Policy Papers

When global corporations and the super-rich use tax havens to avoid paying their fair share, it is the poorest countries and people who lose most. This briefing lists five actions governments can take to tackle tax avoidance and end the era of tax havens.

Climate change is already forcing people from their land and homes, and putting many more at risk of displacement in the future. This paper describes the effects on communities and how responding to these growing realities demands far stronger action towards ending global climate pollution.

The last few decades have seen astonishing growth and poverty reduction across Asia, but inequality is on the rise. This paper sets out how APEC leaders can use the opportunity of the summit to move in a new direction – one in which the economy works for everyone, not just the few.

The current internal conflict in Iraq, its ensuing displacement and emerging returns, coupled with political and economic crises facing the country, are just the latest in a series of ongoing upheavals that Iraq’s youth are experiencing. 

Oxfam conducted research on government and donor investments in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania. It found that governments and donors are failing to provide women farmers with relevant and adequate support for farming and adapting to climate change.

This report outlines Oxfam’s proposal for a new and balanced approach to managing migration – one that protects people and promotes the benefits associated with migration for European host countries, people on the move and their countries of origin.

What is the IMF doing in practice to tackle inequality? Its main initiative has been a series of pilots that integrate inequality analysis into its economic surveillance of countries. This paper outlines Oxfam’s evaluation of these pilots and finds that they are not promoting policies that reduce inequality.

More than three years after it was initiated in the aftermath of the 2011 famine, the early-warning, early-action trigger mechanism for Somalia remains a work in progress. This paper looks at how the mechanism has functioned during the 2016/7 drought crisis response.

Economic inequality in Brazil has reached extreme levels, despite being one of largest economies in the world. The country has been able to take millions of people out of poverty but the current Brazilian context reveals that the achievements in this field are fragile and under threat.

One year after the release of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines landmark report, this paper assesses the level of implementation by countries and institutions and recommends ways to use the report to improve both innovation and access to medicines.

Since the turn of the century, the poorest half of the world’s population has received just 1% of the total increase in global wealth. Meanwhile, half the new wealth has gone to the richest 1%. To help reverse this trend, we need rapid growth of equitable business structures with purpose, fairness and sustainability embedded into their model.

What can we learn about resilience by examining completed resilience, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation projects? Oxfam conducted three such case studies in Bolivia, Colombia, and Fiji, looking at the conditions required for successful resilient development as well as issues around timing and duration.

Transparency in international aid is not just about fulfilling a requirement based on people’s right to access information, but also about making aid more effective. Based on interviews conducted in Sierra Leone and Liberia, this research looks at the information needed by in-country development stakeholders with an emphasis on accountability actors.

Several food and beverage companies have made commitments over the last few years to tackle deforestation in their supply chains. This paper analyses how the world’s ten biggest food and beverage companies are implementing their commitments.

This paper highlights an innovative approach to solid waste management and income generation, and aims to promote further dialogue on the role that Syrians can play in the Jordanian economy.

Iraq faces severe pressures on its water resources following years of conflict and under-investment in infrastructure. This research focuses on the state of water resources in Kirkuk governorate in the north of the country and identifies the main challenges that need to be addressed.

Since the end of April 2017, Yemen has been experiencing its worst recorded outbreak of suspected cholera in a single year. By mid-August, more than 500,000 cases were recorded. Significant and urgent scale up in all areas of intervention is needed.

Oxfam has spoken to men and women who have spent months being beaten, tied up like animals and sold as cheap labour in Libya’s shocking slave trade. EU member states should ensure that migrants arrive safely in Europe where they can have access to a fair and transparent process for claiming asylum. 

Development Finance International and Oxfam have produced the first index to measure the commitment of governments to reducing the gap between the rich and the poor.  

This report examines the failings of the global tax system that facilitate mass tax avoidance. It looks at one example of a multinational company (MNC) that Oxfam thinks is not paying its fair share. Moreover, it calls on governments and business to implement the reforms that are needed to stop MNCs from avoiding paying their fair share of tax in the future.