How should governments support people hit by climate damage? Five practical lessons from Kenya…

Chiara LiguoriClimate Change, Innovation, Research

As the world looks to next week’s COP29 to deliver on promised Loss and Damage funding, Chiara Liguori shares insights from a pioneering Scotland-funded project that repaired damaged water systems, provided cash to impacted communities and supported peacebuilding.

How can African women and girls make their voices heard in climate action?

Ilse KithembeClimate Change, Gender, Research

Women across the continent, especially in rural and coastal areas, are paying a heavy price for the climate emergency, so why are they so often missing from key areas of influence such as climate research and national environment ministries? Ilse Kithembe sets out five ways to tackle Africa’s environmental gender gap, as Oxfam in Senegal launches a new paper on boosting the role of communities in climate action.

Don’t see the value of care, carers and informal workers? We have some messages that might just change your mind…

Sanika SawantInfluencing, Research, Women's Economic Empowerment

Tired old narratives such as care is not ‘real’ work need to be challenged. Sanika Sawant, Alex Bush, Anam Parvez Butt, Blandina Bobson, Silvia Galandini and Regis Mtutu on new Oxfam research from Kenya, Zimbabwe and the UK that tested new narratives with exciting potential to build government and public support for care, carers and informal workers.

How the pregnancy penalty supercharges global inequality

Anthony KamandeGender, Rights, Women's Economic Empowerment

In a blog for International Women’s Day, new parent Anthony Kamande reflects on the heavy cost his partner and family have paid for the simple act of having a baby. The world, and especially its poorer countries, needs a pregnancy rights revolution, he says, and international funders such as the IMF must play their part.

What do refugees from across Africa want to tell the global forum?

Abbas KigoziEvents, Participation and Leadership, Refugees and IDPs

Abbas Kigozi, Robert Hakiza and JeanPaul Kasika on priorities of refugees in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, and Malawi that need to be heard at this week’s gathering in Geneva – including access to basic services, secure legal status and protection against forced returns.

Kenya’s affluent classes panic when domestic staff are away… so why can’t they acknowledge workers’ value with a decent wage?

Blandina BobsonGender, Living wage, Women's Economic Empowerment

During big holidays such as Christmas, social media buzzes with people struggling to cope without domestic workers. Clearly, the workers make a huge hidden contribution to households and the economy. Yet illegal exploitation of these vital women workers continues – and it’s urgent our government steps in to stop it, says Blandina Bobson.

‘The hunger crisis in Kenya is an inequality crisis’: Oxfam Kenya’s John Kitui on the messages that need to be heard in Brussels

Shuna KeenDrought, Food security, Influencing

Shuna Keen talks to our Kenya director about his reflections on November’s AidEx humanitarian conference in the city at the heart of the EU, including how food sovereignty is being undermined by the corporations that produce genetically-modified food and seeds. He also welcomes the recent big step forward by the EU’s department for humanitarian aid, DG ECHO, on promoting local humanitarian leadership.

In so many places, women’s mental health has been neglected for too long. Here’s how we’re working with communities to change that

Julian KoshGender, Health, Innovation

In a blog for World Mental Health Day, Julian Kosh looks at a pilot project to support survivors of abuse, trauma and cancer in Kenya and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. At its core is a ‘flexible funding’ approach that gives women’s rights organisations the freedom to test new approaches to mental health in the ways they think best

Africa is so rich in farmland – so why is it still hungry?

Anthony KamandeAgriculture, Food & livelihoods, Food security

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

East Africa vs Ukraine: two tragedies, two very different responses

Duncan GreenDrought, Food security, Humanitarian

East Africa is facing its second hunger crisis in a decade, yet it barely registers in the news, and the international system is failing… How did the humanitarian system end up in this mess? Duncan Green on the stark messages from the new Oxfam/Save The Children paper, Dangerous Delay 2, a follow-up to the briefing Dangerous Delay, which warned of the need for change back in 2012