourage better attendance.

"Whenever there is a school gathering, or any sort of general gathering in the area, there are a large number of women present. We speak out to make these pressing issues known," says Shiru. "It is only after I joined the DPPF that I found out new ways to empower women. I saw that to acquire [government] funds, we had to exert a lot of pressure to get it."

USAID invested in long-term skills development in women in the "Promoting Democratic Institutions and Practices" Project to ensure they can share their concerns and opinions regarding health and education needs for themselves and their families in public meetings well into the future.

At the Patiya District Public Policy Forum in July 2012, the convener Pankaj Chakroborti said, "Citizens, they are aware of their rights and thus can demand for better treatment, so the scenario is slowly changing. The authorities at all levels, in all sectors, are becoming more proactive."

Shiru believes this will continue. "BNPS has opened our eyes about our rights and place in the community, we have learned how to speak up for ourselves," she says. "We will continue to do so long after this project has expired."

In recent years, the US government launched policy reforms that make US foreign aid more accountable to you and local leaders like Majeda Begum Shiru.

Aid works best when it supports local actors to take action and change the circumstances which place or keep them or their fellow citizens in poverty—supporting them to build a dream, build a business, support their family, or help their community.

That's why Oxfam America is working to deepen the US government's commitment to making aid more effective. They can do so by putting more US aid dollars directly in the hands of people like Majeda Begum Shiru.

Read more stories at: www.oxfamamerica.org/aidworks/

Note: Oxfam America doesn't take federal funds, but we do support effective development programs. In 2012, the Aid Effectiveness Team conducted research to highlight effective uses of the 1% of foreign aid the U.S. government spends on poverty reduction and other life-saving assistance. The people featured in this series are not necessarily receiving direct assistance from Oxfam.

We believe that poverty is wrong, and that it is not an inevitable fact of life. We work to end poverty-- to right this wrong-- by saving lives in emergencies, working on long-term solutions for the underlying causes of poverty, and campaigning for social change.

2: You can trust us.

We are highly rated by leading independent charity evaluators, including the American Institute of Philanthropy. In 2012 Oxfam was awarded four (out of four) stars from Charity Navigator, the nation's largest charity evaluator. Oxfam America is a member of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance and meets their high standards of operations, spending, truthfulness, and disclosure. We do not accept any funding from the US government; this helps us stay independent.

3: We work with local and national organizations: our partners.

We provide local partners grants for their anti-poverty programs and work with them to build alliances, networks, and effective organizations that will eventually be self-sufficient. Most important, we work with our partners to learn; what they teach us about the best solutions to poverty is just as valuable as the funding and collaboration we provide them.

4: We believe that fighting poverty is about fighting injustice.

Poverty often arises from the violation of people’s basic rights. When someone is denied the right to own land, the right to education, access to basic services like clean water, a fair price for the crops they grow, or a fair wage for the work they do, the result is poverty.

5: The projects we fund are community driven.

Our local partners do the work, so the results are theirs. Locally informed and locally driven solutions to poverty are the best solutions—the most sustainable and the most appropriate—because they come from the people who can keep the initiatives going after Oxfam and its funding goes away.

6: Poverty puts people in harm's way.

Poverty makes people vulnerable to calamities—from armed conflicts to earthquakes. It is poverty that forces people to live in violent areas or to build their houses with flimsy materials in locations vulnerable to floods and landslides. We help people in vulnerable communities to reduce their risks, and to advocate with their governments to support their efforts.

7: We help people learn about their basic rights and how to defend them.

By educating people about their rights, we help to build strong communities that compel governments and other institutions to deliver on their responsibilities. When citizens hold their governments accountable, they can change the systems that keep people trapped in poverty.

8: We are a member of the international confederation Oxfam.

We are an international confederation of 17 like-minded organizations that collaborate on global campaigns and major humanitarian interventions. We work with 3,000 local partners in more than 90 countries and devote more than $1.1 billion annually to fighting poverty.

9: Laws, policies, and institutions have an enormous impact on poverty.

