All Publications

Fighting hunger in Mogadishu

Oxfam America — 2012-02-07T16:39:24Z

For Raha Janaqow, country director for SAACID, Oxfam's partner in Somalia, work is the only salve for the devastation around her—work that is saving the lives of thousands of malnourished children who have made their way to one of 14 community therapeutic care centers SAACID operates across the conflict-ridden capital of Mogadishu.

OXFAMExchange, Winter 2012

Oxfam America — 2012-02-07T16:33:13Z

Oxfam's work is about structural change—a long, slow process. How slow? Well, we generally think about our field programs as approximately 15-year investments. In other words, a development program requires almost as much time and commitment as it takes to raise a child.

A shorter commitment won't get the job done. It takes time to help people build skills and infrastructure, to get policies changed, and to ensure that governments spend their money more effectively.

Smart development demands monitoring and evaluation. Organizations should be accountable to report not only what they do, but also how they measure it. Don't believe stories that guarantee long-term impact after one or two years' investment; that's barely time to lay some groundwork.

We all crave the easy answer, the quick solution, but if eradicating poverty were simple, people living in poverty would have sorted it out long ago. They may lack resources like land, but they certainly don't lack intelligence or insight. Poverty is a global challenge—one that we can overcome together, but listening and learning from people living in poverty, and developing solutions with them, takes time and sustained effort.

This issue of OXFAMExchange includes inspiring stories, but they are just snapshots from a family album: moments in a long journey together. Each story is ultimately about perseverance and the need for long-term commitment.

Crises in a New World Order: Challenging the humanitarian project

jlee — 2012-02-07T16:19:14Z

The growing number of vulnerable people, the rise in disasters, and the failure to put most fragile states on the path to development, will significantly increase needs.

Western-based donors, INGOs and the UN provide only part of the answer. Already, new donors and NGOs from around the world provide a significant share of humanitarian aid. Future humanitarian action will rely on them, and on the governments and civil society of crisis-affected countries even more. The UN and INGOs will be vital, but their contribution will increasingly be measured by how well they complement and support the efforts of others, and encourage every humanitarian actor to uphold humanitarian principles.

R4 Rural Resilience Initiative: Partnership for resilient livelihoods in a changing climate

khamilton — 2012-01-24T16:32:28Z

For the 1.3 billion people living on less than a dollar day who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, vulnerability to climate-related shocks is a constant threat to food security and well-being.

As climate change drives an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural hazards, the challenges faced by food-insecure communities struggling to improve their lives and livelihoods will also increase. The question of how to build rural resilience against climate-related risk is critical for addressing global poverty.

In response to this challenge, the United Nations World Food Programme and Oxfam America have launched the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative, known as R4, referring to the four risk management strategies that the initiative integrates. R4 builds on the initial success of a holistic risk management framework developed by Oxfam America to enable poor farmers to strengthen their food and income security through a combination of improved resource management (risk reduction), microcredit (prudent risk taking), insurance (risk transfer), and savings (risk reserves).

Left behind by the G20?

bgrossmancohen — 2012-02-02T18:38:14Z

The G20 is committed to supporting equitable and sustainable growth. But new data shows that a lot needs to change if they are to live up to this pledge. The stakes are high: analysis in this paper suggests that without attention to growing inequality, strong growth is unlikely to be enough to prevent poverty increasing in some G20 countries over the next decade. Income inequality is growing in almost all G20 members, while it is falling in many low and lower middle-income countries. Meanwhile, environmentally unsustainable economic expansion is driving dangerous climate change, and depleting the natural resources upon which poor people depend most for their livelihoods. Without action, inequality will render the benefits of growth inaccessible to the poor, even as they bear the costs of this expansion through the impacts of a changing climate and environmental degradation. It’s time for the G20 to practice what it preaches.

A Dangerous Delay: The cost of late response to early warnings in the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa

jlee — 2012-01-17T21:39:10Z

Governments, donors, the UN and NGOs need to change their approach

to chronic drought situations by managing the risks, not the crisis.

This means acting on information from early warning systems and not

waiting for certainty before responding, as well as tackling the root causes of vulnerability and actively seeking to reduce risk in all activities. To achieve this, we must overcome the humanitarian–development divide.

