Press releases

Vaccine equity campaigners have called news that Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer BioNTech will start building a vaccine production facility in Rwanda next year “far too little, far too late”. 

The People’s Vaccine Alliance has also said that Moderna’s new commitment to produce 110 million doses for the African Union as “barely worth the paper it is written on” after the company failed to deliver promised vaccines to COVAX, calling on the US government to step in and mandate the company to commit to technology transfer.

Rich nations today published a Climate Finance Delivery Plan claiming that it will take until 2023 to meet their commitment to mobilize $100 billion each year to support poorer nations to confront the climate crisis. In response, Jan Kowalzig, Senior Climate Policy Adviser at Oxfam said: “This plan claims that rich nations will meet their target three years late, but conveniently fails to mention the money that poorer countries are owed for every year they fell short."

Responding to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) updated NDC Synthesis Report, Oxfam France’s Advocacy Manager Armelle Le Comte said: “This confirms we are still dangerously off track from limiting global warming to the vital 1.5°C limit. The climate clock is ticking ever closer to midnight and COP26 now needs to be a planetary crisis meeting. Governments need to agree to revise their climate plans more regularly to get us back on track. Remedial action is desperately needed now —there is no later or better time."

Developing countries have been hit with an endless tide of inadequate gestures and broken promises from rich countries and pharmaceutical companies, who are failing to deliver billions of doses they promised while blocking the real solutions to vaccine inequality, according to a new report published today by the People’s Vaccine Alliance. 

Big food companies have hit a crossroads in their efforts to support a living income for millions of farmers in their global supply chains, and, in many ways, momentum could be slowing.

The International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) gave its approval today to set up a new IMF-administered Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) that will allow wealthy nations to channel some of their Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to more vulnerable countries. In response, Nadia Daar, Head of Oxfam International’s Washington DC Office, said: “While it is positive that the RST will be accessible to a wide range of countries, including vulnerable middle-income countries hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is vital that the IMF deliver these funds on terms that are as close to grants as possible."

West African governments are planning to “slash and burn” their way out of COVID-19 induced economic loss, reveals new analysis from Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI) today. The organizations are calling for an urgent change of course as West African governments are preparing their annual budgets and participating in the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF, which are crucial discussions to focus the recovery on fighting inequality and poverty.

In response to the OECD’s tax deal announced today, Oxfam’s Tax Policy Lead Susana Ruiz said: “Today's tax deal was meant to end tax havens for good. Instead it was written by them." 

On the eve of technical talks to thrash out the final details of the OECD tax deal ahead of the G20 Finance Ministers meeting next week, Oxfam is calling for world leaders to bring fairness and ambition back to the table and deliver a tax plan that won’t leave developing countries with next to nothing. 

Today, Tuesday 5 October, European economic and finance ministers met to approve an update to the EU’s list of tax havens. This comes in the midst of the unfolding Pandora papers scandal and global tax negotiations.