Austerity is not the answer to Africa’s colliding crises: it’s time to invest massively in public services and decent jobs

Anthony KamandeDebt, Inequality, Research

Our continent faces droughts and spiking prices that are pushing millions into hunger and poverty, a debt crisis and the ongoing pandemic. So why are countries cutting billions in spending? Anthony Kamande introduces a new Oxfam Pan Africa briefing based on our index that scores governments on how committed they are to cutting inequality

The messy realities of governance in conflict-affected areas: six dilemmas for development practice

Katrina BarnesConflict, Governance, Research

Development projects too often assume there is a simple structure of local governance. But innovative research based on people in Mozambique, Myanmar, and Pakistan writing diaries reveals how in fact their lives are governed by many competing informal and formal actors. Katrina Barnes of Oxfam and Colin Anderson of the Institute of Development Studies on key dilemmas this complexity raises for practitioners

A race to the top: how we pushed supermarkets to take human rights seriously

Radhika SarinInfluencing, Living wage, Private sector

From new gender policies to commitments on living wages, we’ve come a long way since Oxfam published its first supermarkets scorecard in 2018, when retailers lacked the understanding and appetite to do human rights due diligence, says Radhika Sarin. What does the 2022 scorecard reveal – and what more must be done?

I’m proud to be a Yemeni tackling our water crisis – but we need the world to do much more, especially for women

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

Over seven years of conflict, Yemen’s water and sanitation infrastructure has been destroyed. Oxfam’s Fayad Al-Derwish sets out the impact on women and girls – and what he and his team are doing to help rebuild

‘What is tea without water?’ How a tea firm came to invest in clean water in Niger

Katie EdmondsonPrivate sector, Water, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

On World Water Day, Oxfam’s Private Sector Partnership Manager Katie Edmondson looks back at a decade of partnership with Ahmad Tea, which has supported Oxfam to supply clean water to thousands of people and is training community members to manage new systems in one of the world’s most water-insecure countries.

Want to support women in enterprises in low-income countries? Here’s what Oxfam knows after many years of working with small businesses

Anoushka BoodhnaGender, Private sector, Women's Economic Empowerment

In our final blog around International Women’s Day, Anoushka Boodhna, Tamara Beradze and Anais Mangin set out seven things Oxfam has learned about supporting women in new and growing businesses in some of the poorest countries – and what we need to do differently

Informal work traps millions of women in poverty: let’s back the labour movements that can fight for decent jobs

Leena PatelGender, Private sector, Women's Economic Empowerment

Low pay, long hours, no sick or maternity pay, unsafe workplaces… That’s the reality for hundreds of millions of women, mostly in the global south – which is why informal workers are going to be at the heart of Oxfam’s drive to value women’s work, says Leena Patel in the third blog in our series around International Women’s Day

Is your business serious about gender justice? Here’s what you need to do 

Jiselle SteeleGender, Private sector, Women's Economic Empowerment

In the second blog in our series to mark International Women’s Day, Jiselle Steele of the Oxfam Business Advisory Service shares five tips for firms that want to make a real difference when it comes to gender inequality and gender justice in supply chains