Press releases

84 percent of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) COVID-19 loans encourage, and in some cases require, poor countries hard hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic to adopt more tough austerity measures in the aftermath of the health crisis, warned Oxfam today.

Oxfam congratulates the UN World Food Program for its Nobel Peace Prize. It is a timely and urgent recognition to the work that WFP does in fighting the scourge of global hunger. 

Very low spending on public healthcare, weak social safety nets and poor labor rights meant the majority of the world’s countries were woefully ill-equipped to deal with COVID-19, reveals new analysis from Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI) today.

The World Bank’s report shows clearly that billions of people were more vulnerable to the economic impacts of COVID-19 because of decades of economic policies which have kept them living one paycheck away from poverty, while the richest in society accumulate ever more wealth.

Responding to the announcement that the Cayman Islands has been removed from the EU tax haven blacklist, Chiara Putaturo, Oxfam’s EU Tax Policy Advisor, said: “While we welcome the addition of Barbados, removing the Cayman Islands, one of the world’s most notorious tax havens, from the EU tax haven blacklist is further proof that the process isn’t working."

Donors have given the equivalent of 25 US cents per day for each of the 24.3 million people in need in Yemen, about half the amount given last year, Oxfam warned today.

The dramatic cut comes despite COVID-19 heaping further challenges on a country already suffering the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

The weak EU tax haven blacklist is undermining attempts to stop government bailouts going to corporate tax dodgers, said Oxfam, ahead of the publication of a revised EU blacklist tomorrow, 6 October.

Responding to the World Bank's proposal of a $12 billion initiative to help poor countries purchase COVID-19 vaccines, Anna Marriott, Health Policy Advisor at Oxfam, said: "The World Bank is right to be concerned about whether poorer countries will be able to afford COVID-19 vaccines and treatments and they should use their influence accordingly."

Survivors of COVID-19 from 37 countries are among almost 1,000 people who have signed an open letter to pharmaceutical industry leaders calling for a ‘people's vaccine’ and treatments that are available to all – free from patents. The letter comes on the eve of a high-level side event about the pandemic at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Despite the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution calling for a global cessation of hostilities some 90 days ago, so that countries and humanitarian organizations could focus on battling the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing violence is pushing millions to the brink of conflict induced famine and hindering the battle against the outbreak.