Press releases

As President Barrack Obama prepares for a much-anticipated meeting with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai next week in Washington, DC, aid agency Oxfam International urges the two leaders to prioritize the safety of millions of Afghan civilians who continue to be caught in the conflict.

Oxfam called for additional funding for the 2008 Cyclone Nargis survivors in Myanmar today, saying the upcoming monsoon season is posing a serious threat to their recovery with shelter still a pressing need and agriculture at risk.

The United Nations’ Adaptation Fund has announced today that Spain is offering €45 million ($60 million) for short-term climate change adaptation needs in developing countries.

In a major new report, Oxfam calls for aid to be increased, better targeted, made more predictable and governed more accountably.

Small-scale farmers and pastoralists in Ethiopia are likely to bear the brunt of the negative impacts of climate change in the region, which will include increasing poverty, water scarcity, and food insecurity, according to a new Oxfam report.

Contrary to the positive picture painted by the International Monetary Fund in its 2010 World Economic Outlook, poor countries are being forced to cut back on their economic crisis-response spending too soon.

Oxfam welcomes the action plan put forward today by the European Commission for the EU to catch up on its commitments towards the Millennium Development Goals. Member states must give their go-ahead at the EU summit in June.

More than 1.3 million people are displaced, dependant on emergency relief to survive. But dwindling contributions from the international community are forcing humanitarian organizations to close programs.

Poor countries are being forced to cut back on their economic crisis-response spending too soon. Education and social protection budgets are particularly badly affected. Oxfam is calling on the IMF to take steps to reverse this trend.

The World Development Indicators report released today by the World Bank shows that sub-Saharan Africa is off-target, overall, on all Millennium Development Goals. It lays bare the human cost of rich countries' failure to deliver on their aid promises.