Evidence from scientific research and from previous qualitative research into the experiences of farmers in Tajikistan makes it clear that climate change is already impacting the country and the lives of people from rural Tajikistan.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Environment, and Food
In the aftermath of the 2010–11 floods, the path to recovery and reconstruction in Pakistan will be long and full of challenges. However, there is also an opportunity to tackle crucial structural issues such as crippling inequalities in people's rights and access to land. A failure to do so would not only condemn millions of Pakistanis to continued and deepening poverty, it would also undermine the scope and sustainability of the country's recovery from this disaster and its ability to cope with the next.
Topic:
Agriculture, Political Economy, Poverty, and Natural Disasters
The Indus floods of 2010-2011 were the direct cause of over 1,700 deaths and the displacement of an estimated 18 million people across Pakistan. Official estimates of the economic costs of the damage caused by the floods range from $8.74bn to $10.85bn, which include the estimated costs, early recovery for the provision of relief, rebuilding destroyed infrastructure, and other economic losses to individuals, communities, firms, and the government.
Niger is the epicentre of hunger. Here, it is chronic. Corrosive. Structural. Systemic. Over 65 per cent of people survive on less than $1.25 a day. Nearly one in two children is malnourished. One in six dies before they reach the age of five.
Why, in a world that produces more than enough food to feed everybody, do so many – one in seven – go hungry? Oxfam's new global campaign, GROW, seeks answers to this question. GROW aims to transform the way we grow, share, and live together. GROW will expose the failing governments and powerful business interests that are propping up a broken food system and sleepwalking the world into an unprecedented and avoidable reversal in human development.
This report is a contribution to the Oxfam report: 'Growing a Better Future'. It explores a range of scenarios for food price increases to 2030 through the GLOBE model. Over and above providing a global perspective, the research provides disaggregated results for a range of countries and country groups identified by Oxfam.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Economics, Poverty, and Food
Today, the world produces enough to feed all seven billion of its inhabitants - but nearly a billion people still go without. This paper is about why this global scandal continues, and what can be done to solve it. Its central argument is that access to food is as important as how much food is produced - and that in a world of food price volatility, climate change and other kinds of shocks and stresses, the challenge of building resilience in the food system takes on overwhelming importance.
In contrast to intensive agricultural practices that require widespread forest clearing, agroforestry systems combine tree growing with the production of other crops or animals. By promoting tree planting, biodiversity, and long-term resource husbandry, agroforestry can be an economically and environmentally sustainable option for small-scale farmers who are struggling to combat the impacts of climate change. For hungry and food-insecure communities, agroforestry creates more resilient agricultural systems where the risk of crop failure is spread between diverse crops.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Economics, Environment, and Food
The 2008 food price crisis had a devastating impact on poor Guatemalans. This was followed by widespread crop failure and a food emergency in 2009, affecting an estimated 2.5 million people (de Schutter 2010). With a heavy reliance on imported staple grains and the most productive lands allocated to export crops, Guatemala's food system is broken.
Nepal is one of the world's poorest nations, with 31 per cent of its 28 million-population living below the poverty line. Chronic food insecurity and hunger are part of daily life for millions of Nepalis. For families living in Nepal's remote mountain regions in particular, getting access to sufficient food is a daily struggle. Climate change is making the situation worse.
This report analyses the number of reported disasters in those regions where the majority of the world's poor and vulnerable people live: sub-Saharan Africa, South and South-East Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. It presents analysis of the trends in the number of reported disasters, assesses what country-level factors influence the reported number of disasters, and compares the findings with independent published studies.
La gestión y el acceso a la tierra y el agua son clave para asegurar la seguridad alimentaria y la reducción de la pobreza. En los próximos años, esta importancia irá en aumento. Sin embargo, estos recursos naturales a menudo se convierten en objeto de importantes conflictos de poder entre empresas, Estados y comunidades. Estos conflictos no tienen lugar en el seno de un vacío institucional, sino que los gobiernos nacionales y las instituciones internacionales son los responsables de diseñar el escenario en el cual operan estos distintos intereses. Las normas nacionales e internacionales permiten a las empresas invertir en tierras, agua y otros recursos naturales tanto en sus propios países como en el extranjero.
Topic:
Security, Poverty, Power Politics, Natural Resources, and Food
Climate change is an urgent concern in Nepal. In recent years, the country has faced more than its fair share of extreme weather patterns. Increases in temperature extremes, more intense rainfall, drier winters and delays in summer monsoons have become quite common and are expected to get worse. In fact, a recent Climate Change Vulnerability Index, calculating susceptibility to impacts of climate change over the next 30 years, places Nepal 4th out of 170 countries. This report examines the national situation of climate change adaptation policy and programming, highlighting key areas of progress, weakness and challenges. The report notes that current initiatives have yet to deliver benefit to the marginalized and vulnerable communities in the country - the very groups that need it most. Based on the findings, the report presents a set of recommendations for the Government, donor community and civil society.
