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Without urgent action to relieve developing countries of all their external debt payments this year, and ensure they don't accrue into the future, the coronavirus could lead to millions of deaths and force half a billion more people around the world into poverty, said Oxfam today in response to the G7's joint statement on debt moratorium for poor countries.

Every country in the world is experiencing an economic shock as a result of the Coronavirus crisis, and all governments must act now to protect their people from destitution. Unless dramatic action is taken to shore up the economies of developing countries, the crisis could push as many as half a billion people into poverty.

The proposed EU climate law is a good framework for EU climate action over the next decades, Oxfam says. The Commission, national governments and the European Parliament now must enact the law and take swift and decisive action to drastically reduce climate-heating emissions.

Yesterday, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, visited the Reception and Identification Centre in Moria – Lesvos to witness first-hand the human cost of flawed migration policies which have stranded over 39,000 people in overcrowded, dangerous refugee camps.

Almost half of the population of Timor-Leste’s capital has been impacted by severe flooding, according to government figures, after heavy rains fell on Dili and nearby provinces last week. Cyclone Seroja took the people of Timor-Leste by surprise, with the small nation previously not within the range of such extreme weather events. Oxfam in Timor-Leste’s Associate Country Director, Annie Sloman, said the impact of climate change was undeniable.

Oxfam International is pleased to announce Gabriela Bucher as its new Executive Director. Ms Bucher is a leader in the field of gender equality and human rights. She joins Oxfam from Plan International where she had a global leadership role as its Chief Operating Officer. 

Rich nations today published a Climate Finance Delivery Plan claiming that it will take until 2023 to meet their commitment to mobilize $100 billion each year to support poorer nations to confront the climate crisis. In response, Jan Kowalzig, Senior Climate Policy Adviser at Oxfam said: “This plan claims that rich nations will meet their target three years late, but conveniently fails to mention the money that poorer countries are owed for every year they fell short."

Oxfam has joined 14 NGOs to push the European Commission to keep to its commitment to reform the role of company directors to make big companies more accountable for human rights and environmental abuses in their supply chains, and more sustainable – a key move in light of current challenges such as the climate crisis and a growing gap between the rich and the poor. 

After years of deadlock, EU justice and home affair ministers will seek to reach an agreement this week on two key files: the border procedure which includes the potential detention of children, and the solidarity mechanism which puts relocations on equal footing with financial contributions.     

This week, world leaders came together on the sidelines of the 2023 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit to urge for more global attention to addressing inequality. In a joint statement, they highlighted the urgency to save the inequality global goal (SDG10) and dramatically accelerate efforts to reduce inequality by adopting bolder targets and having more accurate tracking mechanisms.