Search

Begin New Search Publishing Institution Oxfam Publishing

21. Climate Plans for the People: Civil society and community participation in national action plans on climate change

Author:
Duncan Pruett and Christina Hill
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
In 2024, all countries will be updating and submitting their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). These national climate plans outline commitments towards tackling climate change. These plans impact all walks of life and must therefore be inclusive of the whole of society. By examining recent practices across 11 countries, Oxfam found that NDCs were not sufficiently inclusive, often failing to involve civil society and communities who bear the burden of climate change and the impact of climate transition plans. This paper explores who the main actors are in NDCs, which stakeholders have not been included, and why. In order to foster a sustainable, equitable, and inclusive social, economic, and political environment for climate action, the paper makes recommendations for the UN, governments, donors, international agencies and civil society.
Topic:
Civil Society, Climate Change, Participation, Adaptation, and Mitigation
Political Geography:
Global Focus

22. The perception of climate change in Senegal coastal areas

Author:
Serigne Momar Sarr, Adama Faye, Dibor Sarr Faye, and Thierno Sarr
Publication Date:
04-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The cognitive dimension of climate change is a subject that is rarely analysed. However, communities’ endogenous adaptation strategies are heavily dependent on their perception of the risks linked to climate change. An analysis of individuals’ representations and perceptions of climate change makes it possible to improve the ability to adapt of territories confronted by it. In this analysis, the relations of interdependence between perception, knowledge and adaptation strategies show how communities living in the coastal area of Senegal interpret climate change, in particular in the fields of agriculture, water resources and coastal areas. Considering these representations favours the co-construction and acceptability of the adaptation strategies. It enables state and non state actors to better understand the communities’ needs as regards public climate policies, whereas the media can identify levers they can use to devise effective public information campaigns on the climate, in order to reduce the vulnerability of communities that face climate hazards.
Topic:
Climate Change, Risk, Adaptation, and Perception
Political Geography:
Africa and Senegal

23. Increasing Civil Society Ownership of National Climate Plans: Lessons drawn from Senegal’s NDC experience

Author:
Estelle Briot
Publication Date:
04-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The issue of civil society participation in the processes of developing, implementing, and monitoring national climate plans is crucial to ensuring that these ambitions are both acceptable to the populations and, beyond that, that they align with a trajectory of sustainable development beneficial to all actors in Senegalese society. This case study aims to analyze the degree of involvement through consultations with a variety of civil society actors, as well as members of the administration and international partners active in the fight against climate change. While some believe that civil society participation has progressed significantly in recent years, the vast majority feel that the level reached is still insufficient. Barriers to civil society’s appropriation of climate issues include, among others, the lack of representativeness of grassroots organizations and vulnerable groups, as well as the unfamiliarity of civil society organizations (CSOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) with the processes, objectives, and stakeholders of the National Climate Plan (NCP), meaning that many civil society actors are rarely aware of their contribution to its implementation even though they are involved. The study also shows how limited human and financial resources reduce the possibility of broad participation by civil society organizations, especially outside the capital. This raises the question of a fair, adequate, and targeted allocation of climate financing to meet the ambitions of climate policies in Senegal. This report presents recommendations to overcome barriers that may explain low ownership of national climate plans by communities, in order to propose ways for populations to be key actors in an ambitious ecological transition in Senegal.
Topic:
Civil Society, Climate Change, Participation, and Ambition
Political Geography:
Global Focus

24. Unaccountable Adaptation: The Asian Development Bank’s overstated claims on climate adaptation finance

Author:
Sunil Acharya, Rasmus Bo Sørensen, and Hans Peter Dejgaard
Publication Date:
05-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Despite positioning itself as the ‘climate bank of Asia and the Pacific’, it is difficult to ascertain the Asian Development Bank’s claims of climate adaptation finance. Oxfam analysed the bank’s 2019–2023 climate finance portfolio and conducted a detailed assessment of 15 climate adaptation projects, comprising 43% of reported adaptation finance for FY 2021 and 2022. Oxfam found that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) hugely overstates the reported amounts with potential over-reporting of 44% in average for the assessed projects. This briefing paper calls for a transformative shift in the ADB’s adaptation finance strategies. The ADB must improve the accuracy and transparency of climate finance reporting and realign financial flows with the needs of the region's most vulnerable communities.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Finance, Accountability, Transparency, Adaptation, and Development Finance
Political Geography:
Asia

