Press releases

Global funding for the preparation and response to El Niño and the harms it will bring to millions of people is critically insufficient, Oxfam warned today.  

The weather phenomenon is already having a catastrophic impact across much of the world, with wildfires, crop failures and growing severe food and water insecurity. El Niño’s intensity is likely to peak from this month until April next year. Scientists report it could be the strongest on record.  

The richest 1 percent of Peruvians captured 42 percent of all new wealth created between 2019 and 2025, while the poorest 50 percent of the population got 1.4 percent, reveals new analysis by Oxfam. 

Countries locked into International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity programs are also, on average, around twice as vulnerable to the economic fallout from the US and Israel’s war against Iran and the escalating climate crisis, reveals new Oxfam analysis ahead of the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Thailand. 

In response to the outcome of the pre-COP summit in Fiji, Oxfam Climate Policy Lead Nafkote Dabi said: 

Civil society organizations warned the IMF what frontloaded fiscal adjustment would mean in practice: large spending cuts imposed all at once, leaving ordinary people to pay the price. It is the same failed shock therapy that devastated countries and communities in the past. And it risks further damaging an IMF already struggling for legitimacy. The warnings were swept aside, even though many Directors echoed civil society’s concerns.

Joint statement by humanitarian, development and civil-society organizations - leaders at UNGA 81 should act on interconnected priorities.

s high-level meetings focused on AI kick off at the UN, a handful of AI players continue to amass power, wealth and influence, even as many are warning that they need guardrails and regulation because they cannot – or will not – do it themselves. 

Following the overnight collapse of a war-damaged building leaving 20 deaths and dozens trapped, rescue efforts are being severely hampered by Israel’s refusal to allow entry of the heavy machinery and equipment needed to save lives amidst the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Oxfam leaders, experts, and partners are joining the UN 81st General Assembly and Climate Week in New York and available for interviews or comment. 

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has required borrowing countries to quadruple the size of their austerity cuts over the past decade, while simultaneously weakening the protection afforded to social spending in its loan programs, reveals new Oxfam analysis. These cuts undermine vital spending on public services – from healthcare to education and housing – that protect low-income communities.