Blogs

The next two weeks promise a whirlwind of discussion – and hopefully, commitment to action – on gender equality. World leaders, experts, and women from across civil society are gathering now: this is the Commission for the Status of Women, holding its sixty-sixth annual meeting (CSW66).

Assaulted and kicked out the door once they had ravaged what they wanted. Extreme as that may sound, it is how racism mixed with the seduction of power translated into in my life during my first job. I need you to hear me. To really listen. Our human race is at a juncture.

In the months after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, Oxfam warned that huge and dangerous increases in inequality across the MENA region were likely. Almost two years on, the wealth of elites has only climbed, lining their pockets at the expense of everybody else. Inequality will continue to kill until we switch the game. Political and economic decision making must start working for the collective good, instead of the private interests of a few.

Over the course of recent decades, and especially since 2015, migration management has taken centre stage in the EU’s external policy and in its relations with third countries. It reflects an effort to reduce the number of migrants crossing borders and to increase returns. By doing so, the EU has not only overlooked the needs of people and communities in partner countries, but also the priorities of those countries.

Why is it taken for granted that a person is “successful” because they are a self-made millionaire? Who decides what is a success, and what is a failure? These questions help us understand what dominant narratives are, how they are shaped, and how they affect our lives. It’s time for them to be contested. With the right tools, change movements can start to tell a new story.

As the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence begins, Oxfam gender justice lead for Central America and LGBTQIA+ activist, Natalia Marsicovetere, spells out the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on LGBTQIA+ people in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that governments can take extraordinary measures to protect their citizens when spurred to action. We need to see more of this to address gender-based violence. We need to make the world safer for women, girls, and LGBTQI+ people. Here are five brilliant questions you asked about Oxfam’s recent report and our work on gender justice.

Frank Lopeyok Mosky is a young Karimojong climate change activist in north-eastern Uganda. For 3 years, he has witnessed droughts hitting his community, leading to the loss of livestock and affecting small-scale food production. This has escalated poverty in the region and driven youth, women, and children to resort to desperate means to survive.

Covid-19 has supercharged inequalities: while billionaire´s wealth rises dramatically, austerity is imposed on health, education, and social protection systems across the world. The Festival to Fight Inequality, a space for the growing inequality movement to reconnect and recharge around these struggles and solutions, has never been more crucial.

While Europe’s biofuels policies have figured prominently as a means to secure a more sustainable energy supply for the continent, they have created perverse incentives in developing countries such as Peru. The Chira Valley is a clear example of how this quest for greener alternatives to fossil fuels has prompted the development of large-scale bioethanol projects in the Global South, which have high social and environmental costs for local communities.

Rebecca Shadwick, Oxfam global campaigner, spoke with Rosebell Kagumire, editor at African Feminism, about the pandemic’s impact on women, freedom from physical and structural violence, and women's leadership in the recovery. They talk economic violence, social norms and shifting power for real inclusion.

Malnutrition is the leading cause of death and ill health worldwide, and the Covid-19 crisis has made food and nutrition insecurity even worse. In this article you will read how family farmers from China, Nepal, Uganda, Zambia and Guatemala have increased their self-sufficiency by using edible plants growing in their surroundings.

143 displacement camps have sprung up in recent years around Marib city, in Yemen. Each time there is an escalation in fighting, a new wave of people flee towards the city and its surrounds, which now hosts over one million displaced people. We urgently need funding to provide them with lifesaving assistance.

A year on since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic, the virus has had far ranging impact on marginalized Rohingya refugees. The over-riding lesson has been how Rohingya refugees braved the new challenges of the pandemic with incredible determination and resilience. Here are four things to know about how residents of the world’s largest refugee camp have braved Covid-19. 

A year after WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, the virus has laid bare the stark gender inequality that continues to shape our world. Despite being at the forefront of the response, women have borne the brunt of this crisis. On International Women's Day, we must reflect on why this happened and why it is absolutely critical for women and girls to have an equal voice and co-lead in rebuilding after COVID-19.

In Colombia, local politics is about more than planning decisions and wastewater – it is literally a matter of life or death. Tania Hernandez Téllez, 41, is willing to sacrifice everything to play her part

The Covid-19 pandemic has been called “the great equalizer”. However, the past twelve months made it clear that the most excluded, oppressed, and vulnerable groups, such as girls and women in all their diversity, have been disproportionately affected by its impact. How can we build a more equal and resilient world?

Oxfam’s new report, ‘The Inequality Virus’, reveals that the wealth of the ten richest men has increased by half a trillion dollars since the pandemic began - more than enough to pay for a vaccine for all and prevent anyone on Earth from falling into poverty because of the virus.  We have received lots of great questions about the report − here’s our answer to the 10 most frequently asked questions.

People around the world have been adapting to change since time immemorial, but there is a cost attached to it. While people living in poverty deploy the resources, traditional knowledge and skills that they have, much more is needed. Adaptation finance is needed to support vulnerable countries and poor communities to adapt to the climate crisis.

The coronavirus pandemic saw people in Europe band together, regardless of where they were born, to pull through this difficult time. From the healthcare professionals saving lives in hospitals, to agricultural workers putting food on our tables, and researchers finding a vaccine so we can go back to our normal lives.