Research & reports http://www.oxfamamerica.org These are the search results for the query, showing results 21 to 35. Measuring Economic Progress and Well-Being http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/measuring-economic-progress-and-well-being-how-to-move-beyond-gdp How to move beyond GDP This paper offers an overview of the long-standing debate about the use of GDP in measuring progress, paying particular attention to poverty and inequality as dimensions of progress.

]]> No publisher nhailu 2012-09-05T18:36:58Z Research Report PREP Value Chain Climate Resilience http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/prep-value-chain-climate-resilience A guide to managing climate impacts in companies and communities This guide has been developed by companies and organizations engaged in the Partnership for Resilience and Environmental Preparedness (PREP) — a pilot partnership formed to address the risks and opportunities that climate change impacts pose to businesses and the communities on which they depend. One of the primary goals of PREP is to engage and inform good practice in companies as it relates to building climate resilience in partnership with communities. This guidance has been developed on behalf of the PREP member companies Calvert Investments, Entergy, Levi Strauss & Co., Earth Networks, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., Starbucks, and Swiss Re.

This report was prepared by Jean-Christophe Amado and Peter Adams (Acclimatise). Heather Coleman (Oxfam America) and Ryan Schuchard (BSR) were lead contributors.

]]> No publisher mborum PREP climate change corporate social responsibility 2012-08-08T18:12:16Z Research Report Physical risks from climate change http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/physical-risks-from-climate-change A guide for companies and investors on disclosure and management of climate impacts Climate change has already started to cause a wide range of physical effects— with serious implications for investors and businesses. While weather variability and extremes have always existed, the science shows that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense, that incremental climatic changes are already underway, and that the impacts of climate change are expected to grow more severe over the coming years and decades. Companies are already experiencing business impacts from weather-related phenomena that climate change is expected to make more common and/or intense. This document is designed as a guide to help chart a course for companies to disclose and manage such risks.

]]> No publisher bgrossmancohen 2012-06-01T18:22:19Z Research Report Systems, power, and agency in market-based approaches to poverty http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/systems-power-and-agency-in-market-based-approaches-to-poverty A review of some shortcomings of Market-based approaches (MBAs) and the search for more holistic, systemic approaches. Market-based approaches (MBAs) have become an increasingly vital area for anti-poverty development work, spurring a wide range of new actors, partnerships, and initiatives. Many development proponents remain focused on macroeconomic growth through foreign direct investment and large-scale public-private partnerships. Others view these trends ominously and push for a return to protected markets and stronger regulation of corporations. Between these two poles, a third stream of MBA practitioners accepts globalization, but intervenes more directly in markets to ensure pro-poor impacts.

This paper reviews some of the shortcomings of these various approaches and describes the search for more holistic, systemic approaches. Specifically, the paper argues that MBAs continue to fall short of their potential because of a failure to: (i) employ “systems thinking,” (ii) address power and agency, and (iii) implement interventions with adequate political, social, and economic dexterity. A market systems approach (MSA) integrating these three essential elements (systems thinking, power/agency, and dexterity) offers the best prospect for ensuring significant and lasting change through market engagement.

]]> No publisher khamilton 2012-05-24T16:22:12Z Research Report Reforms put foreign aid to work fighting corruption and waste http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/reforms-put-foreign-aid-to-work-fighting-corruption-and-waste USAID is changing the way it implements US foreign aid programs to put local actors in the driver's seat. Called "Implementation and Procurement Reform," or IPR, this effort will invest more money directly by partnering with country governments, local businesses, and local organizations. The effort is designed to help countries deliver for their own people, and help people hold their governments accountable.

]]> No publisher aperera USAID aid reform 2012-05-16T14:00:59Z Research Report R4 Rural Resilience Initiative http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/r4-rural-resilience-initiative-1 Quarterly report | January – March 2012 R4 represents a new kind of partnership, bringing public- and private-sector actors together in a strategic, large-scale initiative to innovate and develop better tools to help the most vulnerable people build resilient livelihoods. R4 promises to leverage the respective strengths of its partners: Oxfam America’s capacity to build innovative partnerships and the World Food Programme’s global reach and extensive capacity to support government-led safety nets for the most vulnerable people. This partnership will enable thousands more poor farmers and other food insecure households to manage weather vulnerability through an affordable, comprehensive risk management program that builds long-term resilience.

]]> No publisher aperera 2012-05-16T13:59:05Z Research Report Hygiene promotion: determining what works http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/hygiene-promotion-determining-what-works In the aftermath of disasters, Oxfam undertakes a host of hygiene-promotion activities in order to prevent the outbreak and spread of disease. But which are the most effective? In 2011, we engaged the Swiss research institute Eawag to study the relationship between Oxfam hygiene promotions and safe hand-washing practices in Haiti in the wake of the earthquake and cholera outbreak of 2010.

]]> No publisher Elizabeth Stevens Haiti cholera hand washing humanitarian field studies hygiene promotion research wash 2012-04-27T13:21:52Z Research Report Local capacity in humanitarian response: Vision or mirage? http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/local-capacity-in-humanitarian-response The absence of empowered local participation in emergency response has been recognized by most actors in the humanitarian sector. It has been documented in the evaluations of major responses from the African Great Lakes wars in the ‘90s to the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 – and it will undoubtedly be a key finding when the humanitarian sector reviews its earthquake response in Haiti. In theory and in spirit, there has been some progress in promoting local participation and empowerment in recent years, from the principles and standards outlined in the Sphere Project and the Red Cross Code of Conduct to the mechanisms and guidelines laid out by the Humanitarian Accountability Project. But if the framework is in place for bringing about a real transfer of power to local populations in humanitarian emergencies, why is it not taking place?