Topic:
Civil Society, Climate Change, Environment, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
Concern Worldwide (Concern) and Oxfam GB (Oxfam) jointly commissioned this report to look at the impacts of cash transfers (CTs) on gender dynamics both within households and communities. This report was commissioned because of the agencies' concerns that while CTs, now being used in many different emergency contexts, are expected to benefit women and contribute towards their empowerment, there was little evidence being collected to see whether this was in fact happening. The learning from this report will inform future gender sensitive CT programmes.
By the end of 2014, the Afghan national army and police – under the authority of the Ministries of Defence and Interior, respectively – are expected to assume full responsibility for the protection of Afghan civilians. But, as international military actors prepare for withdrawal, there are serious concerns regarding the professionalism and accountability of the security forces they will leave behind..
In 2010, millions of men, women, and children were killed, raped, displaced, injured, or recruited by force in armed conflicts throughout the world. Whether caught in the crossfire or deliberately targeted, civilians too often suffer disproportionately as a result of conflict.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, United Nations, and War
Amidst jubilant celebration in July 2011, the new Republic of South Sudan entered the international stage albeit as one of the least developed countries in the world. One in eight children die before their fifth birthday, the maternal mortality rate is one of the highest in the world and more than half the population lives below the poverty line. Against a backdrop of chronic under-development, the country is acutely vulnerable to recurring conflict and climatic shocks. More than 220,000 people were displaced last year due to conflict and more than 100,000 were affected by floods; and already this year, fighting in the disputed border areas, clashes between the Sudan People‟s Liberation Army (SPLA) and militia groups, disputes over land and cattle, and attacks by the Lord‟s Resistance Army, have forced nearly 300,000 people from their homes. The situation is exacerbated by a continuing influx of returnees, restricted movement across the northern border, high fuel prices and regional shortages in food stocks. South Sudan is a context that challenges normal development paradigms and fits awkwardly in the humanitarian relief–recovery–post-conflict development continuum. This complexity has not always been reflected in the strategies of either donors or implementing agencies.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Civil War, Ethnic Conflict, and Territorial Disputes
Each year Oxfam undertakes a far-reaching survey of unheard, conflict-affected people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Three-quarters of the 1,705 people polled in 2011 said that they felt their security had not improved since last year. In areas affected by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), this figure rose to 90 per cent, with communities telling Oxfam that they felt abandoned, isolated, and vulnerable. Communities everywhere painted a grim picture of continued abuse of power by militias, the Congolese army, and other government authorities, wearing away their livelihoods and ability to cope.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Civil War, Armed Struggle, and Peacekeeping
A year has passed since the first news reports alerted the world to unnaturally heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan's north-western province of Kyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), a region already ravaged by conflict and only just recovering from the devastating earthquake of 2005. The floods that followed were of a size and scale that are difficult to conceive. Floodwaters inundated up to one-fifth of the country and affected 20 million people, destroying 1.6 million homes and leaving over 14 million people acutely vulnerable (www.pakresponse.org). Oxfam launched a fundraising appeal on 3 August 2010, asking supporters to give generously to save lives. Over $75m (PKR 6,400m, €57m, £48m) was raised by Oxfam for the relief effort in Pakistan through a range of donors: the public, donor governments, and other institutions and organisations. Together all Oxfam affiliates raised $21m (PKR 1,805m, €14m, £13m), much of this was from public sources. This was a good result given difficult economic times, and the money entrusted to Oxfam directly helped to improve the lives of over 2.4 million people. This report is intended as a tool to account to the individuals, governments, and other institutions who have given generously to Oxfam's humanitarian fund, and to partners, allies, staff and volunteers. A finance section at the end of the report provides an overview of how funds were raised and spent. And the final section focuses on 'The Future' and identifies Oxfam's plans for helping during the reconstruction phase of this emergency.
Topic:
Humanitarian Aid, Natural Disasters, and Foreign Aid
The floods that hit Pakistan in 2010 were the worst in the country's history. The humanitarian response achieved remarkable successes in minimising the immediate loss of life and providing relief to millions of people. However, it could have been better: more than 800,000 families remain without permanent shelter and more than a million people remain in need of food assistance. These unmet needs must be addressed as a matter of urgency.
Topic:
Economics, Humanitarian Aid, Poverty, and Natural Disasters