The key findings of this report are that sesame is a suitable crop for poverty alleviation for smallholders in Benishangul Gumuz and that the smallholder model is competitive versus the large-scale investor model in terms of productivity. Farmers can achieve high profits without significant up-front investments. With minimal expenditure for sesame seeds and some simple equipment for ploughing, weeding and harvesting, farmers can cultivate sesame on a family labor basis. Potential income is higher in the smallholder model than from either communal land management, or from the salaries from large-scale investors (see Figure 1) However, this potential is mirrored by the highest risk for farmers to receive the lowest income. Smallholders can mitigate this risk as well as increase their income further through membership of primary production co-operatives that offer higher sales prices and paid-out dividends.
East Africa is facing the worst food crisis of the 21st Century. Across Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, 12 million people are in dire need of food, clean water, and basic sanitation. Loss of life on a massive scale is a very real risk, and the crisis is set to worsen over the coming months, particularly for pastoralist communities.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Humanitarian Aid, United Nations, and Food
Women are on the front line of coping with and adapting to the effects of climate change. Both climate change impacts and mitigation and adaptation responses affect women and men differently. Yet current climate finance institutions almost entirely ignore gender issues. The Green Climate Fund cannot afford to make the same mistake. Many agree the new fund must be innovative, building on the lessons of climate finance and of other funds to date. To be an effective and legitimate tool in the fight against climate change, the Green Climate Fund must have the concerns of women at its heart.
Ana Mª Romero González, Adama Belemvire, and Saya Saulière
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Burkina Faso's geographical situation makes it particularly vulnerable to climate change. As a country in the Sahel in the heart of western Africa, Burkina Faso suffers an extreme, variable climate: the same area can be affected by both flooding and drought within only a few months. The economy of this largely rural country is essentially based on agriculture and stockbreeding. According to various predictions, climate change will have an impact on agricultural production and food security, and will therefore affect inhabitants of rural areas, especially those who are most vulnerable, such as women.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, and Gender Issues
One of the key factors in global food price volatility is the way that states react to disruptions in supply. There is a strong inclination for exporters to impose export bans in reaction to potential food price increases in their own country. This reaction, however, is a poor strategy for managing food prices at home and has a range of unintended consequences for the domestic and international economy. In general, export bans exacerbate problems created by interruptions in food production and may damage incentives to increase production at home long - term.
Six months after the resolution of the post-electoral stand-off in Côte d'Ivoire that followed the contested presidential elections of 28 November 2010, a humanitarian crisis of significant proportions remains. Whilst more than 500,000 have returned to their place of origin since the end of the conflict in April, approximately 450,000 Ivoirians remain displaced inside Côte d'Ivoire and in neighbouring countries, and both groups remain in need of enhanced humanitarian assistance and protection.
Topic:
Political Violence, Democratization, and Humanitarian Aid
The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) is an analytical model that seeks to build on the existing assets and strategies that people living in poverty use to support themselves, and then to identify what needs to change in order for their livelihoods to become more secure and sustainable.
Topic:
Humanitarian Aid, Political Economy, Poverty, and Political Theory
With the trial of Viktor Bout nearly underway and the UN negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) starting in the summer of 2012, this briefing paper seeks to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of the challenges the US government faces in tackling unscrupulous arms brokers abroad and to show how the adoption of a strong and comprehensive ATT could help the United States and other governments in such efforts.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Crime, International Cooperation, and Law Enforcement
Ten years on from the start of the western intervention in Afghanistan, Afghan women are facing an uncertain future. Women have strived for, and made important gains, since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, including in political participation and access to education, but these gains are fragile and reversible.
