The current crisis comes on top of a long-standing struggle for water in Gaza – and demonstrates again how access to clean water is often one of the first casualties of conflict. Bushra Khalidi and Awssan Kamal set out six ways the destruction and obstruction of water supplies is having devastating short- and long-term impacts on civilians.
The rush for clean-energy minerals risks fuelling conflict in the Sahel – and that has to be on the climate agenda
Mohamadou Fadel Diop on why climate negotiations such as the upcoming COP28 must pay attention to how the energy transition may drive further conflict and instability in West and Central Africa.
The messy realities of governance in conflict-affected areas: six dilemmas for development practice
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
In Mozambique, we’re targeting the economic roots of gender-based violence
In this blog for the 16 Days campaign, community activists Olga Loforte and Gilda Mendonça and Oxfam’s Helena Chiquele tell us about their efforts to empower displaced women by addressing barriers to schemes to support farmers
The UK is fuelling the war in Yemen, this can’t go on
In July, the UK Government announced the resumption of new arms licences to Saudi Arabia for weapons to be used in the Yemen war. This is despite Oxfam colleagues in Yemen reporting an increasing number of civilians, including women and children, being killed in the conflict. We are asking the British public to call on the UK government to respect the International Humanitarian Law …
What does the UN Security Council Resolution on COVID-19 mean?
On July 1st, the UN Security Council (UNSC) unanimously backed U.N. chief Antonio Guterres’ March 23rd call for a global ceasefire amid the coronavirus pandemic. Resolution 2532 (2020) was finally adopted after more than three months of deadlock. Oxfam and our partners have campaigned for this resolution as a first step towards silencing the guns. The resolution drafted by France …
Civilians are not a target
For World Humanitarian Day Rachel Hastie, Oxfam’s Global Protection Adviser, reflects on our common humanity and what it means. Some years back I was walking my children to school before catching a flight to Darfur. I was going to meet people – ordinary civilians – who had fled attacks on their villages and were still facing dangers and a very uncertain …
Women and transformative leadership
Verónica Rodríguez Jorge introduces us to Serapaz peace school in Chiapas, Mexico, and explains why women’s participation in conflict transformation is so vital. Las Cruces in Nayarit, Xochicuautla, Coyotepec San Felipe Magú in Mexico State, and Comcac in Sonora are just a few among the many communities in Mexico that are seeking to defend their land and rights through a …
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 …