Policy Papers

The coronavirus pandemic is leaving a trail of devastation in low-income countries. This briefing aims to shine a light on the debt owed to private creditors by five African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia. It outlines the steps which the G20 needs to take immediately to avert further economic chaos. 

In July 2020 Oxfam warned that by the end of this year more people could die from hunger related to the COVID-19 pandemic than from the disease itself. But the response of the  international community to global food insecurity has been dangerously inadequate.

The coronavirus pandemic has swept across a world unprepared to fight it. Only one in six countries assessed for the CRI Index 2020 were spending enough on health, and in more than 100 countries at least one in three workers had no labour protection such as sick pay.

This research assesses the extent to which countries have advanced their commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals to ensure secure land rights for all. While some countries have allocated resources and strengthened land rights in an inclusive manner, most countries are yet to prioritize land rights in their national development agendas.

This briefing describes new research that shows how extreme carbon inequality in recent decades has brought the world to the climate brink. It sets out how governments must use this historic juncture to build fairer economies within the limits our planet can bear. 

The twentieth anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) is in October 2020. It is a landmark resolution on women’s role in peacebuilding, but progress on women’s rights and leadership in peace and security decision making continues to fall short.

This paper contains reflections from members of Oxfam’s gender justice community and draws on feminist thinking in order to develop a vision for a caring future, what it might look like and how we might achieve it.

Since the onset of the pandemic, large corporations have put profits before workers’ safety, pushed costs down the supply chain and used their political influence to shape policy responses. COVID-19 should be the catalyst for radically reining in corporate power, restructuring business models and creating an economy for all.

Even before the coronavirus crisis struck, people in the Middle East and North Africa were protesting against the injustice and inequality wrought by a decade of austerity. The pandemic and the lockdown measures taken by governments have paralysed economies and threaten to tip millions of people into poverty. This paper argues that if another decade of pain is to be averted, governments need to take immediate action to reduce inequality.

While the whole world attempts to save itself from the pandemic, the indigenous peoples of Latin America are dying. Abandoned by the state and with no adequate comprehensive healthcare services or clean water, they are extremely vulnerable to the virus that is fast expanding throughout the continent.