25. Essential but Invisible and Exploited: A literature review of migrant workers’ experiences in European agriculture

Author:
Carlos Ruiz-Ramírez, Juan Castillo-Rojas-Marcos, and Yoan Molinero-Gerbeau
Publication Date:
06-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This report – derived from work implemented by Oxfam Intermón and the University Institute for Studies on Migration (IUEM) of Comillas University in the EU SafeHabitus project – is based on a review of academic and non-academic literature from the past five years. It assesses research on working, living, health and transport conditions for migrants working in the agri-food sector in Europe, and cross-cutting gender issues.
Topic:
Agriculture, Food, European Union, Migrant Workers, Supply Chains, Equity, Production, and Gender
Political Geography:
Europe

26. Beyond Crises: The future of Special Drawing Rights as a source of development and climate finance

Author:
Didier Jacobs
Publication Date:
06-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) during the COVID-19 pandemic has generated considerable interest in using SDRs as a tool for development and climate finance. This policy brief argues that the monetary logic that underpins SDRs justifies regular allocations of at least $200 billion a year, and more than doubling the share of low-and middle-income countries. Once allocated, governments can use SDRs in multiple ways, including to fund some development or climate projects. The brief also discusses reforms to deepen the SDR system in the interest of all countries.
Topic:
Development, Climate Finance, Sustainable Development Goals, Economic Policy, and IMF
Political Geography:
Global Focus

27. The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2024

Author:
Anthony Kamande, Jo Walker, Martin Matthew, and Max Lawson
Publication Date:
10-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Now in its fifth edition, the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index (CRI) assesses the commitment of 164 countries and regions to fighting inequality. The CRI 2024 offers powerful new evidence on whether governments are acting to reduce inequality through policies on public services, fair taxation and labour rights. It reveals negative trends in the vast majority of countries since 2022. Four in five have cut the share of their budgets going to education, health and/or social protection; four in five have backtracked on progressive taxation; and nine in ten have regressed on labour rights and minimum wages. Nine out of ten countries have backtracked in one or more area, meaning without urgent policy actions to reverse this worrying trend, economic inequality will almost certainly continue to rise in 90% of countries. Despite some progress, the IMF and the World Bank could do far more to prioritize the fight to reduce inequality. This report assesses their actions across the three CRI pillars of public services, taxation and labour rights. It makes recommendations for how the IMF and World Bank should stop promoting policies that increase inequality and instead support those policies that reduce it, as a matter of urgency.
Topic:
Inequality, Tax Systems, Public Service, Wages, Jobs, and Social Protection
Political Geography:
Global Focus

28. Understanding electricity utilities in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of civil society in improving performance, governance, and accountability

Author:
Peter Twesigye
Publication Date:
08-2024
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This report provides a primer on the performance of electricity utilities in sub-Saharan Africa, reflecting on the current landscape of power sector and utility challenges, the reforms undertaken to address performance failures, opportunities for a “utility of the future” amid the global energy transition, governance frameworks available to assess performance (like the infrastructure regulatory system and World Bank’s Utility Performance and Behavior Today [UPBEAT] platform), and the prospects for changing the political economy of state-owned utilities to significantly improve transparency, accountability, and performance. It provides foundational knowledge on how to use financial statements and economic tools so that nonexperts can assess the financial health of a utility for the purposes of demanding greater accountability. It also provides insights on why energy sector power purchase agreements (PPAs) should be made more transparent for greater public accountability. Further, the primer lays out the need for an enhanced role of civil society in advocating for improved transparency and greater civil participation in the governance of state-owned utilities and how regulation can be of further help. The key takeaway is that state-owned enterprises should be subject to commercial governance arrangements, including mandatory and stringent contracts and exposure to some private capital as well as stakeholder annual general meetings, open to the public, similar to those that occur in the private sector. This report complements three other reports published for Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. Each of those reports focuses on understanding the specific governance conditions surrounding their respective national electricity utilities. All these reports together are intended to build the programmatic and campaigning capacity among civil society actors to enable them to engage in improving the governance of electricity utilities. As such, the intended audience for this report is, first, members of civil society, and then policymakers and energy sector practitioners who are concerned about the operations of their national electricity utilities and who are contemplating advocacy and programming to improve their performance.
Topic:
Civil Society, Climate Change, Governance, Electricity, Utilities, and Energy
Political Geography:
Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa

29. Rights and Responsibilities: Understanding the impact of the tech industry on economic inequality

Author:
Meg Roggensack, Gawain Kripke, Michael Borum, and Hana Ivanhoe
Publication Date:
10-2024
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Digital technologies have the potential to either ameliorate or worsen the dynamics underlying poverty and inequality, depending on how those technologies are designed, developed, deployed, and used, as well as on the degree to which the businesses, and business models behind them, respect the rights of users and workers. This paper recommends changes in corporate and government policies and practices to ensure that the information and communication technology (ICT) industry respects human rights and does not exacerbate poverty and economic inequality across five pillars: access and equity, digital civic space, data use and privacy, automation and the future of work, and governance.
Topic:
Human Rights, Poverty, Science and Technology, Governance, and Economic Inequality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

