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The threat of “COVID famines” and widespread extreme hunger are setting off every alarm bell within the international community, but so far sluggish funding of the UN's appeal is hampering humanitarian agencies’ efforts to deliver urgent assistance to people in need.

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."

Oxfam strongly condemns the intimidation and increasingly severe human rights abuses and violations committed by Guatemalan and Mexican police against people who have been forced to migrate from Central America toward the United States.

The recovery fund and long-term EU budget agreed today do not match the urgency of our current situation and the challenges ahead, said Oxfam.

Oxfam India will provide water, sanitation and shelter to initially 60,000 people affected by Cyclone Phailin. Kudos to India for quick and decisive early warning actions to save lives, having moved nearly a million people into temporary shelters.

We have dispatched a team of experts on the ground in the Philippines today after typhoon Haiyan (local name: Yolanda) hit on 8 November to assess the water, public health and sanitation conditions of those affected.

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. 

Aid donors and southern African governments must take immediate and substantial action to help poor people cope with a rapidly-deteriorating regional food crisis, fuelled by El Nino-related drought and crop failures.

Increasing aid and making it more effective can help poor people become more politically active in decisions that affect them, while also supporting governments to become more accountable and plot their own path to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Proposals to regulate a new multi-billion euro EU fund aimed at driving more private investment in development have just been agreed by the European Parliament, member states and the European Commission. But campaigners say although the proposed safeguards in the External Investment Plan are a step in the right direction, there is a risk that billions of euros of tax payers’ money will benefit big multinational corporations at the expense of the people in poverty that it is meant to support. Positive aspects of the…