Four ways to boost investment in women-led small businesses

Windy Massabni Private sector, Refugees and IDPs, Women's Economic Empowerment

Oxfam’s conversations and projects with entrepreneurs across the globe reveal a big gender gap in access to finance, says Windy Massabni. Women in business tell us that better support for them will include loan guarantees, alternative credit scoring systems and building the gender awareness of lenders.

The men are gone – but the patriarchy remains: the struggles of women left behind in Syria’s ‘no-man land’

Dania Kareh Fragile contexts, Gender, Women's Economic Empowerment

Years of conflict have led to thousands of men dying or being pushed away. Now, says Dania Kareh, the women who remain face a huge challenge as stubborn social, economic and educational barriers frustrate their efforts to build decent lives for their families.

My experience in Yemen shows progress is possible on water, sanitation and livelihoods – but all of this could be undone if violence returns

Fayad Al-Derwish Conflict, Fragile contexts, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Nine years since the conflict in Yemen began, Oxfam Water and Sanitation Lead Fayad Al-Derwish reflects on positive changes he has seen in his two years in the job, calls for urgent action to meet the needs of displaced people returning to devastated homes, and shares his worries for the future if conflict re-ignites.

Hope In The Shadows: A Call For Transformation

Aleema Shivji Economics, Inequality, Tax

Extreme levels of inequality cast shadows over the lives of billions of the world’s poorest people. We must see the faces behind the statistics, says Oxfam GB’s Chief Impact Officer Aleema Shivji, and sound the alarm for change: to empower workers, break up monopolies and tax the ultra-rich. These are not mere “policy recommendations” – they are pathways to change for the lives of countless individuals.

Water that works: how an alternative management model for rural water supply is proving its worth in Nepal

Anjil Adhikari Governance, Innovation, Water

Traditional models of managing drinking water have delivered progress – but where these are failing, we now need to look at alternatives, says Oxfam’s Anjil Adhikari. In a blog for World Water Day, he shares a new model that could deliver a significant boost to water system performance and governance in rural Nepal and beyond.

Spare us the token gestures: International Women’s Day must be a call to action for economic justice

Dana Abed Economics, Influencing, Women's Economic Empowerment

Globally, men own $105 trillion more wealth than women. So today of all days we need to talk about how our global economic system just isn’t working for women, says Dana Abed, as Oxfam launches its #HerMoneyMatters campaign.

How the pregnancy penalty supercharges global inequality

Anthony Kamande Gender, Rights, Women's Economic Empowerment

In a blog for International Women’s Day, new parent Anthony Kamande reflects on the heavy cost his partner and family have paid for the simple act of having a baby. The world, and especially its poorer countries, needs a pregnancy rights revolution, he says, and international funders such as the IMF must play their part.

Lisa Nandy on the UK’s future development policy under Labour

Duncan Green Events, In the news, Influencing

‘People know better than we do’, the opposition party’s shadow minister for international development tells the Overseas Development Institute. Duncan Green on what he thinks her first major speech in post potentially means for UK policy and for the “development cluster” of academics, think-tanks and NGOs.

Why we must never repeat the mistakes of a ‘gender-blind’ COVID response

Harry Bignell Gender, Health, Inequality

Pandemics are bad for women’s health – but they are also bad for their labour rights, suggests research from Matahari Global Solutions and the People’s Vaccine Alliance. Harry Bignell and Abha Jeurkar set out key gendered impacts of the pandemic – including the impact on trans and non-binary people – and call for pressure on global leaders to make sure we avoid them in future.

When the farm is gone – but the loan remains: how can we build climate-resilient microfinance?

Rita Abiodun Agriculture, Climate Change, Innovation

When floods destroyed one Pakistani farmer’s crops and income, they also destroyed her ability to get and repay the credit on which she, like millions of smallholders, depends. Rita Abiodun looks at a programme that offers much more protection from climate shocks to microfinance users.