How ‘cash-for-work’ projects help vulnerable groups in Lebanon – and what they need to do better

Léa Moubayed-Haidar Cash transfers, Humanitarian, Research

Offering temporary jobs on donor-funded and public projects can boost community incomes, as well as women’s economic empowerment and local quality of life. However, our new paper also finds such schemes need to do more to improve long-term economic inclusion and social impact, say Léa Moubayed-Haidar and Christina Elias of the EU-funded Economic Development Policy Unit (EDPU), hosted at Oxfam Lebanon

Cambodia’s women garment workers have been promised a decent life: now we must support them to claim their rights

Sopharith Sin Private sector, Rights, Women's Economic Empowerment

The government is now offering maternity leave, a pension fund and other social benefits that could give women stability and security. Sopharith Sin and Roland Chauville explain how a new project will support them to get a better deal

Boosting decent employment for Africa’s youth

Marieke Meeske Youth employment

by Marieke Meeske and Saskia van Veen Youth in Africa face a myriad of constraints that affect their access to and success in the labour market. The current COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionally affects young people, puts further pressure on the job market. Youth employment policies and programmes try to tackle these constraints, e.g. by providing training and skills development to youth (supply side) or development of small and …

Ten lessons on entrepreneurship and job creation in the MENA region

Shekhar Anand Inequality, Women's Economic Empowerment, Youth employment

Job creation in the MENA Region, the context and challenges   The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region face unemployment as a common challenge. The youth population is growing but the jobs are not being created at the same pace. Economic growth rates have declined, leading to a lack of employment opportunities sought by a rapidly expanding labour force. Globally, the …

The gap widens between the UKs national living wage and the real living wage

Amy Hill Inequality, Living wage

It is ever more clear that employment is not an automatic route out of poverty in the UK. In this blog, Amy Hill outlines the difference between the national living wage and the real living wage and explains how Oxfam GB is committed to ‘decent’ work for a decent standard of living.  igher minimum rates of pay were recently announced …

‘Domestic work cannot be the only destiny’: Interview with FENATRAD

Amy Moran Gender, Women's Economic Empowerment

At the recent AWID Forum in Brazil, Oxfam talked to Creuza Oliveira, President of the National Federation of Domestic Workers (FENATRAD) of Brazil. Below she comments on the importance of the Forum, the advances made for Brazilian workers and the impact of inequality.  ccording to Oxfam report Privileges that Deny Rights, Latin America´s women have an employment rate that is …

Womens rights in Mexico: Interview with ProDESC and ACASAC

Amy Moran Gender

Recently at the AWID Forum 2016 we interviewed two of Oxfam Mexico’s partners to talk about the challenges and opportunities they face as women’s rights organisations in the country. We spoke to Norma Cacho from Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales, A.C. (ProDESC) and Teresa Olvera from Asesoría, Capacitación y Asistencia en Salud, A.C. (ACASAC). Oxfam: Tell us about your organisation …

Decent work for low paid workers: a job to be done

Francis Stuart Inequality, Living wage

As ‘Decent work for all’ is one of the SDGs, understanding what decent work means in context is important. Here, Francis Stuart talks about the new publication ‘Decent work for Scotland’s low paid workers: a job to be done’, what people say and how perception of decent work differs from Scotland today.  he promotion of ‘decent work for all’ is …