In the DRC, increasing violence has forced people to flee from their homes, and led to the deaths of almost 1,500 people a day. Though no other conflict causes that kind of death rate, Oxfam's workers hear similar stories of murder, rape, and displacement from men and women from Colombia to Sudan every day. Sixty years after the main Geneva Conventions enshrined civilians' rights to protection, they are violated in every current conflict.

Some states and non-state actors choose to kill civilians, or pursue strategies in which civilians are too likely to die. Some governments choose to protect their citizens: to keep them safe. Some do not protect all of them, or not well enough. There are, however, successful examples of protecting civilians that show what governments and others can do when they choose to.

They have an interest in protecting civilians, because mass atrocities fuel the conflicts that, in an interdependent world, create security threats that cannot be contained. And an increasing number of governments have a "moral interest" too, because their electorates expect them to help prevent, not just condemn, the atrocities they see beamed around the world through modern information technology.

Governments and others can reduce the mass atrocities that blight the world in the early twenty-first century

To do so, they need to make four key changes.

• Make the protection of civilians the overriding priority in the response to conflicts everywhere—actively working to protect civilians, and upholding the Responsibility to Protect civilians from mass atrocities, agreed at the 2005 UN World Summit, as a cornerstone of policy;
• Adopt zero tolerance of war crimes—whether in counter-terrorism or elsewhere—applying the same standard of international opprobrium to war crimes committed by friends or foes alike;
• Act much more quickly to tackle the trends that threaten new or prolonged conflicts—including poverty and inequality, climate change, and arms proliferation—so that we can be better at preventing as well as reacting to conflicts;
• Join up effective action at every level, from local communities to the UN Security Council—so that international action works in conjunction with what works on the ground. To help achieve this, the way the UN Security Council works should be urgently reformed with greater transparency and accountability, in which the Council's members have to account for their performance in pursuing international peace and security, including their Responsibility to Protect civilians from mass atrocities. All permanent members of the Security Council should renounce the use of their veto when the Council is discussing situations of actual or incipient war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

In its revised edition of  "Foreign Aid 101," Oxfam sets out to answer these fundamental questions through a quick and easy guide to understanding foreign aid. The report dispels common myths about aid, explains the terminology, and through examples illustrates how the US is making foreign aid more effective while also making recommendations on how the US can ensure that its foreign aid leads to broad-based growth.

This examination of three communities emblematic of longstanding poverty and exclusion— the urban neighborhoods of East Biloxi, Mississippi, and the rural communities of Vermilion and Plaquemines parishes in Louisiana—reveals that government neglect at all levels extends beyond the well-publicized failures in New Orleans to encompass an entire region in distress.

Access to opportunity remains unequal—and unfair. In Biloxi, government officials acted first to save the city’s battered casinos by convincing state lawmakers to allow gaming on land. Not ensuring that the low-income residents of East Biloxi shared in the economic benefits, however, has made them victims of an enormous land squeeze, forcing them out of their neighborhoods and homes.

False assurances undermine future visions—and current optimism. The self-reliant residents of Erath, a mostly Cajun community in rural Vermilion Parish, began rehabilitating their houses the moment they returned after Hurricane Rita’s flood waters receded. After confusing signals about new flood elevations, plans for the town’s future, and possible homeowner grants, their progress has slowed and in some cases has been reversed by the agencies meant to facilitate it. Institutional neglect leaves communities at risk of losing everything—even their way of life.

Few state or federal funds have assisted the recovery of independent commercial fishers, who for generations have made Plaquemines Parish the center of their trade. Their inability to continue is draining Louisiana’s usually robust commercial fisheries, normally second in the nation only to Alaska.

These communities, and many like them, teeter on the brink. They are being rendered invisible.

Left behind. Forgotten.

The pattern of inequity in receiving recovery assistance from the government has been well established by past disasters. Federal disaster assistance tends to favor people who have economic assets at risk—that is, the affluent. Though the pattern may be familiar, it need not be inevitable.

Making sure the billions designated for recovery benefit the region’s most vulnerable communities remains a matter of political will. Action can and must be taken immediately.

• Make eligibility requirements for homeowner assistance inclusive. Both Louisiana and Mississippi can make improvements in their plans to use CDBG funds by dropping the penalties they currently impose on those homeowners that did not have insurance. Denying assistance to uninsured homeowners unjustly punishes the poorest and most vulnerable, many of whom simply lacked the money to buy insurance.
• Assign proportional attention and funds to affordable rental housing, a particularly critical resource for a community’s low-wage workers and poorest residents. Neither state provides anywhere near the assistance needed to replace the affordable rental units lost in the storms, let alone meet increasing demand. Funds should be used to supplement Low Income Housing Tax Credits, increase small landlord rental repair, and expand work force housing.
• Humanize and rationalize transitional housing. FEMA’s transitional housing program has been characterized by one expensive snafu after another, some of them almost inhumane— circumstances that do not bode well as the program’s 18-month term winds down. FEMA should develop and communicate a plan now that is especially attentive to the needs of low-income families before this situation grows into a major catastrophe.
• Improve accountability to ensure funds benefit the poor. Government at all levels must hold itself accountable to both hurricane survivors and the taxpayers underwriting this recovery. Ensuring that both Mississippi and Louisiana provide regular, clear demographic data on the disbursements of grants would provide important evidence of the extent to which equity is being achieved—while there is still time to change course if improvement is necessary.
• Partner with community agencies to minimize uncertainty and improve outreach. Confusing and conflicting information has been a hallmark of this recovery. Federal and state agencies should create stronger relationships with trusted nonprofit and grass-roots organizations, and rely upon their community expertise to ensure that vulnerable populations understand and access the benefits for which they qualify.
• Reform post-disaster housing assistance. Congress must pass and the president must sign the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, sponsored by Senators Collins (R-ME) and Lieberman (D-CT). This bill would improve the nation’s emergency management capability by reconstituting FEMA and improving housing service delivery, to prevent the same bureaucratic bungling from accompanying the nation’s next disaster.
• The incremental injustices occurring during this recovery are less apparent to the eye—yet just as devastating—as the futility witnessed so widely on the nation’s TV screens one year ago.
• Decisive, firm action can reverse this course and provide low-income survivors the opportunities they deserve.

