Policy Papers

Messages about loss and damage from people in southern Africa at heightened risk from climate-fuelled extreme weather events

This Pan Africa Program/AU Liaison Office (PAP) Progress Report covers the period from April 2018 until August 2022. These four turbulent years were dominated by the global COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts - which are still being felt, especially by the poorest and most vulnerable people, many of whom are in Africa.

This Pan Africa Program/AU Liaison Office (PAP) Progress Report covers the period from April 2018 until August 2022. These four turbulent years were dominated by the global COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts - which are still being felt, especially by the poorest and most vulnerable people, many of whom are in Africa.

The humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine has been devastating. Oxfam has been responding by primarily working with local civil society organizations who are already supporting displaced people and the communities that host them. This briefing is a summary of the work we have accomplished with our partners during the first 6 months of the war.

This joint report with Save the Children and the Greek Council for Refugees sheds light on the situation for migrants in Greece. 

This paper outlines the results of Oxfam’s rapid assessment of Roma refugees in Moldova in July 2022, highlighting the challenges that Roma refugees face when trying to access assistance, and some key humanitarian needs of these refugees.

In 2015 we celebrated world leaders’ recognition of the foundational and strategic role that sustainable land management must play to advance biodiversity conservation and climate resilience.

In 2015 we celebrated world leaders’ recognition of the foundational and strategic role that secure land rights for all –women and men, regardless of ethnicity, religion, place of residence, or civil, economic, social, or political status—must play to achieve a world free of poverty, hunger and systemic gender discrimination.

Feminist movements and women’s rights organizations (WROs) play critically important roles in climate action. They support women and girls at the frontline of climate change impacts, and they have long understood that inclusive feminist climate action is vital.

The 2022 Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index is the first detailed analysis published looking at governments’ policies and actions to fight inequality during the first two years of the pandemic. This fourth edition of the CRI Index reviews the spending, tax and labour policies and actions of 161 governments during 2020–2022.

In West Africa/Sahel, countries and their communities are experiencing the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Elsewhere, Paris Agreement climate finance commitments are set to prioritise the countries that are most impacted by climate change. 

COVID-19 has exacerbated Asia’s crisis of extreme inequality, which is undermining growth and preventing poverty eradication. Asian governments have done almost nothing to combat this rise in inequality and are constrained in their policy choices as debt burdens grow and post-COVID austerity begins.

Across Europe and the world, people are facing rising energy bills and inflation driven by the Ukraine war and the aftermath of the pandemic. Meanwhile, big business in every sector, not just energy, are raking in extremely high and excessive profits.

Notre système alimentaire mondial inégalitaire n’est viable ni pour les populations ni pour la planète. Nous devons de toute urgence repenser la manière dont le monde nourrit ses habitant·es.

Our unequal global food system is unsustainable for people and planet. We urgently need to rethink how the world feeds its people.

Climate change is deepening hunger in 10 of the world's worst climate hotspots: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Somalia and Zimbabwe. These countries – which had the highest number of UN appeals driven by extreme weather events – have repeatedly been battered by extreme weather over the last two decades. 

Between 15 March and 17 June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights granted 14 interim measures in a series of cases of newcomers in the Evros region, ordering the Greek authorities to rescue them and provide them with food, water and adequate medical care. However, the decisions of the Court were respected in only three of the cases, all others were pushed back to Turkey.

The world has entered a new and dangerous era of climate change impacts, causing huge loss and damage and driving up inequality in the world’s poorest countries that have contributed least to the climate crisis. Yet, new research by Oxfam estimates that nearly half of funding requirements for UN humanitarian appeals linked to extreme weather have gone unmet.

Inequality, already extreme before COVID-19, has reached new levels. There is an urgent need for governments to implement highly progressive taxation measures that in turn must be used to invest in powerful and proven measures to reduce inequalities.