public services

Across Africa, ambitions to achieve inclusive and sustainable development are being undermined by inadequate investment in the care economy. Women and girls are providing millions of hours of unpaid care and domestic work – a provision which props up the economy and underpins society, yet remains under-recognized, undervalued and under-invested in. 

Cyclone Idai struck Zimbabwe in March 2019, affecting 270,000 people. This policy brief provides an analysis of the impacts and review of the disaster response to draw lessons and policy implications for post-disaster institutional development.

As Vietnam graduates from IDA, the World Bank’s concessional finance window, there will be a major change in the types of development finance the country can access. Oxfam is concerned about what this changing financial landscape might mean for Vietnam’s fight against poverty, inequality, and gender inequality.

In this briefing, Oxfam sets out the seven key issues the G7 must act on if the Biarritz Summit is to deliver more than just warm words on fighting inequality.

Vietnam has a strong record of poverty reduction, but today, increasing inequality is threatening decades of progress. To tackle the dangerous gap between rich and poor, Vietnam should urgently implement progressive policies on governance, taxation, public spending, public services, labour rights, and civic engagement.

With no end to the conflict in Syria in sight, the four million people forced to flee the country have no foreseeable prospect of safe return. And as the impact of the crisis on neighboring countries grows and aid dries up, the situation for these refugees is becoming increasingly dire. This briefing calls for a new approach by the international community.