30. Beyond GDP: A compendium of regional feminist perspectives

Author:
Jennifer Lipenga, Lumonya Faith, Samia al-Botmeh, Nalini Rathnarajah, and Natalia Quiroga Diaz
Publication Date:
12-2024
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
In this publication, leading feminist thinkers from Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, share perspectives on why we must move beyond gross domestic product (GDP) as the primary measure of societal progress. Drawing on regional examples, they demonstrate how the GDP-growth obsession is skewing policy-making towards measures that drive austerity, debt, corporate power, and exploitative labour practices, whilst invisibilising unpaid care and domestic work. In a call to action, the authors highlight Indigenous and feminist alternatives that need to be pursued to catalyse a shift towards economies that centre care of people and the planet.
Topic:
GDP, Feminism, Decolonization, and Systems Change
Political Geography:
Africa, South Asia, Middle East, Latin America, North Africa, and Caribbean

31. Defining and Assessing Transformational Climate Change Adaptation: A framework for application to agri-food projects

Author:
Richard Kohl
Publication Date:
12-2024
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This discussion paper proposes a framework of four indicators of transformational adaptation – the breadth and depth of change, the intention to achieve transformation, scale and sustainability – and provides a framework to apply these indicators to four types of interventions in agri-food systems.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Food Security, Sustainability, Adaptation, and Food Systems
Political Geography:
Global Focus

32. Better Safe Than Sorry: Four fundamentals for scaling up anticipatory action

Author:
Lawrence Robinson
Publication Date:
11-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
In the context of ever-increasing humanitarian needs worldwide, anticipatory action is being recognised as one of main the ways in which predictable shocks can be prevented from turning into crises, reducing both the impacts and the costs. Anticipatory action is a critical approach, bridging the work of disaster risk reduction and humanitarian response, and showing great promise as a modality for nexus programming (for example, linking humanitarian to development). While a scale-up of anticipatory action is much needed, it also requires a truly decolonial and feminist approach that supports communities to uphold their rights. To meet this vision, Oxfam has laid out four interconnected fundamental principles for all partners and stakeholders involved in scaling up anticipatory action to use: Feminist and intersectional anticipatory action that is systematic in recognising the strengths and vulnerabilities of people in at-risk communities. It integrates vulnerability indicators to build anticipatory action systems which include at a minimum gender-sensitive, gender-inclusive, and gender-transformative approaches. Decolonial and locally led anticipatory action that challenges global-local power dynamics, recognises and places local leadership as the primary holder of knowledge and decision-making, and ensures funding is accessible for the local and national civil society organisations and communities at the frontlines of disasters. Holistic anticipatory action that does not operate in isolation, that recognises the holistic nature of the system, and responds to the complexity of risks and hazards and the interconnectedness of anticipatory action across disaster management cycles. Collaborative anticipatory action that prioritises common objectives, optimises resources, ensures alignment between efforts, and provides complementarity across the humanitarian, climate, and development sectors. Adopting these principles in the scale-up of anticipatory action will unlock some of the key challenges of the approach. The principles acknowledge the sectoral trends that call for sector-wide transformation in line with key principles, but overall, they are designed to ensure that anticipatory action is effective and fit for purpose. This paper calls for governments, communities, humanitarian, climate, peace and development practitioners, and the private sector to adopt the proposed four interconnected fundamentals in the scale-up of anticipatory action and support at-risk communities to uphold their rights. This principled approach to embedding anticipatory action into policy, practice, and legal frameworks is required to maximise the potential of anticipatory action and prevent predictable shocks from becoming crises.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Disaster Management, and Humanitarian Assistance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