Haiti: The slow road to reconstruction

mhart — 2012-01-09T15:17:30Z

In the two years since the devastating earthquake, Haiti’s government has still not implemented comprehensive plans to address the key issues of shelter; sustainable access to water, sanitation, and hygiene; and secure livelihoods. Donors have failed to meet UN humanitarian appeals and have delivered less than half of promised reconstruction funds. The international community must renew efforts to bolster the government’s capacity to effectively co-ordinate reconstruction, while consulting and engaging with Haitian citizens in the process.

Haiti Progress Report 2011: Summary

mhart — 2012-01-06T21:13:48Z

On Jan. 12, 2010, a massive earthquake hit Haiti, killing 220,000 people, injuring 300,000, and severely damaging great swaths of the country. With more than half a million people still living in camps, Haitians and their new government have struggled to recover. Oxfam remains committed to the challenge. In 2011, Oxfam reached 532,000 people as it began to shift its focus from emergency needs to reconstruction initiatives. Haiti has a long way to go, and so do all of us who support Haitians in the enormous challenge of rebuilding their country.

Haiti Progress Report 2011

mhart — 2012-01-12T21:25:41Z

It is now two years since the most powerful earthquake in Haiti in 200 years struck the capital city of Port-au-Prince and the surrounding metropolitan area. In a matter of a few violent minutes the city was devastated. More than 220,000 people were killed, 300,000 were injured, and 1.5 million were made homeless. The earthquake was followed the same year by a cholera outbreak and then by Hurricane Thomas, making already severe conditions even worse.

This report demonstrates what Oxfam has achieved during this past, challenging year. Although this is still in many respects a humanitarian situation we are also working on innovative longer-term programs – involving existing and new partnerships with local organizations – to help in the wider reconstruction effort.

Oxfam America student action guide

akramer — 2012-01-05T18:54:10Z

Are you a student who wants to support Oxfam? Find our helpful tips for starting and running an Oxfam Club, ideas for campus events, and much more.

The politics of partnership: How donors manage risk while letting recipients lead their own development

jlee — 2011-12-13T15:12:04Z

The underlying field research comes from Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Malawi, and Tanzania. Our research findings suggest that aid works best through genuine partnerships, partnerships that truly support the visions and efforts of people and their governments.

Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation (HARITA) quarterly report: July 2011–September 2011

aperera — 2012-01-24T16:12:01Z

For the 1.3 billion people living on less than a dollar a day who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, vulnerability to weather-related shocks is a constant threat to security and well-being. As climate change drives an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural hazards, the challenges faced by food-insecure communities struggling to improve their lives and livelihoods will also increase. The question of how to build rural resilience against weather-related risk is critical for addressing global poverty.

In response to this challenge, in 2007, Oxfam America, together with local and international partners,1 launched a pilot program called HARITA, or Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation, to work with farmers on building their resilience to climate change. Today, the program has grown to become Oxfam’s Rural Resilience Initiative, or R4 (http://www.oxfamamerica.org/issues/insurance/). Initiated as a result of the partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme announced at the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference, R4 builds upon the highly successful growth of the multiyear HARITA pilot in Ethiopia.

HARITA, in its three years of delivery in Ethiopia’s northernmost state of Tigray, has shown promising results for replication. More than 1,300 households participated in HARITA in 2010, up from 200 in its first year. In the 2011 agricultural season, HARITA expanded its outreach by 10 times with more than 13,000 farmers in 43 villages signing up for insurance.

Oxfam Fact Sheet: Food Crisis in East Africa

akramer — 2011-11-10T21:22:48Z

Parts of East Africa are the driest they have been in 60 years. But punishing weather is not the only challenge families here face: deep poverty and decades of marginalization have left them with few resources on which to fall back as the price of food soars and water shortages persist. In Somalia, the crisis has escalated into famine.

Right now, Oxfam aims to reach three million people with clean water, food, and basic sanitation services. We are already helping more than two million people by drilling deep wells and rehabilitating existing water supplies, vaccinating animals to ensure their strength during this time of great stress, providing people with cash to buy food, and offering sanitation and public health promotion to stem the spread of waterborne diseases.

Oxfam America's Saving for Change program in West Africa

aperera — 2011-10-31T19:27:50Z

Saving for Change is Oxfam America’s signature savings-led microfinance program. Members—primarily women living in rural communities—form a group that saves, lends, and pays dividends to its members. Group members elect their own leadership, set their bylaws, and decide collectively how to achieve their goals.

Oxfam America’s Saving for Change program in Central America

aperera — 2011-10-31T19:24:38Z