It is, after all, what the nation promised them. That they would be rendered whole. Get ahead. Thrive.

Household contributions to education are steep and deter new entrants. Those in schools are faced with inadequate educational materials, textbooks, and teachers. Budget allocation and spending in the education sector by various stakeholders remain largely uncoordinated and opaque.

This briefing paper outlines some of the key concerns, and proposes a plan for not only increased funding, but also reforming budget allocation and planning within the Ministry of Education and amongst other actors in the education sector.

Several governments and broad sectors of civil society are opposed to this unequal negotiating framework, which would limit the capacity of governments to make trade work for sustainable development and poverty eradication.

Oxfam International asserts that the FTAA will not contribute to sustainable development. It is based on the failed model of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has neither produced growth nor addressed the crisis of poverty in Mexico.

This paper summarizes the reasons why Oxfam International opposes the FTAA. It puts forward our recommendations for developing different rules and provides an alternative framework for integration.

From Poverty to Power sets out a vision of women and men in communities everywhere who are equipped with education, enjoy good health, have rights, dignity, and voice—and are in charge of their own destinies.

What is required to achieve that vision is nothing less than a global new deal: a redistribution of power, opportunities, and assets. Oxfam's experience shows that the necessary redistribution can best be accomplished through a combination of active citizens and effective nation states.

This need is particularly relevant to Oxfam's aid reform initiative. Well-designed aid programs complement and support national and community development efforts, strengthening both active citizens and effective states. In contrast, poorly designed aid competes with states and citizens or even undermines them. For the US to become a global leader in smart development, it should focus on strengthening responsible and effective states and helping active citizens to foster equitable economic growth through their own efforts.

To learn more about this publication, as well as how to obtain your copy, visit FP2P.org.

In the US, metals mining is the leading contributor of toxic emissions to the environment. And in countries such as Ghana, Romania, and the Philippines, mining has also been associated with human rights violations, the displacement of people from their homes, and the disruption of traditional livelihoods.

The discussions on the future of the International Coffee Agreement present an historic opportunity to address the ongoing crisis facing smallholder coffee farmers and farmworkers by contributing to sustainable coffee supply chains. At the 2nd World Coffee Conference in September 2005 several organizations presented the International Coffee Organisation and its delegates with the Carta de Salvador—the Salvador Declaration, which stressed the ongoing effects of the coffee crisis facing small-scale family farmers and farmworkers. This paper calls on International Coffee Organization members to support small-scale farmers and farmworker organizations by ensuring space for their direct participation in international debate, creating mechanisms that enhance the availability of market information to small-scale farmers, and maximizing opportunities to develop cohesive international strategies to provide technical support, access to credit, and direct access to markets.

This report examines current laws and practices relating to mining revenue management in Mali, and presents a series of recommendations for improving transparency and information disclosure.

The authors are A. Rani Parker, Ph.D., and Fred Wood, Ph.D., of Business-Community Synergies (www.bcsynergies.com).

A French language translation of this report is available below.

Overall, the proposal would spend an estimated US$10 billion less over the next 10 years than projected spending for the 2002 Farm Bill, which is set to expire in September 2007. Much of the anticipated savings are from expected high prices for many commodities in future years. However, the Johanns proposal actually would spend US$5 billion more from 2008 – 2012 than simply extending the existing provisions in the 2002 Farm Bill.

Download the attached file to read the full text of this report by Oxfam America employee Emily Alpert. (From Bridges No. 1, February-March 2007, published by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development.)

As the leaders of 20 industrialized and emerging economies convene in Washington for their G20 Emergency Summit on 15 November, small-scale tinkering and limited financial regulation is not good enough. The world leaders gathered for the G20 meeting must heed the call of many around the world, including Ban Ki-moon, Kofi Annan and others, to have the ambition and will to act now to help the poorest. The decisions cannot all be taken now, but an ambitious vision can be articulated and followed by work with the UN in the coming months to rapidly build from the ashes of this crisis a new 21st century political and economic system that is just and equitable. Oxfam is calling on the G20 leaders to do three things:

1. Honor the OECD pledge not to cut development assistance, and increase aid instead by an additional $140 billion necessary to meet the UN target of 0.7 per cent of GNI immediately. In addition, urgently extend credit to emerging markets facing liquidity crises.
2. Rewrite global financial rules and regulations to make the market work for all and not just for the few, including tackling tax havens and moving towards a more stable exchange rate system.
3. Build a new representative global governance system so it can tackle the economic, food, and energy crises.