Food prices are a matter of life and death to many in the developing world. Financial markets that should be helping food growers and processors to manage their risk and set prices have become a potential threat to global food security. Deregulated and secretive agricultural commodity derivatives markets have attracted huge sums of speculative money, and there is growing evidence that they deliver distorted and unpredictable food prices. Financial speculation can play an important role to help food producers and end users manage risks, but in light of the harm that excessive speculation may cause to millions, action is required now to address the problem. This briefing explains what has gone wrong with financial markets and what could be done to fix them.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Food
East Africa is facing the worst food crisis of the 21st Century. Across Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, over 12 million people are in dire need of food, clean water, basic sanitation and shelter. Suffering and death are already happening on a massive scale, and the situation will worsen over the coming months.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Humanitarian Aid, Food, and Famine
At the height of the food price crisis in 2008, the Philippines was among the countries with "severe localized food insecurity" requiring external assistance in food.3 A series of severe weatherrelated events occurred in 2009 with the total damage to the economy exceeding 100 bn pesos-more than twice the amount allocated for agriculture that year. Rice imports reached an all-time high of 2.45 million metric tons in 2010, making the Philippines the biggest rice importing country in the world that year.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Economics, Humanitarian Aid, and Food
Donor governments are prioritizing aid 'results' in advance of the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HFL4) in Busan, Korea, due to take place at the end of 2011. But there is a real risk that their efforts will lead to a poorly designed results policy that could undo years of work to make aid more useful for fighting poverty.
This report focuses on tax policy in developing countries: who pays tax, what taxes are paid, and how. Tax policy can have a huge impact on inequality and poverty reduction, either positively or negatively, depending on what tax policies a country decides to implement. Taxation is also often at the heart of the social contract between citizens and their government, and progressive taxation is central to creating strong, democratic, and effective states.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Education, Poverty, Social Stratification, and Health Care Policy
International investment plays a vital role in development and poverty reduction. Investment can improve livelihoods and bring jobs, services, and infrastructure, when it is managed responsibly within the context of an effective regulatory framework. Oxfam sees this every day in its work and, in some cases, is working collaboratively with businesses to promote investments that directly benefit poor communities. The recent record of investment in land is very different. It tells a story of rapidly increasing pressure on land – a natural resource upon which the food security of millions of people living in poverty depends. Too many investments have resulted in dispossession, deception, violation of human rights, and destruction of livelihoods. Without national and international measures to defend the rights of people living in poverty, this modern-day land-rush looks set to leave too many poor families worse off, often evicted from their land with little or no recourse to justice.
The promise of what came to be known as the Arab Spring, which dawned in North Africa, sweeping into the Arabian Gulf and up through the Middle East, has foundered in Yemen. Political turmoil has taken hold and reform has stalled, sparking renewed insecurity, devastating an already frail economy, and triggering a national fuel crisis that has in turn driven rising levels of hunger. Levels of child malnutrition in some regions are among the worst in the world. While billions of dollars have been donated to Tunisia, Libya, and to a lesser extent Egypt to rebuild their economies, Yemenis are facing chronic hunger and have few resources at their disposal. While the eyes of the world are on other countries experiencing major upheaval, Yemen must not be forgotten. Leaving the country to simmer and collapse in slow motion will lead to far greater humanitarian and security concerns.
Topic:
Poverty, Food, and Famine
Political Geography:
Middle East, Norway, Yemen, Arabia, United Nations, and Egypt
Matthew Kirk, Julie Steele, Christele Delbe, Laura Crow, Justin Keeble, Caroline Fricke, Richard Myerscough, and Gib Bulloch
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Mobile communications can help to meet the challenge of feeding an estimated 9.2 billion people by 2050. The 12 specific opportunities explored in this study could increase agricultural income by around US$138 billion across 26 of Vodafone's markets in 2020.
Topic:
Agriculture, Government, Non-Governmental Organization, Science and Technology, and Communications
As the international community mobilizes in response to global climatic changes, climate funds must ensure the equitable and effective allocation of funds for the world's most vulnerable populations. Women and girls, disproportionately vulnerable to negative climate change impacts in developing countries, have largely been excluded from climate change finance policies and programmes. This report examines four funds -climate funds and non-climate funds, to draw out the lessons for gender integration in global finance mechanisms. Women and girls must not only be included in adaptive and mitigative activities, but also recognized as agents of change who are essential to the success of climate change interventions.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Gender Issues, and Health
Agriculture, along with livestock farming and fishing, is one of the fundamental components of West African economies. Together they constitute over 35% of the Gross National Product and contribute over 15% of export revenues. They provide income to more than 60% of the working population, over half of whom are women working in production, processing or trade.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Foreign Aid, and Foreign Direct Investment
International shipping is a major – and rapidly growing – source of greenhouse gas emissions. Agreement to apply a carbon price to shipping can both reduce emissions and raise funds for climate change adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. This paper shows that doing so is possible while ensuring developing countries face no net costs. COP17 in Durban, South Africa at the end of 2011 provides an opportunity to agree the key principles of such a deal.