In the current humanitarian system, the dominant principle is action-reaction. A crisis happens, money is donated, and those funds are expected to produce immediate results – tangible results that donors sense are meeting the needs on the ground. It is a fast-paced sequence that provides little room for building on local capacity or even for listening carefully to local voices.

Two major changes to this model are needed: the expansion of the moral and financial commitment from reactive to preventive-reactive, and a shift in power from external to local actors. This paper will analyze the ways in which the current system interferes with disaster-affected communities taking charge of their own recovery; it will also share examples of local organizations, supported by Oxfam America and others, which have succeeded in leading responses to humanitarian crises.

]]> No publisher nhailu 2012-03-14T19:35:31Z Research Report Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation (HARITA) quarterly report: October 2011–December 2011 http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/horn-of-africa-risk-transfer-for-adaptation-harita-quarterly-report-october-20112013december-2011 Rural resilience series 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 for climate change adaptation is critical for addressing global poverty.

In response to these challenges, Oxfam America, Swiss Re, and their partners developed an integrated risk management framework to enable poor farmers in the drought-prone northern state of Tigray in Ethiopia to strengthen their food and income security through a combination of improved resource management (risk reduction), insurance (risk transfer), and microcredit (prudent risk taking): the Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation (HARITA) project.

HARITA brought together a network of partners including Ethiopian farmers, the Relief Society of Tigray (REST), Nyala Insurance Share Company, Africa Insurance Company, Dedebit Credit and Savings Institution (DECSI), Mekelle University, the government of Ethiopia, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Swiss Re, and Oxfam America. The project is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and Swiss Re.

Existing approaches to providing drought insurance to the poorest have not been effective owing to high administrative costs and the inability of cash-poor smallholders to afford premiums. In the HARITA team’s conversations with farmers, the farmers themselves suggested a solution; they could pay for insurance with their labor. Oxfam America worked with the Relief Society of Tigray and the government of Ethiopia to build an “insurance-for-work” program on top of the government’s “foodand cash-for-work” Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), a well-established program that serves 8 million chronically food-insecure households in Ethiopia.

The resulting innovation allows cash-poor farmers the option to work for their insurance cover by engaging in community-identified projects to reduce risk and build climate resilience, such as improved irrigation or soil management. In the event of a seasonal drought, insurance payouts are triggered automatically when rainfall drops below a predetermined threshold, enabling farmers to afford the seeds and inputs necessary to plant in the following season and protecting them from having to sell off productive assets to survive. In partnership with local microfinance institutions, the model facilitates the farmers’ option to collateralize credit with insurance.

]]> No publisher aperera 2012-03-12T17:16:22Z Research Report Crises in a New World Order: Challenging the humanitarian project http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/crises-in-a-new-world-order-challenging-the-humanitarian-project 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. In 2010, vast humanitarian crises from Haiti to Pakistan almost overwhelmed the international system’s ability to respond. Despite years of reform, UN agencies, donors, and international NGOs (INGOs) struggled to cope. In 2011, Somalia yet again saw a response too little and too late, driven by media attention, not a timely, impartial assessment of human needs. At the same time, humanitarian action is needed now more than ever.

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.

]]> No publisher jlee United Nations foreign policy humanitarian relief natural disaster peace and security politics and government 2012-02-28T15:09:59Z Research Report R4 Rural Resilience Initiative: Partnership for resilient livelihoods in a changing climate http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/r4-rural-resilience-initiative Oxfam America and the World Food Programme launch a partnership for resilient livelihoods in a changing climate. 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).

]]> No publisher khamilton 2012-01-24T16:32:28Z Research Report A Dangerous Delay: The cost of late response to early warnings in the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/a-dangerous-delay-the-cost-of-late-response-to-early-warnings-in-the-2011-drought-in-the-horn-of-africa More than 13 million people are still affected by the crisis in the Horn of Africa. There were clear early warning signs many months in advance, yet there was insufficient response until it was far too late. 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.

]]> No publisher jlee East Africa Horn of Africa food security humanitarian relief hunger 2012-02-28T15:10:43Z Research Report Haiti Progress Report 2011 http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/haiti-progress-report-2011 Two years after the most powerful earthquake in Haiti in 200 years, Oxfam remains committed to rebuilding with the people of Haiti. 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.

]]> No publisher mhart Caribbean Haiti earthquake humanitarian relief natural disaster 2012-01-12T21:25:41Z Research Report In need of a better WASH: Water, sanitation, and hygiene policy issues in post-earthquake Haiti http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/wash-policy-issues-post-earthquake-haiti This research initiative examined Haiti’s water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector before and following the January 12, 2010 earthquake, and the work of the WASH cluster following the earthquake, in the context of effectiveness, equity, and accountability. No publisher nhailu Caribbean Haiti earthquake hygiene public health sanitation water women 2012-05-25T19:13:56Z Research Report The politics of partnership: How donors manage risk while letting recipients lead their own development http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/the-politics-of-partnership-how-donors-manage-risk-while-letting-recipients-lead-their-own-development This paper provides recommendations for the US government as it continues grappling with ways of improving foreign aid, taking lessons from successful donor partnerships with recipient countries.  

]]> No publisher jlee aid reform 2011-12-13T15:12:04Z Research Report