COVID-19

Responding to the IMF Board of Governors’ approval of a Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation of $650 billion, Nadia Daar, Head of Oxfam International’s Washington DC Office, said: “New SDRs will bring much-needed liquidity to struggling developing countries without adding to their unsustainable debt burdens. Now that this historic SDR issuance has been approved, governments must work transparently and together with civil society to ensure these resources are used to rescue collapsing health services and bolster social protection, and to deliver a fair and climate just recovery.
 

The cost of vaccinating the world against COVID-19 could be at least five times cheaper if pharmaceutical companies weren’t profiteering from their monopolies on COVID-19 vaccines, campaigners from the People’s Vaccine Alliance said today.

In response to Jeff Bezos’ space flight scheduled for Tuesday, Deepak Xavier, Oxfam International's Global Head of Inequality Campaign, said: "We’ve now reached stratospheric inequality. Billionaires burning into space, away from a world of pandemic, climate change and starvation. 11 people are likely now dying of hunger each minute while Bezos prepares for an 11-minute personal space flight. This is human folly, not human achievement."

The Covid-19 vaccines are owned by big pharmaceutical corporations who are refusing to share the science and tech that could speed up affordable mass production and distribution for the entire planet. Join people from around the world to call for a #PeoplesVaccine, available to all, everywhere, free of charge.

Grassroots organisations at the forefront of the fight for gender justice have consistently been the most heavily hit by funding cuts during the pandemic, despite increasing donor commitments toward gender equality. This comes at a time when gender rights issues including violence against women and girls, are increasingly being reported as emerging concerns due to the pandemic. 

Responding to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva’s statement that the IMF Executive Board has approved her proposal for a $650 billion Special Drawing Rights (SDR), Nadia Daar, Head of Oxfam International’s Washington DC Office, said: “We commend this decision by the IMF’s Executive Directors and urge swift approval by the Board of Governors. This debt-free financing is urgently needed by struggling economies still in the eye of the COVID-19 storm, and with a long road ahead.”

A new Oxfam report today says that as many as 11 people are likely dying of hunger and malnutrition each minute. This is more than the current global death rate of COVID-19, which is around seven people per minute. The report, ‘says that conflict remains the primary cause of hunger since the pandemic, pushing over half a million people into famine-like conditions ―a six-fold increase since 2020.

A year and a half since the Covid-19 pandemic began, deaths from hunger are outpacing the virus. The worst is still yet to come unless governments urgently tackle food insecurity and its root causes head on. We need action to create fairer, more resilient and sustainable ways of feeding the world.

Responding to the news that the number of global deaths from COVID-19 has now passed 4 million, Anna Marriott, Oxfam’s health Policy Manager and spokesperson for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said: “This is a horrific milestone and each one of these lives lost is a tragedy. Many of these deaths could have been prevented had the successful vaccine science been shared and production of doses ramped up by more manufacturers across the world."

In advance of the UNSC Briefing on the crisis in Tigray, Oxfam in Ethiopia’s Country Director Gezahegn Kebede Gebrehana, said: “Days after the unilateral ceasefire was announced and as communities and global leaders grapple with the new context, millions of people across Tigray and surrounding areas remain in crisis. Even with the ceasefire, many vulnerable people are left without protection and resources, and need is only expected to grow."