While the landmark Beijing declaration 30 years ago on women’s rights mentioned land rights 30 times, this year’s UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) declaration fails to mention them at all. Naomi Shadrack explains why we need to put land firmly back on the global feminist agenda.
When the farm is gone – but the loan remains: how can we build climate-resilient microfinance?
When floods destroyed one Pakistani farmer’s crops and income, they also destroyed her ability to get and repay the credit on which she, like millions of smallholders, depends. Rita Abiodun looks at a programme that offers much more protection from climate shocks to microfinance users.
Supermarkets are assessing human rights abuses in their supply chains – here’s what they need to do better
Eline Achterberg introduces a new Oxfam briefing that supports supermarkets to improve their “human rights impact assessments” in food supply chains – and, crucially, to take action to make real change to workers’ lives.
How can programmes to change farming markets be led by national NGOs?
Ashley Aarons sets out how international organisations can enable national NGOs to take the lead on efforts to change the lives of smaller farmers, including changing contracts, training and supporting coalitions.
It’s time to tackle the power imbalance between farmers and agribusiness buyers
System change programmes have had significant impacts on farmers and workers around the world. However, says Ashley Aarons, they have tended to ignore the existence and harm of power imbalances. Drawing on Oxfam´s work in Southeast Asia, he suggests new tactics and examples of how to address such imbalances.
How can firms measure progress to gender equality in their supply chains?
Jiselle Steele of the Oxfam Business Advisory Service introduces the “Gender Transformative Tracker”, piloted by Oxfam and stakeholders in the seafood industry in south-east Asia – and draws out four key insights from the pilot for boosting gender equality. Read her blog below and join the OBAS webinar on 18th July to find out more.
Africa is so rich in farmland – so why is it still hungry?
Farmers who can’t afford fertiliser or pesticides will never feed themselves – or our continent, say Anthony Kamande and Dailes Judge. That means, alongside action on climate change, conflict and market reforms, leaders and policymakers at this week’s African Union meeting must address massive under-investment in agriculture
3 steps to linking farmer livelihoods with business benefits
Often, livelihoods projects in smallholder-based supply chains – such as tea or cocoa – aim to create solutions that benefit all links in the chain: by addressing a challenge in the supply chain (e.g. crop productivity or quality) the projects aim to improve conditions for smallholder farmers (e.g. increased income) as well as for the buyers and commercial partners (e.g. improved quality or security of supply). But demonstrating this ‘win-win’ can be challenging as monitoring and evaluation systems need to be designed in a way that captures the benefits …
A no ‘tick-box’ approach to gender and resilience
A key question for Oxfam and the development sector is how to address the different challenges faced by people living in poverty in a holistic fashion. However, our partners are often already successfully addressing multiple issues at once as Caroline Ashley saw in Bangladesh. I’ve seen gender treated as a ‘tick-box’ exercise – yes women participated. The same goes for …