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Oxfam has continued its journey in changing its culture and improving its safeguarding of staff and the people with whom we work. In its latest report (Oct 2019-Mar 2020), Oxfam notes that the coronavirus crisis risks diverting people’s attention away from these important issues, so it has re-doubled efforts to keep its improvement plan on track while adapting its entire operations to respond as safely as possible to the pandemic.    

This report assesses recent progress in realizing workers' rights in seafood supply chains originating in Southeast Asia and provides new evidence of ongoing workers' rights challenges in US and European supermarket shrimp supply chains beginning in Indonesia and Thailand.

We scored 16 of the biggest supermarkets in Europe and the US on how they tackle critical issues affecting the people working in their food supply chains. Overall, while some are doing better than others, all supermarkets lack sufficient policies to properly protect the people who produce our food.

Let us be clear: their behavior was and still is totally unacceptable – an appalling mark against the high values we set for ourselves at Oxfam.

Oxfam today launches a major new report highlighting the growing pace of land deals brokered around the world, often to the peril of poor communities who lose their homes and livelihoods – sometimes violently – with no prior consultation, compensation or means of appeal.

In reaction to the UN’s State of Food Security and Nutrition (SOFI) report revealing that nearly 12% of the world’s population – or 811 million people – were undernourished last year, and that increase is equal to the last five years combined, Oxfam’s Emergency Food Security and Vulnerable Livelihoods Advisor Emily Farr said: “Oxfam is extremely worried that these downward trends, which will push us further away from our global 2030 zero hunger target, will only get worse unless the alarms raised are heard. The pandemic was the last straw for millions already battered by the impacts of conflict, economic shocks, and a worsening climate crisis."

This report reflects Oxfam’s emphasis on the role of sustainable livelihoods in rural areas, particularly agriculture, in reducing poverty and inequality.

In response to the World Bank Group today issuing a statement announcing the discontinuation of its Doing Business report, Nadia Daar, Head of Oxfam International’s Washington DC Office, said: “It's a welcome move and about time the World Bank scrapped its Doing Business report, a global competitiveness index that encouraged governments to adopt destructive policies that worsen inequality, like slashing labor regulations and corporate taxes."

Given the immense financing needs to achieve development goals —nearly $4 trillion annually— Oxfam supports a robust and generous IDA replenishment. But reaching a record dollar amount only makes a bigger IDA, when what is most needed is a better IDA. A better, more impactful IDA must minimize the cost of finance, but more importantly catalyze investments that reduce inequality. After all, funds like IDA remain so crucial in part because we have collectively failed to address extreme inequality within and between countries. 

Local food reserves can contribute to food security strategies and have the potential to empower communities.