Yet, poor people are not consulted about major issues like international trade law, climate change talks, or how wealthy countries administer foreign aid programs that are supposed to help them. We work to help people directly affected by laws and policies to have a voice in their formulation. And we wage campaigns to convince decision makers to respect the views of poor communities.

10: You can join the effort. Everyone—including you—has a part to play in the fight against poverty and injustice.

With the power of many voices speaking together, we can call on companies and legislators to change the laws and practices that keep people in poverty. We can also raise awareness and inspire action on some of the world's most urgent issues. We can't do this alone. Please join our eCommunity; we need your voice and your support. No matter who you are, or how busy you are, you can make a difference.

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Savings groups –15 to 25 people, usually women, who combine their own modest weekly savings into a group fund—are an essential means to bring financial services to the poorest communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, says Sophie Romana, Oxfam’s deputy director in the Community Finance department. “Savings groups promote financial inclusion; they help poor, remote communities with no access to banks to save, borrow, and invest.” Savings groups leverage their own funds, rather than relying on credit from banks and other microfinance institutions, which usually do not serve the poorest of the poor.

There are now more than six million members of saving groups in 60 countries. Oxfam America’s Saving for Change program, started in 2007, helped establish more than 27,000 groups now serving 576,000 members.

The conference will focus on promoting savings groups, and participants will discuss ways to integrate savings groups into more formal financial systems, to help small businesses access larger loans as they grow, and how mobile technology can play a role in this process.

Participants will also discuss another important aspect of savings groups: They are, as Romana puts it, “highly efficient platforms” for business training, public health promotion, and other activities designed to increase well-being and reduce poverty. “Savings group members retain what they learn and always demand more,” Romana says. “We want big organizations to ally with those working with savings groups, so they can train group members in things like family planning, and other subjects that will help women in particular, since most saving group members are women and we can see when countries invest in women, their economies do better.”

Research findings

Oxfam America, Freedom from Hunger, Catholic Relief Services, and the International Rescue Committee are sharing the results of their randomized controlled trials at the conference. Kathleen Odell, an assistant professor of economics at Dominican University will lead the session on research. “The results will show that savings groups are having a positive impact on members and their families,” Romana says.

Other notable speakers and conference advisory committee members include:

• Candace Nelson, editor of Savings Groups at the Frontier and an advisor to the SEEP Network
• Guy Vanmeenen, Catholic Relief Service’s Advisor for Microfinance in Africa
• Jason Wolfe, Senior Household Economic Strengthening Advisor, USAID
• Joanna Ledgerwood, Access to Finance program, Aga Khan Foundation
• Kathleen Stack, Vice President, Freedom from Hunger
• Jeff Ashe, Director of Community Finance, Oxfam America
• Maude Massu, Senior Microfinance Advisor, CARE International
• Michaela Kelly, Head of Program Delivery Unit, Plan International
• Prabhat Labh, Program Manager-Microfinance, MasterCard Foundation
• Salah Goss, Program Officer, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Lauren Hendricks, Executive Director, CARE USA Access Africa initiative
• Nisha Singh, Director of the Financial Services Community of Practice

When the earthquake of 2010 struck Haiti, the disaster shone a spotlight on the vulnerability of a country that has traditionally focused its resources on the capital city and left the countryside to fend for itself. Haiti had long since become dependent on imported food, and when hundreds of thousands of people returned to their home villages after the quake, they faced a future of deep rural poverty.

So, Oxfam joined forces with farmers’ associations, women’s groups, and local government authorities to help revive the rice economy for 5,000 farmers in the lower Artibonite Valley—to make rice farming viable again by systematically addressing the points in production where Haitian rice has lost its ability to compete in the globalized marketplace.

With Oxfam’s support, many farmers are now practicing a method of growing rice that is more than doubling yields while reducing the use of seeds, water, and chemical inputs. Farmers have access to new processing equipment that is lowering costs while improving the quality of the final product, and to motorized cultivators to prepare their land for planting. And in a region where mechanics for farming equipment are in short supply, dozens of young men and women are training to become professional agricultural mechanics. Through cash-for-work programs, farming communities are clearing irrigation channels of debris, sediment, and weeds, and in the process have brought 4,700 acres of land back under cultivation. Those hit hard by recent hurricanes are getting relief. Women rice farmers in the valley are gaining access to low-interest loans so they can become more successful entrepreneurs. And Oxfam is advocating with the national government, US policy makers, and the international banking and development communities for policies that support rather than undermine Haitian rice farmers.

