All Publications

Capacity: Helping countries lead

sgrundahl — 2011-07-13T16:55:35Z

The Ownership in Practice policy briefs reflect perspectives from the field on the kinds of reforms that would improve the usefulness of US foreign aid on the ground, as well as insights from policymakers in Washington as to possible policy options that would put this vision into practice.

Control: Letting countries lead

cengstrom — 2010-08-26T02:19:39Z

Oxfam America believes donors should provide aid in ways that strengthen the compact between effective governments and active citizens. Aid delivered in these ways supports recipient governments’ efforts to meet the needs of their citizens and helps citizens hold their government accountable. To assist foreign aid in strengthening the state-citizen compact, Oxfam is calling for reforms that let countries know what donors are doing (information), support countries’ own efforts to manage development (capacity), and better respond to country priorities (control).

Donors can better respond to country priorities when donors let people in the countries have at least some control over how foreign aid is invested in their countries: control over setting the agenda, control over what type of funding is provided and for what aims it is provided, and control over defining what constitutes “success.”

Capacity: Helping countries lead

cengstrom — 2012-05-05T00:08:41Z

Donors cannot build local capacity themselves. The capacity of any public sector or civil society depends first and foremost on the incentives for and commitments by people in those countries to invest in their human capital, organizations, and institutions. What donors can do is support these efforts.

Information: Letting countries know what donors are doing

cengstrom — 2011-09-20T21:02:59Z

Oxfam America believes donors should provide aid in ways that strengthen the compact between effective states and active citizens—the government’s commitment to fulfilling its responsibilities and the people’s efforts to hold their government accountable. To help foreign aid strengthen the state-citizen compact, Oxfam is calling for reforms that let countries know what donors are doing (information), support countries’ own efforts to manage development (capacity), and better respond to country priorities (control).

A first step toward ownership is for donors to provide information about their efforts to recipient countries.

As we learned from people in governments, civil society, and US aid agencies in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Liberia, Kenya, and Rwanda, transparent and predictable information on US aid flows would go a long way in making US aid more useful to recipient countries.

One Gulf, resilient Gulf: A plan for coastal community recovery

jlee — 2011-01-03T17:56:50Z

The BP Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster has become the largest oil spill in the history of our country and already has resulted in the deaths of 11 men. In addition to better protecting coastal communities by improving the safety and oversight of the use of the Outer Continental Shelf and offshore drilling, the administration of President Barack Obama and Congress should move quickly to support a robust long-term recovery plan.

With the well site now capped, it is critical to address the disaster's short- and long-term challenges, as well as the historical problems it has intensified, with a plan that offers opportunity for the many people suffering economically, ensures that those affected have a voice, and recognizes the teachable moment from this disaster to catalyze a transition towards promoting investments and industries across the Gulf that build coastal community resiliency.

Pakistan floods crisis: response hindered by lack of funds as public health crisis looms

estevens — 2010-08-17T18:31:31Z

Oxfam is advocating for the leadership, coordination, and funding levels that this huge emergency requires.

HARITA progress report: Jan 2010 - Jun 2010

cengstrom — 2011-07-25T18:56:12Z

The climate change rural-resiliency project launched in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia by Oxfam America and its local and international partners has entered year two of its pilot. Known as HARITA—Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation—the project aims to address the needs of smallholder farmers facing climate change shocks by offering a robust risk management package that integrates disaster risk reduction, affordable risk transfer, and prudent risk-taking.

In its second year, HARITA is being offered in five villages spread across the region, as part of an effort to gather a significant pool of data on climatic variation in Tigray in preparation for a region-wide scale-up. The project—which offers insurance-for-work for activities intended to reduce farmers’ vulnerability to droughts—operates in conjunction with the Ethiopian government’s existing social safety net program to make insurance more affordable for the rural smallholders it serves. This report highlights the results of the second year of its pilot as of June 2010.

HARITA Project Report: Nov 2007 - Dec 2009

cengstrom — 2011-07-25T18:55:47Z

The Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation (HARITA) project is an initiative involving poor farmers, Oxfam America, Swiss Re, the Relief Society of Tigray, Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Nyala Insurance, Dedebit and Credit Savings Institution, various agencies of the Ethiopian government, and other partner organizations.

Between November 2007 and December 2009, the HARITA partners designed a climate risk management package for farmers in the village of Adi Ha, located in Ethiopia’s northernmost state of Tigray. The project has broken new ground in the field of climate change resiliency and microinsurance by addressing the needs of smallholder producers through an unusual mix of risk reduction, drought insurance, and credit. Under the HARITA risk management package, insurance complements disaster risk reduction and long-term, sustainable investments in agriculture. The first season of results in Adi Ha demonstrated that the HARITA model can effectively reach vulnerable families, most of whom had once been viewed as uninsurable. This report discusses general highlights of the pilot.

More rice for people, more water for the planet

cengstrom — 2011-06-08T14:51:29Z

This report highlights the experiences of Africare, Oxfam America and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) working with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in the African Sahel, Southeast Asia, and India, respectively. Although implemented in very different cultures and climates, the pattern is the same: farmers are able to produce more rice using less water, agrochemical inputs, and seeds, and often with less labor. The net effect is to improve household incomes and food security while reducing the negative environmental impacts of rice production, and making food production more resilient.

Guidance to the Global Health Initiative on implementing country ownership

cengstrom — 2010-08-12T17:44:09Z

The Global Health Initiative (GHI) is not only visionary, it is desperately needed. Oxfam America’s field experience and research have provided us with ample evidence of the human costs of the lack of country ownership and coordination around health and development programs in the field. If the US government is in the business of saving lives and helping people overcome poverty, there can be no more urgent priority than coordinating our health efforts and linking them to country needs.

Promises, promises

mhart — 2010-07-19T15:12:25Z

The Kabul Conference marks the ninth international conference on Afghanistan in nearly as many years. While much has improved in the lives of Afghans since the fall of the Taliban, progress has fallen far short of what has been promised.

All eyes will be on Afghanistan on July 20, but it is what happens after the conference ends that matters most. Despite the formidable obstacles, the solution is not to take shortcuts or pursue quick fixes. It is to take fundamental steps to directly address the root causes of conflict, improve the effectiveness of aid and ensure that the needs of Afghans are at the heart of donor efforts in Afghanistan.

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): The Road Forward for the U.S.

aperera — 2010-12-13T15:40:17Z

This paper outlines key recommendations on each of the eight MDGs that we strongly believe the U.S. Government should include in its promised plan.

Aid to Haiti, 6 months on: a long way to go

jlee — 2010-07-09T18:39:11Z

The outpouring of global public support in response to the earthquake enabled Oxfam and other agencies to get aid through to the Haitian people and make a real difference. However, recovery in Haiti is one of the most complex humanitarian and development challenges in modern times. There are no short-term solutions for Haiti.

OXFAMExchange Summer 2010

csoares — 2010-09-24T14:57:30Z

Rebati Lavi is Haitian Kreyol for “renewing life” and is the name Oxfam has given to our Haitian recovery strategy.

We’ve devoted this issue of OXFAMExchange to the situation in Haiti.

Many of you have supported our Haitian relief fund and for that we are deeply grateful.

To do more and to ensure that you receive the latest information on Haiti’s recovery—as well on our work to find lasting solutions to poverty around the world—join our online community at oxfamamerica.org.

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Exchanging tea for respect

csoares — 2011-05-16T17:07:14Z

A savings group in Senegal breeds entrepreneurs and independence on just a few cents a week.