33. Food Wars: Conflict, Hunger, and Globalization, 2023

Author:
Marc Cohen and Ellen Messer
Publication Date:
10-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Most wars of the late 20th and early 21st centuries have been “food wars”: food and hunger were used as weapons, food and food-related water and energy infrastructure were damaged intentionally or incidentally, and food insecurity persisted as a legacy of conflict destructiveness. Frequently, food insecurity, in turn, is a trigger or underlying cause of conflict. This paper analyzes 54 active conflict, refugee-hosting, and conflict legacy countries with populations in 2023 facing “crisis-level” acute food insecurity, i.e., at Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 3 or higher. In total, nearly 278 million people in these countries faced crisis-level hunger in 2023, accounting for 99% of the global population at IPC 3+ (281.6 million people). Analysis indicates that war-displacement-hunger crises occur in countries that continue to rely heavily on primary product exports. Paradoxically, peacebuilding efforts have often assumed that economic liberalization offers the best or only pathway to sustainable peace. Yet struggle for control over fungible primary commodities can fund more violence, increased inequality, continued instability, and the risk of renewed conflict. Agricultural export commodities are important sources of revenue for smallholder farmers and governments in conflict-affected, food-insecure countries. The conflict implications of export- and food-crop value chains are therefore crucial for future food-wars policy discussions and actions. Some efforts seek to link export crops to efforts to achieve peace, sustainable livelihoods, and environmental restoration. Other proposed solutions focus on adopting more holistic national development strategies, including food-systems approaches that protect and promote the right to food and livelihood security, as well as policy approaches and frameworks that might more effectively consider conflict, globalization, and climate change in food and nutrition policy.
Topic:
Climate Change, Food Security, Hunger, Displacement, and Conflict
Political Geography:
Global Focus

34. Climate Finance Unchecked: How much does the World Bank know about the climate actions it claims?

Author:
Christian Donaldson, James Morrissey, and Jason Farr
Publication Date:
10-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Oxfam finds that for World Bank projects, many things can change during implementation. On average, actual expenditures on the Bank’s projects differ from budgeted amounts by 26–43% above or below the claimed climate finance. Across the entire climate finance portfolio, between 2017 and 2023, this difference amounts to US$24.28–US$41.32 billion. No information is available about what new climate actions were supported and which planned actions were cut. Now that the Bank has touted its focus on understanding and reporting on the impacts of its climate finance, it is critical to stress that without a full understanding of how much of what the Bank claims as climate finance at the project approval stage becomes actual expenditure, it is impossible to track and measure the impacts of the Bank's climate co-benefits in practice. The Bank should improve its reporting practices, undertake a climate finance assessment on closed projects, standardize how it reports on climate finance in projects and create a public climate finance database.
Topic:
Development, Climate Finance, Accountability, Transparency, and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs)
Political Geography:
Global Focus

35. Carbon Inequality Kills: Why curbing the excessive emissions of an elite few can create a sustainable planet for all

Author:
Mira Alestig, Dabi Nafkote, Abha Jeurkar, Alex Maitland, Max Lawson, Daniel Horen Greenford, Corey Lesk, and Ashfaq Khalfan
Publication Date:
10-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The only way to beat climate breakdown and deliver social justice is to radically reduce inequality. This briefing paper reveals the catastrophic climate impacts of the richest individuals in the world, and proposes taking urgent action to protect people and the planet. What little carbon dioxide we can still safely emit is being burned indiscriminately by the super-rich. We share new evidence of how the yachts, jets and polluting investments of the 50 richest billionaires are accelerating the climate crisis. Oxfam’s research shows that the emissions of the world’s super-rich 1% are causing economic losses of trillions of dollars; contributing to huge crop losses; and leading to millions of excess deaths. As global temperatures continue to rise, risking the lives and livelihoods of people living in poverty and precarity, we must act now to curb the emissions of the super-rich and make rich polluters pay.
Topic:
Climate Finance, Investment, Loss and Damage (L&D), Conference of the Parties (COP), and Billionaires
Political Geography:
Global Focus

36. Neither Enough, Nor Adequate: A participatory assessment of the barriers to local access for climate finance in the Sahel

Author:
Norman Martin Casas, Ali Compaoré, and Ximena Michemberg
Publication Date:
11-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Access to climate finance is a prominent feature of the debate for the upcoming COP29 decision to set a New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance. Countries, communities and groups representing marginalised collectives who are most impacted by the climate crisis are in urgent need of scaled-up, accessible and adequate climate finance. Findings from participatory research conducted with more than 100 organisations in the Sahel show that there are still numerous challenges to address in terms of how climate finance mechanisms are designed, how capacities need to be supported, how decision-making spaces affecting climate finance need to be more inclusive, and how gender, intersectional and geographical fragility factors shape unequal access to climate finance. In order to effectively bridge the climate finance access gap, rich countries need to make an urgent commitment to undertake concrete and bold actions to address climate finance access barriers for local actors in climate-vulnerable contexts.
Topic:
Climate Finance, Marginalization, Fragility, and Conference of the Parties (COP)
Political Geography:
North Africa and Sahel

