ICT in Programme Humanitarian Advisor, Anna Kondakhchyan reflects on an exciting new initiative designed to help practitioners navigate the ins and outs of electronic cash transfers. s Oxfam increasingly defaults to distributing cash, instead of items, in emergencies we’re seeing more opportunities to provide timely, inclusive, secure and reliable payments through the use of electronic transfers such as mobile money, …
Matthew Spencer vlogs on his recent trip to the DRC
Our Director of Campaigns, Policy and Influencing, reflects on how Oxfam is working with communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Cholera treatments and civil rights.
Congo is the ultimate test of whether we leave no one behind
Oxfam’s Director of Campaigns, Policy & Influencing, Matthew Spencer, reflects back on his recent visit to Democratic Republic of Congo. hen I was nineteen I spent three months in India and it changed my world view. Faced with the sprawling mass of urban life there was little room left for teenage egotism. No longer a (spotty) planet around which life …
The ladies’ room
Kerry Akers talks about the careful considerations and interdisciplinary collaboration needed to ensure that protection work is not based on harmful assumptions. umanitarian camps are dark at night. The curfew is sunset and the camp is heaving. Spilling out of their crowded tents onto the streets, people sit around dim cooking stoves talking and waving the mosquitoes away. The streets …
From the ground up: How Yemen’s women and girls survive
This blog introduces a study carried out by Oxfam, CARE and GenCap, to better understand how women, men, girls and boys survive in Yemen, a country torn apart by conflict. s Dubai and Saudi Arabia vie with each other to build the world’s tallest tower at an estimated cost of over $1 billion, Yemeni women and girls struggle to survive amidst …
Institutionalising gender in emergencies: Ethiopia gender analysis
Understanding needs and context is vital in an emergency response. A crucial, and often overlooked, factor in this is gender. Here, Steph Avis, introduces the first of a series of reports from the ECHO funded project ‘Institutionalising Gender in Emergencies’. n a humanitarian disaster the experiences of men, women, girls and boys can be very different. Access to basic goods and …
Lake Chad’s unseen crisis
Today Oxfam is launching Lake Chad’s Unseen Crisis, which tells the stories of people displaced by conflict in Niger and Nigeria. Oxfam’s Advocacy and Policy Lead in the Lake Chad Basin, Sultana Begum, shares with us what’s happening on the ground in the region. very year on 19th of August the world takes time out to recognize the work and …
Iraq must not be forgotten: The humanitarian crisis worsens
ON THE GROUND REFLECTION: As ISIS continues to have devastating effects on Iraq, the country is facing some of the most profound challenges it has seen in the last decade. Rachel Sider, Humanitarian Policy Advisor, comments on the need for governments to prioritize the area as they meet this week in the United States at a donor pledging conference. Having …
A letter from Yemen
ON THE GROUND REFLECTION: Mark Goldring, Oxfam GB’s Chief Executive, recently visited Yemen where chronic poverty is being aggravated by war. Ten million people have insufficient food and two million have been forced to flee their homes. In this post, originally a letter to Oxfam staff, Mark reflects on the suffering he witnessed and Oxfam’s humanitarian response. Many things surprised me …
What next for the pastoralists in Ethiopia’s drought?
ON THE GROUND REFLECTION: Pastoral nomads in Ethiopia have been heavily affected by a record-breaking drought. They have lost their flocks and their way of life and make up the majority of the 800,000 people classified as internally displaced (IDPs). What will they do next and how do we best support men, women, boys and girls in this disaster? Eliza …