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"Although rain is needed, this year’s excessive rains have destroyed thousands of houses and farmland, and families already struggling to survive have lost everything. These floods were the last thing the country needed," said Samuel Braimah, Country Director for Oxfam in Niger.
“The huge potential impact of extreme weather events on future food prices is missing from today’s climate change debate. The world needs to wake up to the drastic consequences facing our food system of climate inaction,” said Oxfam’s Climate Change Policy Adviser, Tim Gore
The world’s humanitarian system is already strained by a record number of food emergencies. Global food price hikes threaten even more millions of the world’s poorest people. Drought in North America and elsewhere, use of food crops for biofuel and excessive speculation in some commodity markets are among the problems cited in an Oxfam media brief.
The federal government announced it will match public donations raised by non-government agencies to provide relief from hunger in the Sahel region of West Africa. The government made an advance payment of $10 million to the eight-week matching program. It was welcomed by Oxfam and other Humanitarian Coalition agencies. Find out more about Oxfam's response to the Sahel.
“The majority of governments in the world have agreed that we need tough rules based around international human rights and humanitarian law to bring the arms trade under control. They’ve made a statement confirming their intent to see a treaty realized. It’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’. We will continue campaigning to secure a treaty that will save lives.” ~Oxfam's Head of Arms Control, Anna Macdonald.
The US is using the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact negotiations to introduce new intellectual property rules that will devastate the ability of developing countries to access affordable anti-retroviral medicines, international agency Oxfam said today.
"The World Bank can do more to end AIDS and improve health outcomes in developing countries. It should help countries provide free health services, including medicines. The world must learn from the lessons of HIV treatment -- when even small fees are charged for health care, poor people are completely shut out, especially women."
Oxfam calls on the international community to increase investment in emergency aid and long-term development to help Somalis sustain themselves through drought and conflict. Oxfam supported programs have benefitted more than 1.3 million Somalis with emergency water and sanitation, therapeutic feeding centers, cash transfers, and tools and seeds.
A year has passed since Somalis fleeing famine and conflict captured the world’s attention and the largest refugee camp in the world is facing a critical funding shortage, a group of seven aid agencies said today.
One year after South Sudan’s independence on July 9, the young country is facing its worst humanitarian crisis since the end of the war in 2005, under the weight of severe economic meltdown and ongoing conflict. Long-term and emergency efforts to help nearly half the population, who don’t have enough to eat, could be derailed by an economy out of control, warned the international aid agency Oxfam.
While the situation has improved, Oxfam will continue to work with communities in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, to help reduce chronic vulnerability to drought and food insecurity. From a historical perspective, the world has undoubtedly moved on in our ability to save lives. Longer-term aid responses have contributed to this, and Ethiopia and Kenya have both developed safety-net programs designed to deliver longterm help to some of the poorest people in their societies.
"We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to truly make the world a safer place. This isn’t just any Treaty, but one that can rein in a trade that is spiralling out of control,” said Anna Macdonald, Oxfam's Head of Arms Control Campaign.
It's the one-year anniversary of the HUMANITARIAN COALITION's appeal for the 2011 drought in East Africa. The HUMANITARIAN COALITION is comprised of Oxfam Canada, CARE Canada, Oxfam-Québec, Plan Canada and Save the Children. Together, we are now applying the lessons learned from that joint exercise to our response to the ongoing drought and food crisis threatening more than 18 million people in the Sahel region of West Africa.
119 Canadian parliamentarians are among more than 1,600 legislators in 75 countries who have signed a declaration that a strong Arms Trade Treaty “can make a significant contribution in addressing the terrible human toll which is a direct consequence of this poorly regulated trade.”
United Nations Secretary‐General BAN Ki‐moon today called on governments, business, farmers, scientists, civil society and consumers to join the “Zero Hunger Challenge,” inviting all nations to be boldly ambitious as they work for a future where everyone enjoys their right to food and all food systems are resilient.
