In Gaza and Lebanon, thousands of women are now first responders when it comes to feeding, caring and comforting, all while dealing with their own trauma from deaths, injury, starvation and displacement. Yet too often the way humanitarian agencies operate actually adds to their workload, says Hadeel Rizq-Qazzaz.
Vetoing humanity: How a few powerful nations hijacked global peace
Marc J. Cohen, Amy Croome and Elise Nalbandian introduce a new Oxfam report that sets out how the veto power of a few countries at the UN Security Council has been catastrophic for humanity. Ahead of next week’s landmark Summit of the Future, they demand four changes to reform a UN system that is simply no longer up to the challenge of maintaining international peace and security.
The men are gone – but the patriarchy remains: the struggles of women left behind in Syria’s ‘no-man land’
Years of conflict have led to thousands of men dying or being pushed away. Now, says Dania Kareh, the women who remain face a huge challenge as stubborn social, economic and educational barriers frustrate their efforts to build decent lives for their families.
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 …
Feminism under siege
Maria Al Abdeh on the work of Women Now for Development in Syria, and the impact of Jo Cox. This is the first post of a new mini series on ‘Being a feminist in difficult places’.
Local partnerships and protecting human rights in conflict
Phil Vernon from International Alert shares his views on working with partners on conflict contexts, as part of our release of a recent joint report on the subject. A healthy and active civil society is both an essential indicator of a resilient society, and an essential vehicle for achieving one, through activism and service delivery. But civil society is under …
Podcast: Protecting civilians in conflict
[buzzsprout episode=’2559253′ player=’true’] As a result of conflict, the world today is faced with huge challenges in protecting civilians. In Yemen, Syria and South Sudan, infrastructures have been destroyed and thousands of people are forced to flea, or face the risks of disease, famine or harm. NGOs and relief agencies play a large role in the protection of civilians, from …
Three ways cash is king for asylum seekers in Greece
Stefania Imperia asks what cash assistance means in practical terms for asylum seekers in Greece. With tens of thousands of refugees and migrants stranded in Greece for an undefined period, providing cash grants to asylum seekers living in the Epirus region of north-west Greece may represent not only an efficient and dignified means to provide humanitarian assistance – but also an …
Cleaning up complexity: Making information useful for all
In 2015 Oxfam was awarded a Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) grant to support field staff to capture (currently undocumented) informal feedback which is received face-to-face by creatively using ICTs to enable responsive and accountable uses of information. Below Grace Higdon, Project assistance within Oxfam’s ICT in Programme team, takes us through some of the project’s outcomes. n June 2016, Oxfam …