As we publish a new research report, Protection and Governance: Linking good practice in protection and governance programmes in the DRC, Annabel Morrissey reflects on what Oxfam has learnt about the cross over between governance and protection and how this learning is being used. hen, for the first time ever in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), people refused to …
Looking back on community based protection in the DRC: Oxfam’s legacy
Five years after Oxfam’s funding and support for community protection work in one part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had stopped, we wanted to find out if the work was still having an impact, and if so, how. Helen Lindley-Jones (former Oxfam National Protection Coordinator in the DRC) summarises Oxfam’s learning published in the evaluation report If we …
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 …
Reviewing humanitarian evidence
The Humanitarian Evidence Programme is delighted to announce the launch of its series of eight systematic reviews. Over the last few years we’ve been working with teams of researchers, practitioners and consultants from academic institutions and NGOs to map out the existing evidence critically appraise it and synthesise the results in response to key questions in eight practice areas. Each …
Who needs religious literacy? In a disaster, maybe we all do
Tara Gingerich reflects on her recent work researching religious literacy; what she realised about her own point of view and why we need to engage with religion. I remember when I first started to talk with Oxfam colleagues about the new research project I would be leading, together with the Harvard Divinity School. It was on how Oxfam and other …
Revisiting Yemen in the midst of conflict
The people of Yemen are experiencing one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises. The conflict between a Saudi-led coalition of Gulf countries and the Government of Yemen against the Ansar-Allah movement (also known as the Houthis), escalated in March 2015. Two years on, Jonathon Puddifoot reflects on a recent visit to the country he knows so well. Its 30 years …
The day after ISIS in Iraq
Maya Mailer, Head of Humanitarian Policy & Campaigns, argues that the challenges facing Iraq go beyond Isis’ presence and that we must plan beyond short-term militarism to create a new, peaceful environment. “Isis is like a mushroom. It was able to grow here, in Iraq, because there is a fertile environment. It didn’t just come from nowhere.” That is what …