Blogs

Today, European Parliamentarians will cast their vote on the EU’s next long-term budget – a vote that will send a powerful political signal to the European Commission ahead of its proposal due out in July. But behind these numbers lies a key question: will the EU maintain its role as a credible donor, or will it quietly shift towards a transactional approach shaped by short-term political interests? 

Women and girls across Ukraine are suffering the impacts of the war. With the escalated attacks on civilian infrastructure including energy infrastructure, access to essential services has become more difficult.

The chocolate industry is one of the most profitable sectors amongst global food value chains. So much of this wealth and profits are concentrated for the big chocolate companies, their shareholders and their CEOs. While the people who are at the forefront of chocolate productions continue to lose out. 

In past years, Oxfam was able to provide Dignity Kits to women refugees. These include soap and other hygiene items, as well as underwear and menstrual pads. Row notes that refugees are missing this support, discontinued due to budget cuts. “We have no money to buy this in the market,” Row says. “And, as we are women, we need Dignity Kits."

The European Union has adopted a new approach to foreign policy dubbed the “Global Gateway,” supported by a new European Financial Architecture for Development (EFAD). These policies are a direct response to the state of permacrises that the world finds itself in. It seeks to inject 180-300 billion euros over a period of six years into the EU’s partner countries in the form of infrastructure projects, a green transition and digitalisation. 

Women are at the heart of the food production systems. Yet, women food producers are held back by barriers that prevent them from feeding their families and reinvesting in their livelihoods. Oxfam together with indigenous women, farmers and women food producers convened and create a space to exchange knowledge, wisdom and a vision for a better, just and feminist food system. We demand a fair #feministfoodsystem that empower women food producers, indigenous people and small-scale farmers! #FeministPower  

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.

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.

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.

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.