All Publications http://www.oxfamamerica.org These are the search results for the query, showing results 421 to 435. Targeting Small Arms http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/targeting-small-arms One million people have been killed by small arms since the last UN conference on the issue in 2001. While the death toll rises, governments have failed to take concerted action to combat the problem. In pursuit of the "war on terror", some arms producers now supply arms to allies with poor human rights records. It is time states took effective control of small arms from the factory door to the arms affected community. They should back the call for the Arms Trade Treaty and fulfill their duty to protect their citizens.

]]> No publisher mborum 2009-02-25T23:08:59Z Briefing Paper OXFAMExchange Spring 2003 http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/spring-2003 Red Tomato, ethnic discrimination and the Mayan defense, clearing landmines in Afghanistan, and community radio breathes life into democracy in Senegal When's the last time you bit into a juicy, ripe, red tomato, a real summer tomato, the kind that drips down to your elbow but tastes so great, who cares? Unless you grow your own, it's probably been awhile.

When's the last time a small-farm family called it quits and had to sell their land for development? Probably yesterday or the day before.

There's no coincidence here. The loss of truly fresh fruits and vegetables, grown for their taste, and the loss of farmland and small-scale farmers are two faces of the same coin. In this issue of EXCHANGE, we meet Michael Rozyne, founder and managing director of Oxfam partner Red Tomato.

Also in this issue, ethnic discrimination in Guatemala—and the Mayan defense. Plus, how community radio is engaging Senegal's youth, and the humanitarian imperative of land mine clearance in war-torn Afghanistan.

]]> No publisher mborum Afghanistan Central America Central and South Asia Guatemala Senegal West Africa agriculture food security humanitarian relief hunger peace and security 2009-04-30T20:28:46Z Oxfam Exchange Poverty Reduction or Poverty Exacerbation? http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/poverty-reduction-or-poverty-exacerbation World Bank Group Support for Extractive Industries in Africa This report examines the World Bank Group’s support for extractive industries (oil, gas, and mining) in Africa over the last 20 years in light of the World Bank's self-proclaimed mission of poverty reduction. It describes the obstacles to using extractive industries as a vehicle for poverty alleviation and sustainable development, and poses a series of research questions related to the role of the World Bank Group in extractive industries.

]]> No publisher mborum oil, gas and mining 2010-05-19T17:40:07Z Research Report OXFAMExchange Winter 2003 http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/winter-2003 Mary Robinson on human rights, functional literacy in West Africa, and saving the family farm Her Excellency Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland from 1990-97, served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002. Widely recognized as one of the world’s most eloquent and courageous defenders of human rights, she was recently appointed Honorary President of Oxfam International. As High Commissioner, Mary Robinson pursued accountability for violations of economic and social rights, as well as civil and political rights. Her term helped increase the visibility of human rights violations associated with the spread of HIV/AIDS and helped highlight the connection between institutionalized discrimination and poverty. She is now Director of the Ethical Globalization Initiative based in New York City. In this issue of EXCHANGE, we reproduce the remarks given by Ms. Robinson on Human Rights Day in Moscow, Russia.

Also in this issue, working together to save the family farm, the power of reading empowers women in The Gambia, and updates on Oxfam's work in Bolivia and in eastern and southern Africa.

]]> No publisher mborum human rights community finance education equality for women Gambia United States South America West Africa Bolivia agriculture 2009-04-30T20:38:40Z Oxfam Exchange Cuba: Social Policy at the Crossroads http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/cuba-social-policy-at-the-crossroads From the beginning of the Cuban revolution in 1959, the model of social development has underscored equity across society and universal access. Full responsibility rests on government to fund and deliver social entitlements. These values have framed the development and implementation of social policy during the last 40 years. During this time Cuba has instituted free and universally accessible health care and education and has built on its formerly weak pension system to develop a universal and government sponsored one.

Cuba's safety net of benefits includes protection of workers' employment and housing, food subsidies, utilities and other necessities, and mechanisms to assist vulnerable families without stigma. The results have been quite positive. Adult literacy is nearly 96%, and schooling rates have risen dramatically. Infant mortality has decreased, drug use and crime are subdued compared with other countries, and youth violence is minimal. Cubans feel these effects in their daily lives, and for many these transformations mean that the revolution is working for them.

