Research http://www.oxfamamerica.org These are the search results for the query, showing results 201 to 215. More rice for people, more water for the planet http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/more-rice-for-people-more-water-for-the-planet System of Rice Intensification (SRI) 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.

]]> No publisher cengstrom SRI agriculture food security hunger water 2011-06-08T14:51:29Z Research Report Growing a Better Future http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/growing-a-better-future Food justice in a resource-constrained world. We face three interlinked challenges in an age of growing crisis: feeding nine billion people without wrecking the planet, finding equitable solutions to end disempowerment and injustice, and increasing our collective resilience to shocks and volatility.

The good news is that practical solutions are both urgent and available—from simple common sense acts we can all take, to bold shifts in how we manage shared resources and value social progress. They are good for producers, good for consumers, and good for the planet. Their benefits can be shared by the many, not just the few, and they are built to be resilient in the long run.

Growing a better future will take all the energy, ingenuity and political will that humankind can muster. If the best solutions are to win out, we must mount powerful campaigns to win significant reforms in how our societies manage common threats and resources and create platforms for opportunity. From global negotiations to national decision making, this report outlines the shifts we must work for to make food justice a reality.

Open publication
]]> No publisher akramer GROW 2011-08-15T15:24:14Z Research Report An Ounce of Prevention: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/an-ounce-of-prevention Preparing for the Impact of a Changing Climate on US Humanitarian and Disaster Response This report examines the likely impacts of a changing climate on the US government’s civilian and military humanitarian response systems. We analyze both humanitarian and security implications of climate change as well as how the US government responds to overseas climate-related emergencies. We want to understand the changes that can be made now to better prepare these systems for the long-term effects of climate change.

]]> No publisher aperera 2011-06-21T15:36:32Z Research Report Promoting the accountability of the Afghan National Security Forces http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/promoting-the-accountability-of-the-afghan-national-security-forces Follow up briefing to No Time to Lose report In May this year, Oxfam and partners released a report titled No Time to Lose: Promoting the Accountability of the Afghan National Security Forces. We argued in that report that as greater responsibility was handed over to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), there was a serious risk that unless adequate accountability mechanisms were put in place, violations of international human rights and humanitarian law would escalate, and Afghan civilians would pay the price. We argued that troop-contributing states had been slow to honour their moral and legal obligations to ensure the accountability of the national security forces, and that time to do so was running out.

This paper provides an update on the conduct and accountability of the ANSF, with a focus on the police, and reflects on progress made in recent months. We focus in particular on four issues we believe to be of critical importance in the lead up to transition: police training and professional development; the establishment of a gender-sensitive police force; accountability for police misconduct; and accountability for civilian casualties.

]]> No publisher mhart 2011-09-29T14:17:50Z Briefing Note Growing a Better Future Summary http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/growing-a-better-future-summary We have entered an age of crisis: of food price spikes and oil price hikes; of scrambles for land and water; of growing climate disasters. No publisher aperera 2011-08-15T15:22:54Z Research Report A state of fear: Human rights abuses in North Carolina’s tobacco industry http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/a-state-of-fear-human-rights-abuses-in-north-carolinas-tobacco-industry America’s migrant farm workers toil for sub-poverty wages under some of the most dangerous working conditions in the nation. Oxfam America and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee have completed a joint study of the tobacco industry’s impact on the human rights of farm workers in the fields of North Carolina.

]]> No publisher aperera 2011-12-20T19:34:46Z Research Report The Making of a Seoul Development Connection http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/the-making-of-a-seoul-development-connection When the G20 meets in Seoul in November 2010, it has a big choice to make. It can either retreat into a narrow focus on its own interests, or it can prove it is capable of genuine global leadership in the face of the interlinked economic, food, and climate change crises.  

]]> No publisher jlee G20 2010-10-19T17:39:15Z Briefing Note Righting two wrongs http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/righting-two-wrongs Making a new Global Climate Fund work for poor people Climate change is already negatively affecting the lives and livelihoods of poor men and women. Yet it is estimated that less than a tenth of climate funds to date have been spent on helping people in vulnerable countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. The poor are losing out twice: they are hardest hit by climate change they didn’t cause, and they are being neglected by funds that should be helping them. Climate finance can and must be made to work from the bottom up, particularly for women smallholder farmers.

Starting with the formal establishment of a new Global Climate Fund, decisions on climate finance governance need to set a new direction for a post-2012 era. This paper presents a vision for a new Fund and broader finance system that is effective in meeting the scale of developing country financing needs, and is widely considered – by governments and civil societies – to be legitimate in its decision-making.

