The era of anti-rights: what can you do about it?

Kelly MundyActive citizenship, Gender, Rights

With movements to roll back gender rights on the rise around the world, Kelly Mundy and Rachel Noble explain why the fight to protect them is more important than ever and set out three things we can do to support them.

From Personal to Powerful: in the face of growing attacks on rights, states must hold the line for gender justice  

Lata NarayanaswamyGender, In the news, Rights

Three decades after the landmark Beijing declaration to advance women’s rights, right-wing, religious, and conservative actors are reversing and obstructing hard-won progress. This International Women’s Day, our new Oxfam campaign calls on governments across the globe to reassert their commitment to gender justice, bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights, say Lata Narayanaswamy and Amina Hersi.

‘It feels like a more innocent time for Oxfam and for our belief in progress’: looking back on Make Poverty History 

Dominic VickersAid, Debt, Influencing

Twenty years after he watched Nelson Mandela’s rousing launch speech in Trafalgar Square, Dominic Vickers reflects on the impact of the landmark Make Poverty History campaign for trade justice, debt relief and better aid – and wonders if a new generation can take up the cause again. 

Will growth be enough to end poverty by 2030? It really doesn’t look like it…

Arief Anshory YusufEconomics, Inequality, Research

Our sobering analysis shows the world looks set to miss the UN’s flagship development goals for 2030 by a wide margin. That means millions of lives blighted unnecessarily by sickness, poverty, and death unless we see radical policy changes, say Arief Anshory Yusuf, Zuzy Anna, Ahmad Komarulzaman and Andy Sumner.

After half a century of misguided policies, here’s how the World Bank and IMF can work for the poor…

Anthony KamandeDebt, Economics, Events

It’s time both the World Bank and IMF abandoned the short-term fixes and austerity that have repeatedly failed people in developing countries, says Anthony Kamande. With their joint annual meetings back on African soil for the first time in five decades, he sets out six ways both institutions can make real and lasting change: from debt restructuring to encouraging social spending and taxes on the wealthiest.

Five things we need for a feminist economic future

Rachel NobleEconomics, Events, Gender

Why is debt a feminist issue? And why is it time to advance alternatives to GDP? Rachel Noble reports back from an inspiring gathering of the International Association for Feminist Economics in Cape Town.

We need to talk about inequality in West Africa

Mohamadou Fadel DiopEconomics, Events, Inequality

As the African Union and regional economic communities gather to discuss their economies, the gulf between the rich and the rest in West Africa needs to be top of the agenda, says Mohamadou Fadel Diop – and that conversation must give serious attention to inequality-busting policies such as reversing austerity and debt cancellation.

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

Debt: a noose around Somalia’s future

Dustin BarterAid, Conflict, Debt, Food security, In the news, Livelihoods

Full debt cancellation is the only way forward for Somalia, write Dustin Barter, Oxfam’s Senior Campaigns and Policy Manager in Somalia, and Mohamed A. Ahmed, Independent Debt Specialist. As the African Union Summit kicks off in Addis Adaba this week, Somalia remains swamped in debt, struggling to kick-start a more positive trajectory. Debt relief, a once hot topic (thanks Bono!), …