Oxfam GB Southern Africa commissioned a power analysis to identify key actors necessary to support efforts aimed at the ratification, domestication, and implementation of the Africa Women's Protocol and the Abuja Declaration on Health (including HIV and AIDS). The power analysis contains a strategic analysis of key targets in the African Union and other inter-governmental organisations.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Non-Governmental Organization, and Regional Cooperation
Oxfam GB Southern Africa commissioned a power analysis to identify key actors necessary to support efforts aimed at the ratification, domestication, and implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Africa Women's Protocol) and the Abuja Declaration on Health (including HIV and AIDS). The power analysis contains a strategic analysis of key targets in the African Union and other inter-governmental organisations.
The situation for 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is worse now than it has ever been since the start of the Israeli military occupation in 1967. The current situation in Gaza is man-made, completely avoidable and, with the necessary political will, can also be reversed.
Increasing insecurity and criminality is jeopardising progress in Afghanistan. With low government revenues, international assistance constitutes around 90% of all public expenditure in the country, thus how it is spent has an enormous impact on the lives of almost all Afghans and will determine the success of reconstruction and development. Given the links between development and security, the effectiveness of aid also has a major impact on peace and stability in the country. Yet thus far aid has been insufficient and in many cases wasteful or ineffective. There is therefore no time to lose: donors must take urgent steps to increase and improve their assistance to Afghanistan.
A destructive combination of earthquakes, floods, droughts and other hazards make South Asia is the world's most disaster-prone region. The effects are aggravated by climate change, unsuitable social and development policies, and environmental degradation. The effect is to slow or block development and keep millions trapped in poverty.
Topic:
Climate Change, Disaster Relief, and Natural Disasters
Daniel Maxwell, Patrick Webb, Jennifer Coates, and James Wirth
Publication Date:
04-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This paper serves as a background document to help frame discussion at the Food Security Forum in Rome, April 2008. It focuses on policy and institutional reform issues centered on the links between chronic and transitory crises. The first part of the paper provides an overview of trends and future challenges. The second considers effectiveness of the “humanitarian system” in addressing food insecurity and whether the current institutional set-up is fit for service. The third part examines links between “chronic” and “transitory” food insecurity, and whether current approaches to prevention and response appropriately bridge these two forms of vulnerability. A concluding section highlights key issues, raising questions on gaps in the humanitarian system's analytical capacity, its programmatic practices, and on food security policy more broadly.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Humanitarian Aid, and International Cooperation
Europe is negotiating new trade deals with African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries. A true partnership in trade could radically transform the lives of one-third of all people living in poverty, providing farmers and small businesses with sustainable incomes and workers with decent jobs. But Europe is choosing power politics over partnership. The deals currently on the table will strip ACP countries of important policy tools they need in order to develop. They will fracture regional integration, exacerbate poverty and make it harder for countries to break away from commodity dependence. Despite massive pressure, many ACP countries are holding out for a fair deal. Europe needs to rethink, and agree to change course. Ultimately, it is in its own interests to do so.
Topic:
International Political Economy and Treaties and Agreements
Developing-country governments desperately need more long-term and predictable aid, given through their budgets, to finance the expansion of health care, education, and other vital social services. The European Commission (EC) is one of the biggest donors providing this kind of essential budget support, and has innovative plans to further improve and increase this aid. European Union (EU) member states must support these ambitious plans. The EC in turn must do more to improve on this good start, delinking this aid from harmful International Monetary Fund (IMF) prescriptions, putting an end to unnecessary bureaucratic delays, and doing more to make its aid accountable to citizens in poor countries.
Some donors and governments propose that health insurance mechanisms can close health financing gaps and benefit poor people. Although beneficial for the people able to join, this method of financing health care has so far been unable to sufficiently fill financing gaps in health systems and improve access to quality health care for the poor. Donors and governments need to consider the evidence and scale up public resources for the health sector. Without adequate public funding and government stewardship, health insurance mechanisms pose a threat rather than an opportunity to the objectives of equity and universal access to health care.
“The challenge facing the international community in getting countries on track to achieve the MDGs is considerable, even more so in the face of the global challenges of inequality, climate change and impending insecurity. Global companies have a role to play: their first and most important contribution must be to minimise the negative and maximise the positive impacts of their core business operations on human development.”
Topic:
Development, International Cooperation, International Organization, Non-Governmental Organization, and United Nations