Press releases

The cost of vaccinating the world against COVID-19 could be at least five times cheaper if pharmaceutical companies weren’t profiteering from their monopolies on COVID-19 vaccines, campaigners from the People’s Vaccine Alliance said today.

Oxfam’s Emergency Food Security and Vulnerable Livelihoods Advisor, Emily Farr, in response to a new report on Tigray by the IPC Famine Review Committee: "The IPC report by independent food security experts today confirms our fears, that now 400,000 people are experiencing catastrophic hunger in Tigray, Ethiopia. The report’s projections for the future are even more grim, making predictions that there is a high risk of famine."

In response to Jeff Bezos’ space flight scheduled for Tuesday, Deepak Xavier, Oxfam International's Global Head of Inequality Campaign, said: "We’ve now reached stratospheric inequality. Billionaires burning into space, away from a world of pandemic, climate change and starvation. 11 people are likely now dying of hunger each minute while Bezos prepares for an 11-minute personal space flight. This is human folly, not human achievement."

Today, the European Commission released their Fit for 55 legislative package. This bundle aims to revise the EU’s current 2030 climate and energy rules. The package will implement the goal of reducing average EU carbon emissions by 55% in 2030. In response to the package, Evelien van Roemburg, Oxfam EU Head of Office said: “We are at a tipping point in the fight against the climate crisis. The EU has the opportunity to keep us from tipping over the edge by capping the rampant increase in global temperatures to 1.5° Celsius."

In reaction to the UN’s State of Food Security and Nutrition (SOFI) report revealing that nearly 12% of the world’s population – or 811 million people – were undernourished last year, and that increase is equal to the last five years combined, Oxfam’s Emergency Food Security and Vulnerable Livelihoods Advisor Emily Farr said: “Oxfam is extremely worried that these downward trends, which will push us further away from our global 2030 zero hunger target, will only get worse unless the alarms raised are heard. The pandemic was the last straw for millions already battered by the impacts of conflict, economic shocks, and a worsening climate crisis."

In recent days, Oxfam has become aware of an incident of sexual misconduct involving Ricardo Acuña, chair of the Oxfam Canada Board and a member of the Oxfam International Board. Mr. Acuña had not disclosed this matter to either Oxfam Canada or Oxfam International. Oxfam has removed him as chair of its Canadian Board and dismissed him from its International Board. Both decisions are effective immediately.  

Grassroots organisations at the forefront of the fight for gender justice have consistently been the most heavily hit by funding cuts during the pandemic, despite increasing donor commitments toward gender equality. This comes at a time when gender rights issues including violence against women and girls, are increasingly being reported as emerging concerns due to the pandemic. 

In response to the results of the vote on a UN resolution continuing to allow cross-border aid into Syria, Oxfam’s Regional Humanitarian Campaign Lead for MENA, Georges Ghali said: “The UN Security Council’s decision means that millions of Syrians who are suffering from the scourge of war, compounded by an economic collapse and a global pandemic, will continue to face an uncertain future. At a time when three in five Syrians are facing acute hunger, it is unconscionable to limit humanitarian assistance in this way."
 
 

Responding to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva’s statement that the IMF Executive Board has approved her proposal for a $650 billion Special Drawing Rights (SDR), Nadia Daar, Head of Oxfam International’s Washington DC Office, said: “We commend this decision by the IMF’s Executive Directors and urge swift approval by the Board of Governors. This debt-free financing is urgently needed by struggling economies still in the eye of the COVID-19 storm, and with a long road ahead.”

A new Oxfam report today says that as many as 11 people are likely dying of hunger and malnutrition each minute. This is more than the current global death rate of COVID-19, which is around seven people per minute. The report, ‘says that conflict remains the primary cause of hunger since the pandemic, pushing over half a million people into famine-like conditions ―a six-fold increase since 2020.