Research

Credibility Crunch

mborum — 2009-05-28T18:47:39Z

The year 2008 is halfway to the deadline for reaching the Millennium Development Goals. Despite some progress, they will not be achieved if current trends continue. Aid promises are predicted to be missed by $30bn, at a potential cost of 5 million lives. Starting with the G8 meeting in Japan, rich countries must use a series of high-profile summits in 2008 to make sure the Goals are met, and to tackle both climate change and the current food crisis. Economic woes must not be used as excuses: rich countries' credibility is on the line.

Cuba: Going Against the Grain

Minor Sinclair and Martha Thompson — 2009-04-30T22:42:46Z

A new Oxfam America report looks at how Cuba has successfully turned a severe food crisis into a sustained recovery in food production. Through a combination of sweeping reforms and innovations in ecological agriculture, Cuba's countryside has changed dramatically.

Cuba: Social Policy at the Crossroads

mborum — 2009-04-30T22:45:30Z

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.

Cultivating Poverty

mborum — 2009-06-08T16:22:32Z

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.

Deepening community engagement

ktighe — 2009-06-30T16:10:45Z

Consulting with community members is intended to ensure that humanitarian programs are aligned with their needs, but does it go far enough? Researchers review disaster preparedness programs with an eye to community participation.

Dirty Metals

mborum — 2009-05-27T23:58:16Z

The purpose of this report is to show you how much metal there is in your life—from the gold in your jewelry to the aluminum in your automobile—and to explain how it was produced. If you live in the United States, your annual consumption of "newly-mined" minerals (as opposed to those produced from recycling) comes to 21 metric tons*—just over 57 kilos a day. This report will show you what lies behind that stupendous lode of copper and tantalum, gold and platinum. We'll explain how the mining of these and other metals damages landscapes, pollutes water, and poisons people. We'll show you why modern, industrial mining is one of the world’s most destructive industries. And finally, we'll show you what we as consumers and concerned citizens can do to clean it up.

Disaster Management Policy and Practice

mborum — 2010-05-19T17:42:53Z

Disaster preparedness and risk-reduction efforts can reduce the impact of natural events like floods, earthquakes, and tsunamis on the communities where they take place. In this study, researchers took a close look at the Sri Lankan government’s disaster management structure and policies and made recommendations for improvement—some of which have already been adopted.

Double-Edged Prices

mborum — 2009-05-28T18:46:43Z

The recent sharp increase in food prices should have benefited millions of poor people who make their living from agriculture. However, decades of misguided policies by developing country governments on agriculture, trade, and domestic markets—often promoted by international financial institutions and supported by donor countries—have prevented poor farmers and rural workers from reaping the benefits of higher commodity prices. As a result, the crisis is hurting poor producers and consumers alike, threatening to reverse recent progress on poverty reduction in many countries. To help farmers get out of poverty while protecting poor consumers, developing country governments, with the support of donors, should invest now into smallholder agriculture and social protection.

Education: Tackling the Global Crisis

mborum — 2009-04-30T23:00:16Z

Today 125 million children do not get any formal education at all. This education crisis undermines any chance of rapid progress in human development. Oxfam hopes that the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF will see the launch of a global initiative to close the education gap.

Ending the R&D Crisis in Public Health

mborum — 2010-08-10T20:43:50Z

Diseases that disproportionately affect the developing world cause immense suffering and ill health. Medical innovation has the potential to deliver new medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics to overcome these diseases, yet few treatments have emerged. Current efforts to resolve the crisis are inadequate: financing for research and development (R&D) is insufficient, uncoordinated, and mostly tied to the system of intellectual property rights. Delivering appropriate medicines and vaccines requires reforms to the existing R&D system and a willingness to invest in promising new approaches.

Extractive Sectors and the Poor

mborum — 2009-04-30T23:04:09Z

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.

Failing the Cardozo test

mborum — 2010-01-21T16:24:25Z

If the US wants to modernize its efforts to foster a more stable, prosperous, and democratic world, it needs new foreign assistance legislation designed to tackle the challenges of the 21st century.

This brief looks at how current laws undermine US foreign aid as a strategic tool for fighting poverty today. Drawing from original legal analysis, it argues that foreign aid legislation:

Is too large to be used effectively;
Is broken into too many laws;
Has no clear priorities to guide decision-making;
Is often out of date;
Authorizes different actors to fulfill the same purposes;
Puts the budget process in charge of setting strategic priorities, rather than setting strategic priorities to drive resource decisions.

Oxfam America is calling for ambitious reforms to US foreign assistance—from aid's legislation, strategy, organizational structure, and implementation, to a substantive rethink of development in the field. Our foreign aid should lead global development efforts, it should put developing states and their citizens in the driver’s seat, and it should strive to get as much value as possible for poor people out of every aid dollar.

Fairness in the Fields

mborum — 2009-06-08T16:14:46Z

For far too long, the federal government has tried to use the Farm Bill as an all-purpose policy solution. But the current Farm Bill does very little to help poor farmers, and even less to assist impoverished rural communities. Instead, it gives large government payments, or subsidies, to a small number of large farmers. Most American farmers get little or nothing. Meanwhile, subsidies don't alleviate the biggest problems in rural communities: lack of medical services, poor schools, population loss, and environmental degradation.

While the Farm Bill does little to help poor farmers in the US, it actually harms rural communities around the world. After receiving massive subsidies, US cotton farms produce more than they otherwise would, and sell their surplus at less than the cost of production. These subsidies hurt African cotton farmers by reducing the world price of cotton and shrinking their share of the market. This situation is not only unfair; it violates international rules set by the World Trade Organization.

Falling Short

mborum — 2009-06-30T21:44:59Z

The prospects for peace in Afghanistan are being undermined because Western countries are failing to deliver on their promises of aid to the tune of $10 billion and because aid going to the country is used ineffectively, according to this report by ACBAR, an alliance of international aid agencies—including Oxfam—working in Afghanistan.

The international community has pledged $25 billion to Afghanistan since 2001 but has only delivered $15 billion. The US is the biggest donor to Afghanistan but also has one of the biggest shortfalls—according to the Afghan government between 2002 and 2008 the US only delivered half of its $10.4 billion commitment.

The same sources show that over this period the European Community and Germany distributed less than two-thirds of their respective $1.7 and $1.2 billion commitments, and the World Bank has distributed just over half of its $1.6 billion commitment. The UK pledged $1.45 billion and distributed $1.3 billion.

An estimated 40 percent of the money spent has returned to rich donor countries such as the US through corporate profits, consultant salaries and other costs, vastly pushing up expenditure. For example, a road between the center of Kabul and the international airport cost the US over $3.7 million per mile, at least four times the average cost of building a road in Afghanistan.

Around 90 percent of all public spending in Afghanistan comes from international aid, so the massive shortfall hinders efforts to rebuild infrastructure damaged by over two decades of war and to ensure the widespread delivery of essential services such as education and health.

The report says a level of donor under-spending can be expected because of the lack of Afghan government capacity, large-scale corruption and challenging security conditions. But the size of the shortfall highlights the importance of donors making concerted efforts to address these issues.

The report also shows that a disproportionate amount of aid follows the conflict and is being used for political and military objectives rather than reducing poverty.

Field report from Afghanistan

mborum — 2010-02-22T16:30:57Z

This report aims to convey the views of people who have extensive experience with US development aid to Afghanistan. For that purpose, 40 people were interviewed in Kabul in November and December 2008. They included employees of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), other foreign donors, contractors, consulting companies, and Afghan and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), many of whom have several years of experience working in Afghanistan, as well as Afghan government officials. We would like to extend our thanks to all those who gave up their time for this research.