Research-into-Use for climate change adaptation

Sue Moore Climate Change, Food & livelihoods, Food security

Sue Moore explains the use of Research-into-Use and explores what this means for researchers, practitioners and ultimately, those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. ‘We want water, not research!’ exclaimed a woman attending a stakeholder engagement workshop in Southern Afar, Ethiopia in February 2016. Why indeed focus on research, when the immediate needs of much of the population …

Shaking up the system: Improving the tea industry and workers lives in Malawi

Daniel Morchain Climate Change, Food & livelihoods

One year into Malawi 2020 Daniel Morchain looks how some of the stakeholders are working with the tea labourers central to the project to ensure that the tea industry in Malawi meets its responsibilities and leads the way in being socially responsible, just and fair. alawi’s economy runs on tobacco, tea, sugarcane and coffee. In the Southern districts of Mulanje …

Using micro-hydro power for irrigation and energy in Nepal

Oxfam Food & livelihoods, Innovation, Water

LEARNING: Could micro-hydro power bring sustainable energy to remote villages around the world? Public Health Engineer Anjil Adhikari explains how Oxfam has been involved in bringing electricity to a village in Nepal through a micro-hydro project. Until two months ago Jayathala village in Darchula District Nepal had no electricity. At night they burned Jharro (resin soaked pine wood) for light, …

Big food is improving but a transformation is needed

james Food & livelihoods, Food security

OPINION:  With the release of the latest Behind the Brands report, Erinch Sahan takes us through how the ‘Big 10’ food and beverage companies have progressed on their social and environmental policies and practices, whilst outlining the challenges ahead.  The captains of the food industry have come a long way over the last few years. The “Big 10”, the world’s 10 …

El Salvador: the struggle to survive El Niño

Elizabeth Stevens Climate Change, Disasters, Food & livelihoods, Food security, Humanitarian

The global El Niño weather phenomenon is being exacerbated by climate change. The UN’s humanitarian agency predicts that in 2016 over 60 million people around the world will be affected by El Niño with impacts including extreme patterns of rain, drought, and cyclones. Here Humanitarian Communications Officer Elizabeth Stevens reports on the difficulties small-scale farming communities Oxfam supports in El …

What we’ve learned about vulnerability assessments and how to do them

Daniel Morchain Climate Change, Food & livelihoods, Methodology

How can a development intervention achieve positive change for all, especially the poorest and most marginalised? Conducting a vulnerability risk assessment, using our new guide, would be a good start. Daniel Morchain, Global Adviser on Climate Change Adaptation, Resilience and Agriculture, explains. We all experience our own reality based on our individuality, our social capital, the context we live in …