Policy Papers

Women’s economic empowerment could reduce poverty for everyone. In order to achieve it, we need to first fix the current broken economic model which is undermining gender equality and causing extreme economic inequality.

The gap between the richest and the rest in Indonesia has grown faster in the past two decades than in any other country in South-East Asia. This report shows how President Jokowi could fight inequality by enforcing a living wage for all workers, increasing spending on public services, and making big corporations and rich individuals pay their fair share of tax.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development gives business a significant role to play in efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, based on its ability to invest and innovate. This paper explores ways in which companies can provide more meaningful contributions to governments’ commitments to reach the SDGs.

Aid donors increasingly seek to inject private-sector resources into development by ‘blending’ official development assistance (ODA) with private finance. There is little evidence of the development impact, and projects often do not align with country ownership, transparency and accountability.

‘Blending’ combines official development assistance with other private or public resources, in order to ‘leverage’ additional funds from other actors. This report aims to clarify what it is, how it works and how it is used, to foster greater understanding of this increasingly prominent development finance mechanism.

As part of its emergency response in Diffa, Oxfam in Niger undertook a modified Emergency Market Mapping Analysis in November 2016. The broad aim was to understand the effect of the Boko Haram conflict and the military operations to counter them on the critical livelihood activities of conflict-affected people.

After years of international isolation, Myanmar is liberalizing its economy and seeking to attract foreign investment. This paper outlines potential risks to communities posed by these investments, and explores state regulation as a way to promote responsible business practices in the sector.

Conflict in Yemen has left thousands dead, millions homeless or hungry, and an economy in ruins. But hopes for peace talks are fading and a new approach is needed. Women and girls are particularly affected by the conflict and have a crucial role to play in building peace at the local level.

This report draws on evidence from the South-East Asia region to explore the impacts of special economic zones (SEZs). It shows that without transparency and accountable governance, SEZs are more likely to result in harmful environmental and social impacts.

On 4 February 2016, the international community agreed on a ‘comprehensive new approach’ to address the Syria crisis at the London Conference. Nearly one year on, this report sets out what needs to be done to ensure that people’s lives are positively and measurably impacted by the funding disbursed so far.