Southern Africa

A new Oxfam report found extreme hunger has surged in eight of the world's worst water crises - all in Africa. 

This briefing paper examines the interconnected water and food crises in Eastern and Southern Africa, focusing on eight of the continent’s most water-insecure countries.

Oxfam warns that over six million people from farming families in Zambia are facing acute food shortages and malnutrition until next growing season, which is twelve months away, due to a severe drought, exacerbated by climate change and El Nino, which has caused massive crop failures for half of the nation’s “planted area”. 

Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe are facing an unprecedented surge of cholera cases, Oxfam warned today. The aid agency says the situation could become uncontrollable and difficult to manage due to a steady increase of COVID-19 cases and the onset of the rainy season, especially as the majority of vulnerable communities have no access to clean water and sanitation facilities - both of which are essential to prevent the spread of cholera. 
 

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the extreme inequality in Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries and pushed millions into poverty, reveals a new analysis from Oxfam, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and Development Finance International (DFI).

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the extreme inequality in Southern African Development Community countries, and pushed millions into poverty. Recovering from the pandemic, however, offers SADC governments a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do reduce inequality drastically and eliminate extreme poverty by 2030. 

Oxfam and its humanitarian partner organizations are providing humanitarian support including cash, food, clean water and sanitation to people recovering from multiple cyclones that have torn across Southern Africa in the past two weeks.

Hunger is escalating as the United Nation’s humanitarian response in Mozambique is less than half funded.

In most of sub-Saharan Africa, maize is a staple food crop. This paper explores some of the reasons why maize markets fail and argues that a major reason is because there is so little trust or cooperation between governments and private traders.

Aid donors and southern African governments must take immediate and substantial action to help poor people cope with a rapidly-deteriorating regional food crisis, fuelled by El Nino-related drought and crop failures.