Briefs

Negotiating Consent: Lessons in Defending the Right to Decide

Indigenous peoples have long asserted and defended their rights and customary land tenures against the unlawful enclosure of their territories. Yet, despite normative recognition of the right to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC)—and public commitments by major multinational companies, international financial institutions, and global banks to apply the standard of consent—power imbalances continue to undermine the quality of agreements being reached.

Negotiating Consent distills lessons from Oxfam’s work defending community consent in Peru. Drawing on research published by Oxfam partners in Peru—Cooperacción, Organización Nacional de Mujeres Indígenas (ONAMIAP), and Pueblos Indígenas Amazónicas Unidas en Defensa de Sus Territorios (PUINAMUDT)—have published research examining the politics and practices of the implementation of this law, it seeks contribute to collective thinking around ways to improve the implementation of FPIC processes, processes that are manifestly political.

With land inequality worsening, land grabbing continuing unabated, and basic environmental and social protections being rolled back, upholding the standard of consent is more important than ever. It is time companies, investors, and others look beyond paper commitments and take the steps necessary to ensure quality agreements are reached with Indigenous peoples and are maintained across the life of projects.

Carbon Inequality in 2030

Per capita consumption emissions and the 1.5⁰C goal

Living Income: From Right to Reality

Living income is trending. More and more food and agriculture companies are adopting living income commitments, and others should follow suit.

But it’s a complex topic in practice. Effective interventions go beyond the farm to address the inequality of market power and risks that farmers experience. Oxfam presents eight essential issues companies confront on living income, with recommendations for ensuring interventions benefit farmers. Recommendations focus on: approaching living income as a human right, changing the way companies do business, leveling the playing field, and engaging and enabling others.

Living Income: From Right to Reality is the first in a new Oxfam series called "Briefings for Business on Inequality in Food Value Chains". In each briefing Oxfam sets out key considerations, provides examples of company policy/practice, and offers recommendations for what companies can do to address inequality in a way that will drive real impact.

Are the global tax proposals in the interests of low- and middle-income countries?

In July 2021, 133 governments reached a high-level agreement on the taxation of multinational corporations, combining a redistribution of taxing rights to market countries (“Pillar 1”) with a global minimum tax (“Pillar 2”). How good is it for low and middle-income countries? And what should they do about it?

Tightening the Net

Net zero climate targets – implications for land and food equity

The Great Vaccine Robbery

Pharmaceutical corporations charge excessive prices for COVID-19 vaccines while rich countries block faster and cheaper route to global vaccination