Press releases

Oxfam leaders, experts, and partners will be in New York for the UN General Assembly with a focus on the SDGs, inequality, climate, access to healthcare, humanitarian issues, and more. Oxfam is a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice and will bring this focus on inequality (Goal 10) and how it intersects with the entire 2030 agenda.

Today, the European Commission unveiled its proposal for a single EU corporate tax rulebook: BEFIT (Business in Europe – Framework for Business Taxation).  

In response to the G20 communique, Oxfam says: ‘The G20 has failed to meet the huge challenges our world faces. They continue to stumble away from taking the bold actions necessary to tackle poverty, inequality, and climate change after an uninspiring and underwhelming Summit in India this weekend.” 

Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are set to rise by 10.6% by 2030 instead of falling by the 45% needed to limit the increase in global temperature to 1.5 °C. The G20 countries are the worst and most-responsible offenders, says Oxfam.

Pressure is piling on the G20 to lead a global push to increase taxes on the richest citizens back to past levels that most people believe were fairer and more useful for society. 

Despite being largely responsible for the worsening climate crisis in East Africa, rich nations paid Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan just $2.4 billion in climate-related development finance in 2021, in stark contrast to the $53.3 billion East Africa says it needs annually to meet its 2030 climate goals.  

Oxfam water engineers are having to drill deeper, more expensive and harder-to-maintain water boreholes used by some of the poorest communities around the world, more often now only to find dry, depleted or polluted reservoirs. 

Bangladesh’s Monsoon: Flooding and landslides kill at least five people in Cox’s Bazar – Oxfam responds

In response to Russia pulling out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Hanna Saarinen, Oxfam food expert, said: “While this grain deal has played a part in calming skyrocketing food prices, it is not the cure-all for world hunger.

Leaders from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean will meet next week in Brussels for the first time in almost a decade. 

In reaction to the publicaiton today of the FAO’s “State of Food Insecurity and Nutrition in the World 2023” report, stating that up to 783 million people faced hunger in 2022, and that 600 million persons will be chronically undernourished in 2030, Hanna Saarinen, Oxfam International Food Policy Lead said:  “It is unforgivable for governments to watch millions of people going hungry in a world of plenty, as they put the interests of mega-rich agribusinesses and energy companies before those of the most vulnerable people and widen the inequality gap.  

Oxfam welcomes today’s Open Debate on the UN’s 2023 Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict, which highlights the urgent need for all parties involved in armed conflicts to respect their international obligations and to prioritize the protection of children. 

722 of the world’s biggest corporations together raked in over $1 trillion in windfall profits each year for the past two years amid soaring prices and interest rates, while billions of people are having to cut back or go hungry. 

Responding to the attack that took place in Kramatorsk on the evening of Thursday 27 June which resulted in the killing of at least 11 people, including three children, and a continuing search for survivors, Nicola Bay, Organizational Lead for Oxfam’s Ukraine response said: “Oxfam strongly condemns this attack. Innocent civilians, including children, should not pay the price for this war." 
 

Patients living in poverty in the Global South are being bankrupted by private healthcare corporations backed by multi-million-dollar investments from development finance institutions (DFIs) run by the UK, French, German and other rich country governments. DFIs like the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) invest public funds via the private sector to help foster economic development in the Global South and tackle poverty. However, Oxfam published two investigations on DFI funding into private hospital chains and other for-profit healthcare corporations operating in low- and middle-income countries and found cases of them.   

Today, the European Commission presented its proposal for new sources of revenue for the EU’s budget.  

Reacting to donor pledges made at the Brussels conference on Syria today, Oxfam in Syria Country Director, Moutaz Adham, said: “While we welcome these donor pledges, they are modest.

A group of economists, activists, politicians and millionaires from seven countries across Europe today registered a ‘European Citizens’ Initiative’ (ECI) calling on the European Union (EU) to adopt a permanent annual wealth tax on Europe’s biggest fortunes to raise revenue to reduce poverty and inequality both at home and in poorer countries, and to tackle the climate crisis.

After years of deadlock, EU justice and home affair ministers will seek to reach an agreement this week on two key files: the border procedure which includes the potential detention of children, and the solidarity mechanism which puts relocations on equal footing with financial contributions.