37. The Triple Nexus in Somaliland: Lessons from integrated humanitarian-development-peacebuilding work in El-Afweyn district

Author:
Ahmed Nur Musa
Publication Date:
11-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Oxfam is committed to working with communities before, during and after crises. In Somaliland, we have been piloting approaches that aim to achieve greater synergy between our humanitarian, development and peacebuilding programming and influencing. This innovative ‘triple nexus’ work recognises that communities' needs and ambitions are not met along the false silos created by aid agencies. It asks the international development and humanitarian sector to walk the talk on locally led programming to better meet the holistic needs and aspirations of communities. This case study clearly shows the impact of programming which simultaneously meets immediate needs and development gaps while also addressing the drivers of crisis (such as conflict and climate change) to achieve durable solutions in protracted crises.
Topic:
Agriculture, Humanitarian Aid, Water, Peacebuilding, Microfinance, and Triple Nexus
Political Geography:
Africa and Somaliland

38. Putting An End To World Hunger – The European Union’s role in transforming the global food system

Author:
Hanna Saarinen, Rebecca Varghese Buchholz, Bertram Zagema, and Chris Joseph
Publication Date:
12-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Farmers around the world produce more than enough to feed everyone on the planet, yet since 2017 hunger has increased sharply. Promoting food production and distribution that are socially equitable and environmentally sustainable is a necessity, in Europe and globally. This paper highlights the European Union’s role in addressing global hunger and supporting a sustainable and equitable global food system transformation. A new direction is needed and the EU can make a positive change. Smallholder farmers in the Global South offer enormous untapped potential for fighting global hunger but they must be better supported. The EU must also stand for climate justice by taking the climate change threat to food security seriously, limit the EU’s global land use footprint by stopping unsustainable and irresponsible land use that drives hunger and inequality, and balance the power in food systems by breaking corporate domination and enhancing equitable global food governance.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, European Union, Hunger, Land, and Farmers
Political Geography:
Europe and Global South

39. Unheard Water Stories from Asia, Africa and MENA: Elevating local voices for water security in a climate insecure world

Author:
Nuzhat Nueary
Publication Date:
11-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This paper shares stories from six countries—Bangladesh, Nepal, Kenya, Somalia, Syria, and Iraq—highlighting the challenges communities face in accessing water. It seeks to bring forward the unique perspectives of communities from diverse backgrounds, each experiencing water crises in distinct ways. While climate change intensifies their crises, many communities also face marginalization due to exclusionary water governance. The impacts are further compounded by factors such as gender, poverty, ethnicity, and race. However, the voices and perspectives of these communities are often overlooked in global climate discussions.The paper aims to highlight these diverse community experiences and advocate for the inclusion of local voices and leadership in climate actions and interventions to ensure fairer access to water. As global climate events like COP-29 unfold, it calls on governments to create inclusive climate policies, integrate water issues into loss and damage discussions, actively involve women and local voices, and urge rich, polluting nations to compensate those most affected by historic and ongoing carbon emissions.
Topic:
Climate Change, Migration, Water, Governance, Climate Finance, Land Rights, Drought, Loss and Damage (L&D), Gender Equality, Water Insecurity, and Salinity
Political Geography:
Bangladesh, Kenya, Africa, Iraq, South Asia, Middle East, Nepal, Syria, and Somalia

40. Price Interventions as a Part of Living Income Strategies: Lessons learned from piloting a price premium mechanism for basmati rice farmers in Pakistan

Author:
Mira Alestig
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Small-scale farmers produce many globally important products such as rice, cocoa, cotton and vanilla. Poverty is widespread among these farmers, and there is an urgent need to increase their incomes. A living income – what a household needs to afford a decent standard of living for all its members – is a human right. It is increasingly recognized that paying a living income is the responsibility of businesses. Pricing is a vital part part of this, but raising the prices paid to farmers can be complicated, and many companies still treat it with scepticism. This paper presents lessons learned from the piloting of a novel price premium mechanism in Pakistan. The goal of the price intervention, which targeted basmati rice farmers in Punjab province, was to make a meaningful contribution to the incomes of the most vulnerable small-scale farmers, while at the same time identifying appropriate mechanisms to minimize costs to retailers and/or consumers. The pilot indicates that price, in combination with other complementary measures, can effectively contribute to closing the income gap for even the most vulnerable small-scale farmers, but that any mechanism to raise prices must be designed carefully. The intervention was part of the wider GRAISEA programme, which supports farmers and food producers in South-East Asia.
Topic:
Agriculture, Supply Chains, Income, Rice, and Cost of Living
Political Geography:
Pakistan and South Asia