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Education can be a powerful tool to transform harmful gender norms and stereotypes and address sexual and gender-based violence. Yet, in South Sudan women, men, girls and boys all face distinct challenges in accessing quality education. This report argues for increase investment in education in South Sudan, particularly focused on supporting, reinforcing and harnessing its potential to promote gender equality. As teachers are the most important school-level factor for improving learning, supporting their wellbeing and investing in their training and resources – working…

Cyclone Yasa landfall in Fiji yesterday, carrying destructive winds of up to 345km/h, heavy rain and storm swells, has flattened homes and left major devastation to roads, and vegetation. More than 600,000 people in the South Pacific island nation are now affected, thousands of which are already in evacuation centers as the tropical storm disrupted access to essential utilities including water supply and sanitation facilities, as well as food.

More than half the population of South Sudan – 6.6 million people – are severely hungry, including 2.2 million people at risk of starvation. Yet the humanitarian response remains woefully underfunded and without an urgent increase in aid now, 7.7 million people or two-thirds of the population will face severe food shortages next year, Oxfam warned today.

Stories of complete devastation are beginning to come out of Vanuatu in the aftermath of the severe tropical cyclone Pam.Oxfam staff on the ground in Port Vila have reported complete destruction of homes, three story high trees completely uprooted and small communities with barely any houses left standing. Oxfam's Vanuatu Country Director Colin Collett van Rooyen said people in Vanuatu had told him they had never seen a…

Two rapid assessment teams have arrived in the two small southern Vanuatu islands hit hardest by Cyclone Pam to rapidly assess exactly what survivors of the disaster need.

One month after Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu, water remains a high priority, with small islands dependent on rainwater most in need, Oxfam said today.

Aid should today begin to reach the hard hit southern Vanuatu islands of Tanna and Erromango, which both took the full force of the 250kmh Cyclone Pam, after rapid assessments of the islands showed absolute devastation with entire villages destroyed.

Up to 90 per cent of housing in Vanuatu's capital reported to have been seriously damaged by Cyclone Pam, with still no information from the extremely vulnerable outer islands which are home to 33,000 people. 

In reaction to the formation of a new South Sudanese unity government today, Elysia Buchanan, Oxfam South Sudan’s Campaign Manager said: “We welcome this decision as an important first step in South Sudan’s journey towards sustainable peace, but it cannot be the last. The country’s leaders must now work together to urgently end the suffering of 7.5 million South Sudanese facing a dire humanitarian crisis.

The influx of over half a million people fleeing Sudan’s conflict meant that transit centers in Renk – a border town in neighboring South Sudan- are swelling with people three times their capacity, with more than 300 people sharing one water tap. The lack of clean water and sanitation is increasing the risk of cholera, warned Oxfam today.