From helping small business owners get back on their feet, to securing water supplies, to building climate resilience, Fayad Al-Derwish explains how Oxfam in Yemen is supporting conflict-affected families through difficult times, in a blog for World Humanitarian Day
How ‘cash-for-work’ projects help vulnerable groups in Lebanon – and what they need to do better
Offering temporary jobs on donor-funded and public projects can boost community incomes, as well as women’s economic empowerment and local quality of life. However, our new paper also finds such schemes need to do more to improve long-term economic inclusion and social impact, say Léa Moubayed-Haidar and Christina Elias of the EU-funded Economic Development Policy Unit (EDPU), hosted at Oxfam Lebanon
Betting on blockchain to deliver cash in the Pacific
Sandra Uwantege Hart, Pacific Cash & Livelihoods Lead, describes how Oxfam successfully used blockchain technology to make cash accessible to communities and small businesses in Vanuatu – one of the world’s most remote and hazard-prone locations. We are told that blockchain technology will change the world – harnessing a decentralised, distributed ledger, removing expensive middlemen and resolving core issues of …
Cash on the move: Supporting Venezuelan migrants in Colombia
An unfolding crisis in Colombia As you walk across the Simon Bolivar bridge from Venezuela to Colombia’s Norte De Santander region it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the sheer mass of humanity jostling to enter. They are all fleeing the spiralling socio-economic crisis in Venezuela which until now has caused over 4 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants worldwide. Around …
Constant crisis: The new normal for market analysis?
Climate change and ongoing conflicts have made Pre-Crisis Market Analysis (PCMA) an essential feature of Oxfam’s humanitarian work. Corrie Sissons and Daniel Pasquini share how PCMA exercises have helped Oxfam to respond effectively in two very different contexts. One approach Oxfam frequently uses is mapping, analysing and understanding markets in emergencies. Our experience working in humanitarian relief and development has …
What I learned at CaLP’s Cash and Gender Event
Steph Roberson reflects back on CaLP’s recent cash week in London, and particularly on their gender and cash event. I recently attended CaLP’s Gender and Cash event in London. And it turns out there is quite a lot we don’t know about gender and cash transfer programming. CaLP have collected a range of technical papers on gender and cash, and …
Podcast: Are cash transfers the answer to humanitarian aid?
[buzzsprout episode=’2559259′ player=’true’] In this podcast we speak with Alex Jacobs, Director of the Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP), on the challenges and opportunities around cash transfers in humanitarian response. Alex answers questions such as: How do they work? What are the benefits? When are they not appropriate to use? And how do NGOs need to adapt?
New standards for humanitarian programmes and markets
The new Minimum Economic Recovery Standards will support quality market-based programming, and effective working between humanitarian and development practitioners explains Jonathan Parkinson, Oxfam’s Senior WASH Programme Development Adviser. During and after emergencies, both in acute and protracted or reoccurring crises, there is a strong argument for helping affected communities by working with existing market supply chains to provide essential goods …
Bringing a market-based approach to humanitarian response design
Oxfam has been working with the BEAM Exchange to find out how market-based programming can be applied to WASH based programmes. Katie Whitehouse shares how it works. There is a movement catalysing within the humanitarian community calling for increased consideration of local market systems when preparing for, responding to and recovering from emergencies. The movement is towards market-based programming. The …
Smarter aid: Why digital cash transfers are the future
With mobile internet now widely available across East Africa the arguments for aid through electronic cash transfers are overwhelming. Nigel Tricks, Oxfam’s Horn East and Central Africa Regional Director reflects on a recent visit to drought affected Somaliland. Two weeks ago, I visited Oxfam’s drought response in eastern Somaliland. We drove across a stark landscape; what should be a pastoralist …