]]> No publisher mborum Caribbean Cuba 2009-04-30T22:45:30Z Research Report Digging to Development? http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/digging-to-development A Historical Look at Mining and Economic Development Large scale mining has had serious environmental and social impacts on poor communities around the world. Yet international financial institutions such as the World Bank continue to promote mining in developing countries. They justify this in part on the apparent success rich countries like the US, Canada and Australia have had with mining. This report finds that mining was actually much less important in these countries than the World Bank claims and argues that these countries should not be used as models for developing countries today.

]]> No publisher mborum oil, gas and mining natural resources 2009-05-28T00:03:52Z Research Report Oxfam Briefing Paper: Education for All ? No More Broken Promises http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/oxfam-briefing-paper-education-for-all-no-more-broken-promises Oxfam is calling on the world's finance and development ministers to provide the necessary funding and timetable for their promised education action plan. In April, the world’s Finance and Development Ministers promised “to provide the necessary additional domestic and external resources” to get every child into school by 2015. They "strongly endorsed" an Action Plan to "make primary education a reality for all children." At the heart of this Plan is a fast-track initiative to coordinate additional aid to developing countries that adopt policies to deliver Education for All.

Oxfam is urging development and finance ministers to fulfill those promises by:

  • Committing additional annual financing of $5 billion to implement the action plan; and

  • Agreeing a timetable to expand the fast track list beyond the initial 18 countries.

]]> No publisher mborum 2009-03-25T20:13:18Z Briefing Paper OXFAMExchange Fall 2002 http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/fall-2002 What's in your coffee? Oxfam's coffee campaign. Plus Afghanistan, Make Trade Fair campaign, and the Hopi people's struggle for clean, safe drinking water. What's in your coffee? Oxfam's coffee campaign. Plus Oxfam in Afghanistan, Coldplay support Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign, southern Africa food crisis, and the Hopi people's struggle with an energy giant.

]]> No publisher mborum Afghanistan coffee indigenous people natural resources East Asia Make Trade Fair public health trade United States Central and South Asia oil, gas and mining humanitarian relief water 2009-04-30T21:05:19Z Oxfam Exchange Mugged: Poverty in Your Coffee Cup http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/mugged-poverty-in-your-coffee-cup In this report, Oxfam calls for the major players in the coffee industry to support a Coffee Rescue Plan to overcome the current crisis and create a more stable market. Over the past five years, the price of coffee has fallen almost 70 percent from a high in 1997, to a 30-year low, in many cases, forcing coffee farming families out of business. Small coffee farmers in developing countries sell their beans for less than they cost to produce. Meanwhile, the largest coffee corporations continue to reap enormous profits.

In this report, Oxfam calls for the major players in the coffee industry to support a Coffee Rescue Plan to overcome the current crisis and create a more stable market. The report analyzes the origins and effects of collapsed coffee prices and urges American consumers to join Oxfam in bringing relief to farmers and a change to the system.

]]> No publisher mborum Central America South America coffee trade 2009-06-30T22:18:49Z Research Report Cultivating Poverty http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/cultivating-poverty The impact of US cotton subsidies on Africa American cotton subsidies are destroying livelihoods in Africa and other developing regions. By encouraging over-production and export dumping, these subsidies are driving down world prices—now at their lowest levels since the Great Depression. While America's cotton barons get rich on government transfers, African farmers suffer the consequences.

]]> No publisher mborum Mali United States West Africa agriculture trade 2009-06-08T16:22:32Z Briefing Paper OXFAMExchange Spring 2002 http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/spring-2002 Oxfam launches the Make Trade Fair campaign On April 11, in a noise heard far beyond the borders of the Hong Kong harbor, Oxfam crushed a shipping container emblazoned with various trade injustices that Oxfam is fighting to abolish.

Amid cheers from a throng of enthusiastic supporters and international media, Make Trade Fair won the day.

Oxfam's trade campaign was launched.

Within hours of the Hong Kong debut, events were held in 25 cities including Brussels, Dublin, Geneva, Mexico City, San Salvador, and Washington, D.C. These events ranged from press conferences and symposiums to a rock concert in London’s Trafalgar Square.

Oxfam's trade campaign seeks to unite concerned citizens around the world in calling for fair trade policies that will help move millions of people out of poverty.

Nobel Prize Professor Amartya Sen, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and musician and social activist Bono were among those who endorsed the campaign. "Oxfam has got it right," said Bono. "It wouldn't cost much to change the rules of trade so that poor countries can work their way out of poverty. But the world's leaders won't act unless they hear enough people telling them."

Also in this issue of EXCHANGE, writers Frances and Anna Lappé discuss their book Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet, and we bring you updates on Oxfam's work with water and sanitation, drought in Ethiopia, and indigenous women in the highlands of Peru who are speaking out after decades of violence.

