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41. Speaking Up: The role of women in building peace in Yemen

Author:
Fatma Jaffar
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This paper brings the voices of Yemeni women forward. Women were active in the 2011 protests, influencing political developments at key junctures. However, subsequent armed conflicts militarized the political environment and pushed forward a more limited religious agenda that saw more and more women systematically marginalized in the process. This paper outlines these major trends and offers some key recommendations to the government and wider international community to better support women’s participation in peace negotiations and involvement in the Yemeni political arena.
Topic:
Women, Leadership, Peacebuilding, and Gender Justice
Political Geography:
Middle East and Yemen

42. Does Aid to Domestic Revenue Mobilization Support Tax Fairness? A synthesis of Oxfam research

Author:
Marc J. Cohen, Nathan Coplin, and Marc James-Finel
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Between 2017 and 2022, Oxfam examined aid to DRM from multiple donors provided to multiple low- and middle-income countries. This synthesis report seeks to draw lessons across these studies. The key issues examined include tradeoffs between efficiency and effectiveness in generating revenues on the one hand, and equity on the other; whether donors support direct or indirect taxation; the progressivity of instruments supported; whether aid to DRM explicitly links revenues to poverty reduction (health, education, social protection); whether aid supports country ownership; and whether aid explicitly seeks to advance gender equality.
Topic:
Finance, Tax Systems, Donors, and Revenue
Political Geography:
Global Focus

43. IMF Social Spending Floors: A fig leaf for austerity?

Author:
Alexandros Kentikelenis and Thomas Stubbs
Publication Date:
04-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The International Monetary Fund has said that it protects spending on education, health and social protection from cuts in its loan programmes through social spending floors. These measures are a welcome step forward, but are they effective? Analysis of all 17 IMF loan programmes (Extended Credit Facilities, or ECFs, and Extended Fund Facilities, or EFFs) for low- and middle-income countries during the first two years of the pandemic shows that these floors are deeply inadequate, inconsistent, opaque and failing. They are little more than a fig leaf for harmful austerity, which is driving inequality, poverty and suffering.
Topic:
Finance, Austerity, IMF, and Social Spending
Political Geography:
Global Focus

44. Pandemic Responses in the MENA Region: Lessons learned for an inclusive economic recovery

Author:
Salma Jrad, Amine Bouzaine, Nadine Mezher, and Anna Chernova
Publication Date:
05-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities and poor governance practices in the MENA region and had a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable people. These persistent and structural issues also threaten a post-COVID inclusive recovery process. Austerity steers from institutions like the IMF risk further inequality and social exclusion, as evidenced by diverse and gendered impacts on the most vulnerable, including through low public spending on health and social protection. Economic and fiscal justice through progressive taxation and inclusive, crisis-resilient public spending are two key policy solutions to prevent future crises impoverishing the most vulnerable in the region. As the world recovers from the pandemic, now is the time for national and global policymakers – including international financial institutions – to take stock and seek policy alternatives that take a rights-based, inclusive, holistic and resilience-focused approach to recovery efforts, resourced through progressive taxation.
Topic:
Governance, Inequality, Finance, COVID-19, Inclusion, and Economic Recovery
Political Geography:
Middle East and North Africa

45. Sick Development: How rich-country government and World Bank funding to for-profit private hospitals causes harm and should be stopped

Author:
Anna Marriott
Publication Date:
06-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Development finance institutions owned by European governments and the World Bank Group are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on expensive for-profit hospitals in the Global South that block patients from getting care, or bankrupt them, with some even imprisoning patients who cannot afford their bills. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of these same hospitals denied entry to patients suffering from the virus or sold intensive care beds at eyewatering prices to the highest bidder. These development institutions have woefully inadequate safeguards, invest via a complex web of tax-avoiding financial intermediaries, and offer little to zero evidence on the impacts their investments are having. Oxfam is calling on rich European governments and the World Bank Group to immediately halt their spending on for-profit private healthcare, and for an urgent independent investigation to be conducted into all active and historic investments.
Topic:
Development, World Bank, Economic Development, COVID-19, Private Equity, Universal Healthcare, and Profiteering
Political Geography:
Europe and Global South

