Press releases

The G8 Agriculture meeting in Italy is heading for a profound failure with ministers dithering about the bold action needed to tackle the global food crisis. The Italian Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia’s opening promise of “three days that will make history" is sounding very hollow.

More than 75,000 people will die of hunger during the three days that G8 Agriculture Ministers will meet to talk about the food crisis. Oxfam is warning Ministers that the answer to the global food crisis is not increased production in rich countries but support for the world’s poorest farmers.

International aid agency Oxfam GB said today that it has formally submitted its appeal against the Sudanese government’s decision to expel it from northern Sudan, and expressed serious concern at the false allegations that continue to be made against it and other expelled agencies.

Climate talks in June will go nowhere unless rich countries close the gap between what scientists and poor countries say is needed and what they are prepared to deliver warned international agency Oxfam, as negotiations came to a close in Bonn today.

According to UN figures, some 250,000 people in the provinces of North and South Kivu have been displaced since mid-January following a military operation targeting the FDLR rebel group.

G20 leaders must take four concrete steps during the next few months to demonstrate their promise of a new world economic order will move beyond rhetoric to reality, Oxfam said today.

The planned troop surge in Afghanistan could see more Afghans suffering in the conflict unless international military forces prioritize the safety of civilians in all their operations.

This G20 summit delivers a vital pick-me-up for poor countries struggling to survive the economic crisis but much more is needed to ensure their long-term recovery.

Finding the opportunity in a crisis is more than a snappy political catchphrase. It is the opportunity for the leaders of the G20 meeting on April 2nd to take long-term decisions in the interests of people and the planet. (a joint agency op-ed on the G20)

The $8.42 trillion promised by rich country governments to bailout banks would be enough to end global extreme poverty for 50 years and a massive step towards ending it forever.

An intensification and spread of violence threatens to push parts of Afghanistan towards a serious humanitarian situation.

The 10% increase in foreign aid to $120 billion is welcome but still nowhere near enough to meet the needs of poor countries in the face of global economic meltdown.

The global economic crisis is devastating the lives of vulnerable women workers and their families, revealed Oxfam in a new report released today ahead of the G20 summit in London

Todd Stern, US Climate Change Envoy for the United States said President Obama's administration was 'seized with the urgency of the task before us' at the opening session of international climate change talks in Bonn today.

Hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees will face a humanitarian emergency this year, unless urgent steps are taken to deal with a serious public health crisis unfolding in the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, international agency Oxfam warned in a new report issued today.

Europe is turning its back on poor countries just when they need help most. At a crucial time just ahead of the G20 Summit in London, the EU is empty-handed and in no fit state to lead the world on the two biggest issues we face today – the economic and climate crisis.

Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, is on a high-level European lobbying tour to highlight the situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where civilians have experienced an upsurge of violence in recent months.

Civilians in Chad are still facing high levels of banditry and danger as the European force (EUFOR) hands over to a UN force later this week (Mar 15). Although the European troops made some civilians feel safer, the underlying security situation has not significantly improved.

The scale of the losses could outweigh the $103bn developing countries receive annually in overseas aid.

New science which predicts a rise in sea levels of one meter or more by the end of the century would spell disaster for the some of the world's poorest people.