How can we persuade firms to improve employees’ lives? Here’s what I’ve learned during a decade in workers’ rights…

Rachel WilshawLiving wage, Private sector, Rights

Oxfam’s workers’ rights expert Rachel Wilshaw shares six insights from her experiences of working with companies to drive progress on decent wages and conditions.

Governments know shockingly little about the millions of informal and unpaid women workers – and, in a world that undervalues their labour, that’s no accident

Alex BushGender, Research, Women's Economic Empowerment

Millions of unpaid care and informal workers too often live in poverty, face long hours with harsh conditions, and see their efforts dismissed as “not real work”. On International Workers’ Day, Alex Bush calls for those in power to find out much more about these women as a crucial first step to valuing their work.

Human rights defenders in the crosshairs

Caroline BrodeurInfluencing, Private sector, Rights

Activists are losing their lives in defence of human rights and the environment. Caroline Brodeur introduces a new Oxfam briefing that spells out how the private sector can and must become part of the solution.

Compliance for INGO partners is riddled with colonial attitudes: here’s how that can change…

Dominic VickersGovernance, Innovation, Power Shifts

As international NGOs, we need to stop assuming partners are risky, respect local standards, accept we should prove ourselves as much as partners do, and slash the form-filling, says Oxfam compliance advisor Dominic Vickers. In fact, how about encouraging partners to apply for funds by video?

‘They offered me nothing for what they had destroyed’: how the scramble for clean-energy minerals is hurting African communities

Dailes JudgeClimate Change, Indigenous People, Natural Resources

Today’s mining boom may not be driven by the overt colonialist motives of the past – but the parallels are there, say Dailes Judge and Veronica Zano of Oxfam in Africa.

‘The hunger crisis in Kenya is an inequality crisis’: Oxfam Kenya’s John Kitui on the messages that need to be heard in Brussels

Shuna KeenDrought, Food security, Influencing

Shuna Keen talks to our Kenya director about his reflections on November’s AidEx humanitarian conference in the city at the heart of the EU, including how food sovereignty is being undermined by the corporations that produce genetically-modified food and seeds. He also welcomes the recent big step forward by the EU’s department for humanitarian aid, DG ECHO, on promoting local humanitarian leadership.

How clean water can flow from peace in Yemen

Fayad Al-DerwishConflict, Water, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Last year’s truce in Yemen opened a window for Oxfam to establish a water supply to thousands in a conflict-hit border area. Now, says Fayad Al-Derwish, we desperately need that truce renewed to change the lives of many more people living without basic services