46. Water Dilemmas: The cascading impacts of water insecurity in a heating world

Author:
Padmini Iyer
Publication Date:
09-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This briefing paper presents findings from Oxfam’s recently commissioned research on climate predictions for 2040 and 2050 in the Middle East, the Horn, East and Central Africa (HECA), West Africa and Asia regions. Analyses show how temperature increases will influence water insecurity in these regions and the potential impacts on food security, the spread of diseases, and other factors. This briefing paper also reveals severe under-investment by national governments and donors in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems, with critical implications not only for water security but also for poverty and inequality. Oxfam is calling for urgent action to increase investments in sustainable, climate-adapted water management for the people who are most at risk from the worsening climate crisis.
Topic:
Climate Change, Natural Resources, Water, and Sustainable Development Goals
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, and Asia

47. The Middle East and North Africa Gap: Prosperity for the rich, austerity for the rest

Author:
Alexandros Kentikelenis, Sahar Mechmech, Amine Bouzaiene, Rowaida Moshrif, and Nabil Abdo
Publication Date:
10-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This briefing paper examines growing inequality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, focusing on Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis. It examines the lack of adequate and just taxation systems across the region, particularly wealth taxes. This limits governments’ fiscal space and their spending on public services, resulting in gender discrimination and the widening of the MENA inequality gap to a chasm. The rich must pay their fair share. Austerity in the MENA region cannot become the norm. Taxing the profits of the region’s richest people will provide critical recourses that are currently lacking but would begin to close the chasm between the rich and the rest.
Topic:
Tax Systems, Economic Inequality, Austerity, and Prosperity
Political Geography:
Middle East and North Africa

48. Climate Justice: Loss and damage action research: Case studies of Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe

Author:
Sandra Bhatasara, Helen Jeans, Juliet Suliwa Kasito, Lesley Macheka, and Rosa Mate
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This study was undertaken to support and empower Southern African leaders, activists, civil society organizations (CSOs) and policymakers, in the lead up to COP 27 and beyond, in the debate on the losses and damages caused by climate impacts. The study used an ‘action research’ approach by supporting the collective and inclusive documentation and sense-making of the lived experiences of loss and damage, and the co-production of a loss and damage narrative, through case studies and participatory workshops with Southern African survivors, communities, activists, civil society and decision-makers.
Topic:
Climate Change, Natural Disasters, Decolonization, Flood, Drought, and Loss and Damage (L&D)
Political Geography:
Africa, Mozambique, and Malawi

49. Gendered Dimensions of Loss and Damage in Asia

Author:
Nidhi Tewari, Alex Bush, Myrah Butt, Elizabeth Stevens, and Sarah Zafar
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Setting up a fund for loss and damage is one of the achievements of COP28, the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference. However, ambiguity remains regarding its functions and set-up. This briefing paper emphasizes the importance of understanding the gendered dimensions of both economic and non-economic losses and damages in Asia. It draws from case studies in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, the Philippines and Timor-Leste to advocate for an intersectional feminist approach to be embedded in the establishment of the Loss and Damage Fund.
Topic:
Climate Change, Feminism, Intersectionality, Flood, Loss and Damage (L&D), Conference of the Parties (COP), and Care work
Political Geography:
Asia

50. Oxfam’s Engagement with Refugee-led Organisations in West Nile (Uganda): Lessons on opportunities and challenges

Author:
Yotam Gidron, Lydia Ayikoru, Geoffrey Owino, Katja Kjar-Levin, and Marie Sophie Petersson
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Since 2018, Oxfam in Uganda has been supporting South Sudanese refugee-led organizations (RLOs) with funding for a range of peacebuilding, COVID-19 and livelihood activities. Drawing on this experience, this briefing note summarizes some of the most important lessons learned in the working relationship of Oxfam and Uganda-based RLOs. Practical recommendations are also drawn that may be useful for international actors working with RLOs in various contexts, focusing on how to nurture meaningful partnerships, including with regards to funding, capacity building, representation of women and youth, advocacy, knowledge sharing and visibility.
Topic:
Civil Society, Partnerships, Refugees, and Localization
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, and South Sudan

51. Emergent Agency in a Time of COVID-19: Research report

Author:
Flippo Artuso, Katrina Barnes, Duncan Green, and Irene Guijt
Publication Date:
02-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented event in the modern era. Earlier studies demonstrated how ‘critical junctures’, which comprise major historical events and emergencies, often play an essential role in social change. This paper seeks to explore whether the COVID-19 pandemic would prove to be a similar pivotal moment, and what lessons and insights we could gather for positive social change. The research set out to find key insights on how individuals, communities, and organizations in civil society were responding to the pandemic in low-income populations at the intersection of multiple inequalities. These lessons could inform how donors, governments and NGOs might reshape their efforts to reduce emerging or deepening inequalities, and how civil society organisations and community-based organisations could amplify their positive impacts. Over 18 months, from September 2020 to March 2022, the ‘Emergent Agency’ research convened a global conversation between activists, development practitioners, researchers, and academics to better understand the phenomena that were taking place in response to the pandemic. The research collected more than 200 case studies and held a series of webinars and conversations in thematic clusters to uncover what these responses could teach us. The research project was enabled with funding from The Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme (AFSEE) of the London School of Economics.
Topic:
Civil Society, Governance, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