Together, Oxfam and our partners are beginning to weave together the tattered fabric of the rice economy into a coherent whole, and soon the effects may extend throughout Artibonite and beyond.

The relief in the communities is palpable. Farmer Augustin Miradieu lives in the village of Dubuisson, where irrigation has been restored to 370 acres of land. “We were hungry, but that is getting better all the time,” he says. “Now, we have the irrigation we need to farm, so we have food to eat.”

Read this story, and more like it, in our Winter 2013 edition of Closeup.

The shoppers are refugees—Syrians who have fled a brutal armed conflict in their country—and the setting is Lebanon in the dead of winter.

They are living a miserable life, says Fadia Dahshe of Oxfam partner PARD (Popular Aid for Relief and Development). Many arrived with no money and no spare clothes. They have constructed fragile shelters of sticks and plastic sheeting—no real protection from the bitter cold. “Sometimes they light fires in their tents,” she says, “but it’s dangerous for them.”

For those who are living through this disaster, there may be only one place they’d less rather be right now:  home. They tell stories of narrow escapes and of losing everything they had—houses, money, and sometimes loved ones—and of what it’s like to try and live and sleep and care for young children in freezing temperatures.

But as one mother said, “I can tell you that being cold is better than being in the middle of the war.”

On this day in January, 72 families are getting a respite—a trip to the supermarket, and a chance to buy food and blankets and hygiene supplies.

PARD has been providing supplies to 200 families. They used to distribute the goods, but by paying attention to the experience of the refugees, they realized  there was a better way to do the job.

“We made a focus group with the families, and they told us things like ‘Sometimes you gave us too many lentils; maybe you could give us more milk instead.’ And, ‘We don’t need a gallon of shampoo—we need more rice,’” says Dahshe. “So we listened to them and decided it is better for them to choose what they would like to buy.” She adds, “It is their right to choose.”

So, PARD is now providing families with vouchers, each worth $73.

"As you go around the shop, you will see that each family has different items in their basket," says Dahshe.  They simply take what they need."

“It’s important that we got this support. It will make a big difference,” says Fadia Asaf, a mother of two, who is now eight and a half months pregnant. “Hopefully, the conflict will be resolved soon and we can go back to our country.”

“I want to tell people not just in Syria but also in the whole world that they should stop fighting,” says Dahshe. “People must put an end to this misery.”

Find out how you can support Oxfam’s efforts to aid refugees from Syria.

As I walk to work every morning among the people dressed in what look like uniforms more than suits, I wonder if I'll ever be among the "insiders." Not because of how I'm dressed or where I'm from, but because so often I'm concerned that the interests and priorities of the general U.S. population are not fully represented by those "inside the beltway."

This happens in other countries as well.

I used to live in Malawi as an aid worker and the interests of those outside the perimeter of the capital city, Lilongwe, were also at risk of disregard and neglect by those on the "inside."

That's where people like Martha Kwataine come in.

In rural areas of Malawi, educated health care workers are not interested in serving in rural areas because of the harsh living conditions in these posts. Thus these areas go under-served and people are left without adequate health care. The government of Malawi has used scholarships as a tool to staff these posts.

However in 2010, the Malawian government "insiders" withdrew the scholarships it had been providing to the country's health care training institutions, saying that there was no arrangement with international donors on the best way of continuing the program.

This was unacceptable to Kwataine, who leads the Malawi Health Equity Network, a coalition of local nonprofits and citizens working on access to quality health services and a partner of USAID. Kwataine urged the government to find other means of financing these scholarships, which were so vital to ensuring rural Malawians had access to health care professionals.

"I lobbied hard for the reintroduction of these scholarships since rural Malawians should not be punished for living where they do," Kwataine says.

