Briefs

Food Wars: Conflict, Hunger, and Globalization, 2023

Most wars of the late 20th and early 21st centuries have been “food wars”: food and hunger were used as weapons, food and food-related water and energy infrastructure were damaged intentionally or incidentally, and food insecurity persisted as a legacy of conflict destructiveness. Frequently, food insecurity, in turn, is a trigger or underlying cause of conflict. This paper analyzes 54 active conflict, refugee-hosting, and conflict legacy countries with populations in 2023 facing “crisis-level” acute food insecurity, i.e., at Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 3 or higher. In total, nearly 278 million people in these countries faced crisis-level hunger in 2023, accounting for 99% of the global population at IPC 3+ (281.6 million people).

Analysis indicates that war-displacement-hunger crises occur in countries that continue to rely heavily on primary product exports. Paradoxically, peacebuilding efforts have often assumed that economic liberalization offers the best or only pathway to sustainable peace. Yet struggle for control over fungible primary commodities can fund more violence, increased inequality, continued instability, and the risk of renewed conflict.

Agricultural export commodities are important sources of revenue for smallholder farmers and governments in conflict-affected, food-insecure countries. The conflict implications of export- and food-crop value chains are therefore crucial for future food-wars policy discussions and actions. Some efforts seek to link export crops to efforts to achieve peace, sustainable livelihoods, and environmental restoration. Other proposed solutions focus on adopting more holistic national development strategies, including food-systems approaches that protect and promote the right to food and livelihood security, as well as policy approaches and frameworks that might more effectively consider conflict, globalization, and climate change in food and nutrition policy.

Vetoing Humanity: How a few powerful nations hijacked global peace and why reform is needed at the UN Security Council

This report aims to highlight the humanitarian consequences of the dysfunction at the UN Security Council and humanitarian finance mechanisms. A few powerful states are obstructing peace processes and undermining international laws which should be equally binding for all people. There are 23 protracted crises examined in this report, with case studies on the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria and Ukraine. The growth of humanitarian needs, gaps in humanitarian funding, and the impacts of veto and penholding power are explored. Ahead of the Summit of the Future in 2024, Oxfam urges the UN member states to use this opportunity to take decisive and bold action to rebuild a more equal, inclusive, efficient, and responsive system. This will ensure that they fulfill their roles in reducing and resolving crises to avoid the spiraling humanitarian consequences of protracted conflict.

Sector Profile: Retail

Publicly listed retail companies are some of the country’s most lucrative and diverse, yet data shows that they drive inequality across all four pillars we analyzed – People, Power, Profits, and Planet.

Sector Profile: Pharmaceuticals

A closer look at the United States’ largest publicly listed pharmaceutical companies’ financial, human capital, and carbon emissions disclosures suggests risks and impacts to communities and the planet through Power and Profits.

Sector Profile: Extractives

While the extractives sector drives inequality through all four pillars, its impact is felt most through the Planet, Profits and Power pillars.

Company Profile: Walmart

Walmart’s performance is diffused among three pillars – People, Profits, Power – from which it attempts to distract via better stewardship of the planet.