Press releases

The COVID-19 death toll has been four times higher in lower-income countries than in rich ones, according to a new report published today by Oxfam on behalf of the People’s Vaccine Alliance as the world marks two years since the World Health Organization declared the pandemic. 

Oxfam is horrified by the loss of life being witnessed, and gravely concerned by the impacts of the conflict in Ukraine.  We call for an immediate end to hostilities.

Responding to the publication of the IPCC’s Working Group II report assessing climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, Oxfam’s Climate Policy Lead Nafkote Dabi said: "This catalogue of pain, loss and suffering must be a wake-up call to everyone. The poorest who have done the least to contribute to climate change are suffering the most and we have a moral responsibility to help those communities adapt."

Today, European ministers updated the EU’s list of tax havens. The update added no countries to the blacklist and 10 countries to the greylist.

Today, the European Commission put forward a proposal for a law to clean up supply chains worldwide and make business sustainable. This new law will introduce important reforms only applying to a small group of very large companies selling goods and services on the EU market. Contrary to the Commission’s initial ambitions, it does not include significant reforms to directors’ duties.  

Today, African Union and European Union leaders discussed the global vaccine rollout and calls to support the current proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO), tabled by India and South Africa and backed by 100 countries, to temporarily suspend intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines, tests, and treatments. 
 

Today, EU countries at the AU-EU Summit, failed to make concrete commitments to reallocate their portion of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to low and middle-income countries. Instead, they simply reiterated the broad voluntary commitment made at the G20 last year.  

In response to the announcement of the withdrawal of the Barkhane military operation and the Takuba forces from Mali, Oxfam's West Africa Regional Director, Assalama Dawalack Sidi said: "The withdrawal is a terrible admission of failure. Nearly ten years of military operations in the country have solved nothing as much of the Central Sahel continues to be plagued by conflict." 

Europe has betrayed Africa by blocking proposals which would allow manufacturers on the continent to make their own COVID-19 vaccines while hoarding millions of doses which are set to expire at the end of the month, warns the People’s Vaccine Alliance ahead of tomorrow’s meeting of African and European leaders at the AU-EU Summit. 

Responding to the announcement that BioNTech plans to ship mobile vaccine factory containers to Africa, which could start producing vaccines in the second half of 2023, Oxfam’s Health Policy Manager, Anna Marriott, said: 

“Efforts to boost vaccine manufacturing in Africa are welcome but this is a long-term project and should not distract from the failure of rich country governments and companies, including Germany and BioNTech, to tackle today’s shameful vaccine inequality responsible for millions of needless deaths in poorer countries from this pandemic.
 

In response to the statement issued today by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee, which says that countries will be able to count donations of unwanted vaccine doses as part of their foreign aid commitment, for a guideline cost of $6.72 a dose, Oxfam’s Health Policy Manager, Anna Marriott, said: “This guidance is a double insult to the world’s poorest countries. Firstly, rich countries bought up many more doses than they could use at a time of limited supply, preventing millions of people in developing countries from getting life-saving vaccines. Now they are free to charge any donations of unwanted doses to their aid budgets, to the detriment of other essential aid spending." 

Oxfam and its humanitarian partner organizations are providing humanitarian support including cash, food, clean water and sanitation to people recovering from multiple cyclones that have torn across Southern Africa in the past two weeks.

Figures released today show licences worth at least £42.6 million were issued for arms exports to Saudi Arabia between July and September last year, many of which will be used in the war in Yemen. Since the conflict escalated, nearly seven years ago, over four million people have been forced from their homes with over 19,000 civilian casualties. 

At the AU-EU Summit, African Union and European Union leaders will meet to discuss cooperation between the AU and the EU “based on shared interests and values.” The summit will take place during the French EU Presidency and the French government has indicated a high level of ambition in terms of outcomes.  

“People have become complacent about COVID-19. Our global (health) funds are fast running out of money. Vaccine inequity is getting worse,” said former UK prime minister Gordon Brown today. 

An article in the British Medical Journal and Die Welt, published today, has found that the KenUP Foundation - acting as a consultant on behalf of BioNTech – has been pushing South African manufacturers not to get involved the World Health Organization Vaccine Technology Transfer Hub’s project of copying the manufacturing process of existing mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and have been calling for the project to be ‘terminated immediately’. 

In response to the publication of Pfizer’s financial results on COVID-19 vaccine sales for last year and projections for its COVID-19 vaccine and antiviral pill this year, Oxfam’s Robbie Silverman said: “Pfizer’s results today are clear evidence of how the company has used its monopoly to enrich its shareholders at the expense of almost half the world’s population who still have no access to lifesaving vaccines."
 

One year after the battle for Yemen’s resource rich Marib governorate escalated, the humanitarian situation has worsened as shifting frontlines, airstrikes and landmines displace nearly 100,000 people, many of whom have already fled multiple times.

One in five people (282m) is now under-nourished and 93 million in 36 African countries are suffering extreme levels of hunger. Women and children are hit hardest. In Sub-Saharan Africa, one in three children under five is stunted by chronic undernutrition while two out of five women of childbearing age is anemic because of poor diets.

A year since Myanmar military’s seizure of power, aid agencies call for increased effort to end human suffering