]]> No publisher bgrossmancohen 2011-06-08T14:48:42Z Briefing Note Halving Hunger: Still Possible? http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/halving-hunger-still-possible Building a rescue package to set the Millennium Development Goals back on track Ten years after world leaders committed to halve world hunger by 2015, little progress has been made to reduce the number of people who go to sleep hungry, but if developing countries take the lead with the right policies and investments, halving hunger is still possible.

While time is running out, the global crises push the Millennium Development Goals desperately off course. The only chance of avoiding failure is a rescue plan for all MDGs that includes the necessary measures, both political and financial. Halving hunger is still possible if developing countries take the lead with the right policies and investments, donor countries increase dramatically their aid to agriculture, food security and social protection under nationally and regionally-driven plans, and the global issues affecting food security are collectively addressed.

]]> No publisher Ben Grossman-Cohen United Nations agriculture food security 2011-06-08T14:50:30Z Research Report Adapting for a Green Economy: Companies, Communities and Climate Change http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/adapting-for-a-green-economy-companies-communities-and-climate-change A Caring for Climate Report At the end of this year, governments will gather in Durban, South Africa, for the next round of United Nations negotiations to advance global action on climate change. In June 2012, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) will seek to secure new and comprehensive commitments to sustainable development.

This publication aims to support the efforts leading up to Rio+20, as well as the activities, processes, commitments and partnerships that flow from it. By highlighting the nexus among climate change risks and opportunities, sustainable development and climate change adaptation,

Adapting for a Green Economy provides useful guidance to business leaders and policymakers alike.

]]> No publisher aperera 2011-06-20T18:29:02Z Research Report Exposed: Social vulnerability and climate change in the US Southeast http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/exposed-social-vulnerability-and-climate-change-in-the-us-southeast The effects of natural disasters and climate change vary widely by state, county, and community. Although social variables such as income and age do not determine who will be hit by a natural disaster, they do determine a population's ability to prepare, respond, and recover when disaster does strike.

Historically, studies about climate hazards and social vulnerability have been conducted in separate silos. The Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) is the first study of its kind to examine both the potential impact of natural hazards and which populations are most likely to be negatively affected. The SoVI statistically examines the underlying social and demographic characteristics of the population and how they impact certain segments of the population in disabling ways when it comes to climate change-related hazards.

This research, commissioned by Oxfam America, includes a series of layered maps that depict social and climate change-related hazard vulnerability. The maps assist in identifying hotspots in the US Southeast, which are at significant risk in the face of four particular climate change-related hazards: drought, flooding, hurricane force winds, and sea-level rise.

The specific region of focus is the 13-state region of the US Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Roughly 80 percent of all US counties that experience persistent poverty (defined as a county in which at least 20 percent of the population experiences poverty for three decades or more) lie in this region.

For more details and to view interactive maps, visit oxfamamerica.org/adapt.

]]> No publisher mborum US Gulf Coast Recovery United States climate change 2011-06-09T18:34:10Z 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 Impact of the US-Colombia FTA on the small farm economy in Colombia http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/impact-of-the-us-colombia-fta-on-the-small-farm-economy-in-colombia This in-depth economic study assesses the potential effect of agricultural provisions in the US-Colombia FTA on Colombia’s small-scale farmers using data from official and reputable sources to carry out a comparative statics analysis.  It concludes that a significant number of small farm households would see substantial drops in their income as a result of the FTA. This would result in a deeper vulnerability for a population that has already been disproportionally affected by Colombia's internal conflict.

This FTA would force Colombian agricultural products to compete without any protection against US subsidized commodities.  As a result, according to this study, Colombia’s 1.8 million small farmers would see their net agricultural income fall by over 16 percent on average.  The damage would be concentrated among nearly 400,000 small farmers, most of whom now earn less than the minimum wage but who would lose between 48 and 70 percent of their income.  If 400,000 small farmers, who on average have less than five years of formal education, lose their livelihoods, their employment options will be limited.  They are likely to take up coca cultivation, engross the files of illegal armed groups, or migrate to urban areas to join some 5 million Colombians – over 10 percent of Colombia’s total population - forcibly displaced from the countryside over the last 12 years, the great majority of whom live in extreme poverty.

]]> No publisher aperera 2011-05-04T13:27:06Z Research Report Promises, promises http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/promises-promises A briefing paper for the Kabul Conference on Afghanistan 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.

]]> No publisher mhart 2010-07-19T15:12:25Z Briefing Paper 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