52. From Stunt to Substance: An assessment of IMF engagement with civil society

Author:
Nabil Abdo, Nadia Daar, and Alex Ray
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is doling out billions of dollars, influencing economies around the world through its finance, and through the policies it expects governments to implement in return for the funds. But who has a say in those decisions? This paper presents case study research from Pakistan, Tunisia, Egypt, Ecuador, Argentina, Zambia and Ghana to assess the extent and meaningfulness of IMF engagement with civil society. With findings on power, motivations, impact and the importance of civic space considerations, the paper makes the case for significantly improved engagement, and recommends how to do so systematically, meaningfully and safely.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, International Cooperation, and IMF
Political Geography:
Global Focus

53. TOSSD Data for 2020: An overview of key trends in the data in support of sustainable development

Author:
Brian Tomlinson
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Data on total official support for sustainable development (TOSSD) take a recipient perspective, in contrast to official development assistance (ODA) data, which take a donor perspective. The TOSSD metric captures development resource flows that are not included in donors’ reports to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee, and are intended to link resource flows to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For 2020, 98 donors reported TOSSD data, an increase of six donors from 2019. Reported net disbursements totaled $291 billion, including $62 billion reported only to TOSSD. The top five sectors in TOSSD reporting, accounting for 65% of net disbursements, were energy, donor administrative costs, in-donor refugee costs, health, and government and civil society. For those disbursements linked to one or more of the SDGs, 61% went to the Health, Poverty Eradication, Climate Change, support for Decent Work and Sustainable Economic Growth, Ending Hunger, and Partnerships SDGs. The gender equality SDG was allocated just 4.5% of total net disbursements. TOSSD data provided a foundation of activity level detail to enable further research on allocations to SDGs. The picture that TOSSD data provide could be more complete if additional donors submitted reports to TOSSD, and if all donors reported on links to SDGs.
Topic:
Development, Sustainable Development Goals, Sustainability, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

54. The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2022

Author:
Jo Walker, Matthew Martin, Emma Seery, Nabil Abdo, Anthony Kamande, and Max Lawson
Publication Date:
10-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The 2022 Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index is the first detailed analysis published looking at governments’ policies and actions to fight inequality during the first two years of the pandemic. This fourth edition of the CRI Index reviews the spending, tax and labour policies and actions of 161 governments during 2020–2022. COVID-19 has increased inequality worldwide, as the poorest people were hit hardest by both the disease and its profound economic impacts. Yet the CRI 2022 Index shows clearly that most of the world’s governments failed to mitigate this dangerous rise in inequality. Despite the biggest global health emergency in a century, half of low-and lower-middle-income countries saw the share of health spending fall during the pandemic, half of the countries tracked by the CRI Index cut the share of social protection spending, 70% cut the share of education spending, while two-thirds of countries failed to increase their minimum wage in line with gross domestic product (GDP). Ninety-five percent of countries failed to increase taxation of the richest people and corporations. At the same time, a small group of governments from across the world bucked this trend, taking clear actions to combat inequality, putting the rest of the world to shame.
Topic:
GDP, Inequality, Tax Systems, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

55. Lives at Risk: A study of girls dropping out of school in Juba, Rumbek and Pibor Counties, South Sudan

Author:
Lillian Rutandaro, Christine Lundambuyu Minalula, Rogers Otuta, and Manenji Mangundu
Publication Date:
11-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This study was undertaken by Oxfam in three South Sudanese counties as part of the SIDA-funded project 'Building Resilience through Gender and Conflict-Sensitive Approaches to Education, Skills Development, and Sustainable Livelihoods'. Its purpose was to shed light on why so many girls drop out of school. The research revealed that women and girls often lack decision-making power over their lives. Early or forced marriage, the abduction of girls, perceptions that education delays marriage – and that educated girls risk not finding husbands – all contribute to dropout rates. Additional challenges include a lack of adequate hygiene and sanitation facilities in schools, the distances learners need to travel, insecurity caused by communal violence, floods, food insecurity, and a heavy household work burden. The Government of South Sudan has in place laws and policies to address these issues, but they remain largely on paper and enforcement mechanisms are weak. The report analyses each of these factors in turn and presents recommendations for how the SIDA project can begin to address them in its future programming.
Topic:
Development, Education, Food, Conflict, Resilience, and Gender
Political Geography:
Africa and South Sudan

