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Commenting on the publication of a new UN Report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, which highlights that 60 million more people are hungry today than they were five years ago, and three billion men, women and children – over a third of humanity – cannot afford enough healthy food to eat, Rashmi Mistry, head of Oxfam's Grow Campaign, said: "The UN report is highly alarming. It shows our global food system is unravelling at the seams."

In response to the completion of the 2021 Comprehensive Surveillance Review today by the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund, Nabil Abdo, Oxfam’s Senior Policy Advisor on International Financial Institutions, said: “This Review misses a crucial opportunity to require staff to advise countries on policies to tackle inequality or systematically assess the impacts on inequality of its own recommendations."

Since 2020, the richest five men in the world have doubled their fortunes. During the same period, almost five billion people globally have become poorer. Hardship and hunger are a daily reality for many people worldwide.

Multilateral efforts are failing to adequately respond to critical global challenges, including the climate crisis and persistent poverty and inequality. While some have blamed the deadlock solely on rising geopolitical tensions between powerful countries, such a focus is incomplete. Rather, a key reason for failures of international cooperation is extreme economic inequality. Today, the world’s richest 1% own more wealth than 95% of humanity.

Vaccine equity campaigners have called news that Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer BioNTech will start building a vaccine production facility in Rwanda next year “far too little, far too late”.  The People’s Vaccine Alliance has also said that Moderna’s new commitment to produce 110 million doses for the African Union as “barely worth the paper it is written on” after the company failed to deliver promised vaccines to COVAX, calling on the US government to step in and mandate the company to commit to technology transfer.

The Global Refugee Forum (GRF) is a vital platform for systematizing commitments made by the international community under the framework of the Global Compact on Refugees to enable collective action to support the well-being of refugees and forcibly displaced people globally. It is vital that the outcomes of the 2nd GRF, to be held this week between 13-15 December, address the priorities of refugees and host communities living in major refugee-hosting countries.

After more than 65,000 people took action to urge chocolate companies to do the right thing for women cocoa farmers, Mars and Nestle have made commitments to begin to tackle the inequality faced by women in their cocoa supply chains.

Oxfam welcomes today’s decision by the European Commission that Fiat and Starbucks were receiving unfair state aid. 

Improving education is not only about training teachers. It is about ensuring they have the support, confidence and opportunities to continue learning, growing and leading throughout their careers. In South Sudan, where teacher shortages and limited professional development opportunities continue to challenge education delivery, peer mentorship is proving to be a powerful tool for strengthening the teaching workforce.

World Refugee Day is a great opportunity to remind us of the millions of people fleeing war, human rights violations poverty and climate disasters. It reminds us that no-one ever chose to be a refugee. Today over a 108 million people have been forced to flee their homes. Many have risked everything – even their lives – in search of safety and a better life, frequently. This year’s theme is Compassion: A vital emotion - that allows human beings to stand in solidarity with one another regardless of color, race, gender, religion or nationality. ‘Compassion’ means to feel for others.