After the vocal advocacy of Kwataine and her colleagues, government officials responded. The 2011 Malawi national budget included 1,200 health scholarships to staff underserved areas.

When midwife scholarships were cut from the national budget, Kwataine and the Malawi Health Equity Network snapped into action once again and the government of Malawi returned the equivalent of US$13,000 back after their campaign. That may seem like a small amount to some, but a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world cannot afford to divest from midwife services.

"As a health access activist, my role has to be to link policymakers with the reality on the ground. I have to ensure that the national budget translates into improved health service delivery," says Kwataine.

For Kwataine and her colleagues, this also includes working with rural communities in Malawi to understand and demand their rights as health care consumers.

The health center in Mponela, a town in central Malawi, was not functioning because no health care workers were posted to the facility. People were traveling 30-40 kilometers to access health care services. Upon learning that the Malawi Health Equity Network was working with a committee of concerned local leaders in the area, the responsible government employee deployed a doctor and a nurse to staff the center. The center is now up and running.

When I knew that I would be writing about Martha Kwataine, I asked a Malawian friend and mentor who has been involved in the health sector for many years what he knew about her. His response says it all.

"She is a powerful lady."

He and I agreed that if we couldn't see a doctor, we would certainly want a fierce "outsider" like Martha Kwataine on our side.

In recent years, the US government launched policy reforms that make US foreign aid more accountable to you and local leaders like Martha Kwataine.

Aid works best when it supports local actors to take action and change the circumstances which place or keep them or their fellow citizens in poverty—supporting them to build a dream, build a business, support their family, or help their community.

That's why Oxfam America is working to deepen the US government's commitment to making aid more effective. They can do so by putting more US aid dollars directly in the hands of people like Martha Kwataine.

Read more stories at: www.oxfamamerica.org/aidworks/

Note: Oxfam America doesn't take federal funds, but we do support effective development programs. In 2012, the Aid Effectiveness Team conducted research to highlight effective uses of the 1% of foreign aid the U.S. government spends on poverty reduction and other life-saving assistance. The people featured in this series are not necessarily receiving direct assistance from Oxfam.

But telling fishermen to change the ways they've been fishing for decades is no easy task. Kondua joined seminars on sustainable management of marine life offered by the Ghanaian non-profit organizations, Coastal Resources Center and Friends of the Nation, with support from USAID. Armed with new information and tactics, he is bringing people together to hold the fishing regulatory agencies accountable for enforcing compliance with fishing regulations.

"We have to re-educate our fishermen to the right type of fishing. [We] help the Ghana government to build up a very good capacity for fishermen in this country," Chief Kondua says.

In his role as chairman of the Western Regional branch of the National Canoe Fishermen's Council, Chief Kondua's is encouraging fishermen to follow current laws and adopt good fishing practices in order to protect their livelihoods. This also includes health education and family planning.

Chief Kondua explains how family size and fishing practices are linked, "Whatever we do in the sea depends upon the children that you see now. If you get plenty children, you have to do all you can to bring more fish [in], whether good practice or not."

Kondua is also working to develop new laws to stop erosion and create marine-protected areas for the future of Abuesi and western Ghana because, as Chief Kondua shares,

"Be you a driver, a shopkeeper, a carpenter or a mason, anything—if you live here, you depend on the fishing."

In recent years, the US government launched policy reforms that make US foreign aid more accountable to you and local leaders like Chief Kondua.

Aid works best when it supports local actors to take action and change the circumstances which place or keep them or their fellow citizens in poverty—supporting them to build a dream, build a business, support their family, or help their community.

That's why Oxfam America is working to deepen the US government's commitment to making aid more effective. They can do so by putting more US aid dollars directly in the hands of people like Chief Kondua.

Read more stories at: www.oxfamamerica.org/aidworks/

Note: Oxfam America doesn't take federal funds, but we do support effective development programs. In 2012, the Aid Effectiveness Team conducted research to highlight effective uses of the 1% of foreign aid the U.S. government spends on poverty reduction and other life-saving assistance. The people featured in this series are not necessarily receiving direct assistance from Oxfam.