56. Decolonize! What does it mean?

Author:
Sara Duvisac
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This document introduces the key concepts of decolonial theory that inform many current calls to decolonize. It provides examples from Latin America, Africa, and North America of how activists have envisioned or realized decolonial futures. These movements led by Indigenous Peoples, people of color, women, and queer people articulate and define the possibilities of decolonial futures. Since decolonial theory suggests multiple futures and not one single solution, this document does not address what decolonizing particular systems, such as international development, should look like. Rather, the document aims to introduce the reader to the tools of analysis that decolonial theory offers, give examples of decolonial theory in practice, and discuss some potential shortfalls of the decolonial framework.
Topic:
Political Theory, Colonialism, Decolonization, and Diversity
Political Geography:
Africa, Latin America, and North America

57. Footing the Bill: Fair finance for loss and damage in an era of escalating climate impacts

Author:
Tracy Carty and Lyndsay Walsh
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The world has entered a new and dangerous era of climate change impacts, causing huge loss and damage and driving up inequality in the world’s poorest countries and communities that have contributed least to the climate crisis. New research by Oxfam estimates that funding requirements for UN humanitarian appeals linked to extreme weather are eight times higher than they were 20 years ago, and over the past five years nearly half of appeal requirements have gone unmet. Funding for emergency humanitarian response is piecemeal and painfully inadequate, as is broader support to address loss and damage such as rebuilding homes and vital infrastructure. Scaled-up financial support from governments, corporations and individuals most responsible for causing the climate crisis, and most able to pay, is an immediate necessity. A new finance facility must be created to help ensure that finance to address loss and damage is accessible and sustained, is additional to adaptation, mitigation and ODA commitments, and is delivered in accordance with the principles of climate justice.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Infrastructure, and Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

58. Asia’s Extreme Inequality Crisis: Building back fairer after COVID-19

Author:
Matthew Martin
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
COVID-19 has exacerbated Asia’s crisis of extreme inequality. This is undermining growth and preventing poverty eradication. Asian governments have done almost nothing to combat this rise in inequality and are constrained in their policy choices as debt burdens grow and post-COVID austerity begins. A few Asian governments have done a lot to fight inequality during COVID-19 through equitable public services, progressive taxation and enhanced labour rights, especially for women, but most have not. This paper lays out a comprehensive set of measures that Asian governments, the Asian Development Bank and the international community could use to significantly reduce inequality, eradicate poverty and accelerate growth in Asia.
Topic:
Poverty, Governance, Pandemic, COVID-19, Banking, and Equality
Political Geography:
Asia

59. Climate Finance in West Africa: Assessing the state of climate finance in one of the world’s regions worst hit by the climate crisis

Author:
Norman Martin Casas and Azara Remalia Sanogo
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
In West Africa/Sahel, countries and their communities are experiencing the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Elsewhere, Paris Agreement climate finance commitments are set to prioritise the countries that are most impacted by climate change. However, new research by Oxfam shows that, despite West Africa/Sahel being one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions, the international climate finance received falls far short of meeting national climate finance needs and is being significantly over-reported in favour of debt instruments. Adaptation finance is also insufficient. Reported climate finance does not place gender equality at the centre, and only a small part directly reaches local actors. In light of this, developed countries and other donors should scale up grant-based adaptation finance that reaches the local level and responds to the real needs of particularly hard-hit regions such as West Africa/Sahel.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Environment, and Finance
Political Geography:
Africa, West Africa, and Sahel

60. Unaccountable Accounting: The World Bank’s unreliable climate finance reporting

Author:
Jason Farr, James Morrissey, and Christian Donaldson
Publication Date:
10-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Despite being the largest multilateral provider of climate finance, the World Bank supplies very little evidence to support its claims about the amount of climate finance it provides. Oxfam has attempted to recreate the Bank’s reported climate finance figures using public information for projects in the Bank’s FY2020. Oxfam found that the Bank’s current climate finance reporting processes are such that its claimed levels of climate finance cannot be independently verified and could be off by as much as $7bn, or 40%. Without better disclosure practices, the World Bank is asking us to take much on faith. Climate finance funding is too important for us to do that. The World Bank must be more transparent in its reporting so that it can be held to account.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, International Cooperation, World Bank, Climate Finance, and Banking
Political Geography:
Global Focus