What Oxfam is doing

Gulf Coast Recovery and Restoration

The Gulf Coast has been hit hard in recent years by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike, Gustav, and Isaac, as well as the BP oil spill. These blows have devastated a region that is home to some of the most vulnerable communities in the country, as well as vital and fragile ecosystems.

Oxfam is working with a broad set of stakeholders, including community groups, environmental organizations, and businesses, to find the best ways to restore the environment and the economy, in order to increase the resiliency of coastal communities in the Gulf region.

On the Gulf Coast, Oxfam's partners are engaged in:

• ensuring that oil spill fines that are being sent back to  the Gulf Coast region are properly used to provide jobs and economic opportunities for impacted low-income and disadvantaged people in coastal restoration projects
• finding ways for vulnerable communities to have a say in decision-making processes about restoration projects
• efforts to reduce vulnerability to future disasters
• community organizing
• advocacy at the state and federal levels

Workers' rights

Farmworkers in this country continue to be among the lowest paid and most vulnerable. Immigrants and low-wage workers in the fields are guaranteed few to no protections on the job.

Oxfam and its partners are seeking to reform the system so that those who produce our food can be assured of their rights to decent work and improved conditions in their communities.

Oxfam's partners and staff are engaged in:

• leading a multi-stakeholder initiative that has the potential to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of farmworkers. The Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) brings together stakeholders across the produce supply chain to build a set of fair and verifiable standards for a certification system that will guarantee decent wages, safe and dignified work environments, food safety and environmental sustainability.
• supporting campaigns  to organize workers, increase their wages and improve working conditions. The Farm Labor Organizing Committee’s (FLOC) campaign against Reynolds American Inc., on behalf of farmworkers in tobacco fields, rallies support for their human rights. A 2011 study found that  farmworkers in the tobacco agricultural system in North Carolina suffer inhumane conditions. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Campaign is raising the wages of tomato pickers by a penny a pound and improving conditions in the fields in Florida.
• advocating at federal and state levels for policy change to establish fundamental worker rights