Policy Papers

In most countries, land inequality is growing. Worse, new measures and analysis published in this synthesis report show that land inequality is significantly higher than previously reported. This trend directly threatens the livelihoods of an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide involved in smallholder agriculture.

Pre-pandemic, EU policies towards North Africa focused on two main paradigms: trade liberalization and the minimization of both regular and irregular migration. These agendas were incoherent and had overwhelmingly negative implications for the livelihoods and employment opportunities within the EU for the most vulnerable people in the Maghreb.

This paper looks at donor contributions to the 2020 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan to date. Using a methodology based on the relative global share of Gross National Income for high-income countries, it examines whether these countries are doing their ‘fair share’ in funding the response to the crisis in Yemen.

This year marks an historic chapter in the story of international aid. On 24 October 2020, it will be 50 years since high-income countries committed to spending 0.7% of their gross national income on aid to low- and middle-income countries. This paper examines how aid has helped to improve the wellbeing of people in low- and middle-income countries.

For too long the EU’s migration policies have ignored the priorities of the countries it partners with for the sake of its own border security and domestic priorities. These have permeated the domestic migration and asylum policies of the Maghreb countries it supports, at the cost of people’s interests.

Over a decade ago, developed countries committed to mobilize $100bn per year by 2020 to support developing countries to adapt and reduce their emissions. The goal is a critical part of the Paris Agreement. As 2020 draws to a close, Oxfam’s Climate Finance Shadow Report 2020 offers an assessment of progress towards this goal.

Lebanon is extremely unequal and has been rocked by massive protests in recent months. The country is facing a financial crisis and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about a potential bailout programme.

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.