]]> No publisher mborum CHANGE Cambodia Central America East Asia El Salvador Peru South America Southern Africa equality for women indigenous people minority rights natural disaster public health trade water 2009-04-30T21:11:13Z Oxfam Exchange Extractive Sectors and the Poor http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/extractive-sectors-and-the-poor Developing countries that rely heavily on oil or mineral exports suffer higher rates of poverty and child mortality, and spend more on their militaries than similar countries with more diverse economies, according to a study released today by Oxfam America.

"Extractive Sectors and the Poor" comes on the eve of a new yearlong World Bank review of its oil, gas, and mining investments. The report contests the conventional economic wisdom that developing nations prosper by extracting and exporting their oil and mineral wealth.

]]> No publisher mborum oil, gas and mining natural resources 2009-04-30T23:04:09Z Research Report A Proposed Mine in Tambogrande, Peru: An Alternative Look http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/a-proposed-mine-in-tambogrande-peru-an-alternative-look The proposed Tambo Grande mining project in northern Peru offers a stark illustration of the problems associated with large-scale mining operations in an era of deregulation and globalization. The town of Tambogrande is poor, isolated and in the heart of Peru's "El Niño" zone. It sits directly atop a major gold, zinc and copper deposit that Manhattan Minerals, a small Canadian mining multinational, is seeking to develop into an open-pit mine. Projected impacts of the mine could be severe. Construction of the mine would require the relocation of an estimated 8,000 inhabitants of a total population of between 14,000 and 16,000 people and the diversion of a local river. The project could also have significant impacts on agricultural production in the area. Tambogrande farmers are Peru's principal mango exporters and the area has become one of Peru's leading agricultural centers thanks to major investment in irrigation systems, some of it provided by the World Bank.

Concerned by the proposed relocation and by threats to their agriculturally based livelihoods, local populations have mounted significant resistance to the project. On February 27 and 28, 2001, an estimated 10,000 people participated in blocking road access to the exploration site. A recent initiative collected approximately 28,000 notarized signatures of individuals in the Tambogrande district, of approximately 37,000 eligible voters, who are opposed to the mine. Tambogrande's Mayor and local Archbishop have called for the project not to go forward, citing not only the potential environmental impacts, but the mine's
disruptive social impacts, already evident in the exploration phase due to the tense environment of distrust and conflict that exists in the area. The archbishop has called the project "socially unviable." These actions represent significant opposition to the proposed mine by affected citizens and community leaders.

Manhattan Minerals, a mining "junior" with no previous experience operating a mine of this size, and no other current projects, rode into Peru on the wave of the country’s recent mining boom. With the privatization of Peru's mining sector in the early 1990s, foreign investment in the sector has exploded over the past decade. From 1992 to 1997, the volume of mining operations in Peru tripled from 30,000 to 100,000 metric tons of minerals per day. Land area devoted to exploration and extraction increased from 4 million to 18 million hectares between 1992 and 1998. According to the Financial Times, Peru has had South America's highest rate of exploration success in recent years, driving Latin America's emergence as the most popular continent for new mining projects. The Tambo Grande project is located in the department of Piura, a department that up until now has not been known for mining, but rather agriculture. Manhattan's operation may open the door to the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of hectares currently under concession in Piura. The impact on traditional agricultural livelihoods, from which the vast majority of Piurans draw sustenance and income, could be significant.

]]> No publisher mborum South America oil, gas and mining natural resources Peru 2009-04-30T22:08:36Z Research Report Advocacy for Social Justice http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/advocacy-for-social-justice A Global Action and Reflection Guide David Cohen (The Advocacy Institute)
Rosa de la Vega
Gabrielle Watson

Paperback : 978 1 56549 131 1
Price: $49.95

Buy now

Advocacy for Social Justice is the first guide for worldwide social and economic justice advocates. It is a direct and interactive response to the growing need for NGOs to assume new policy advocacy roles. The authors consider why it is essential to build a civil society and nurture democracy as a means of sustaining continued mainstream development.

Ideal for practitioners, trainers, or students of activism, the guide uses the elements of advocacy and expounds on current issues using comprehensive case studies.

]]> No publisher David Cohen, Rosa de la Vega, Gabrielle Watson 2009-07-07T22:35:42Z Book Up In Arms: Controlling The International Trade In Small Arms http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/up-in-arms-controlling-the-international-trade-in-small-arms An Oxfam International paper for the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects.

]]> No publisher mborum 2009-06-30T22:20:10Z Research Report