We, the undersigned civil society organizations, express profound concerns about the legal and humanitarian implications of Canada’s transfer of weapon systems to the government of Israel. These concerns have been further amplified following the January 26th provisional ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Since the onset of Israel’s response to the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, over 26,000 Palestinians, the majority civilians, including more than 10,000 children, have been killed in Gaza. Large parts of the Gaza Strip have experienced widespread devastation, including the destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, refugee camps, and critical civilian infrastructure. Experts have labeled Israel’s bombing campaign as one of the “deadliest and most destructive in recent history.”

According to annual datasets published by Global Affairs Canada, over the last decade, Canada has exported more than $140 million (constant CAD) in military goods to Israel, including military aerospace components, bombs, missiles, explosives, and associated parts. There is substantial concern that some of these weapons could be enabling Israel’s operation in Gaza. In addition to direct exports, Canadian-produced technology has been supplied to Israel by first being integrated into US-produced systems, including components incorporated into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which Israel has used in its bombing campaign across Gaza.

Credible human rights monitors, including UN officials, have routinely alleged that Israel has violated international humanitarian and human rights law throughout its operation. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has likened the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza to the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people.” Given Israel’s conduct during its ongoing military operation in Gaza, there is clear and substantial risk that Canadian arms transfers may be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law or international human rights law in the conflict.

As per Canada’s obligations under the Export and Import Permits Act and the Arms Trade Treaty, Canadian officials are therefore required to halt arms transfers and deny further arms export and brokering authorizations to Israel.

The January 26th provisional ruling by the ICJ deemed that at least some of South Africa’s allegations of violations of rights of Palestinians under the Genocide Convention are “plausible.” This is a further reason for Canada to halt arms transfers to Israel. All parties to the Genocide Convention, including Canada, have duties to ensure the prevention and non-complicity in one of the most serious internationally wrongful acts. Countries that transfer arms to another country that are likely to be used in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide risk being complicit in those crimes.

In December, the government of Canada joined an overwhelming majority of UN member states in calling for a ceasefire. Civil society welcomed such a call. Now, towards this effort of ending the grave abuses taking place on the ground, Canada must meet its domestic and international obligations by halting the supply of weapon systems to Israel.

In recent years, Canadian officials have taken the proactive step to presumptively deny the issuance of arms export and brokering permits to certain countries when there was a substantial risk those weapons would be misused, including at times to Türkiye, Belarus, and Russia. Dozens more individual arms export permits have been denied since Canada’s accession to the ATT due to the risks posed by their proposed export. Given the wholesale destruction in Gaza and the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians, there is no reason a similar policy cannot or should not be implemented in regards to Israel.

This call echoes that of leading Canadian and global humanitarian organizations urging for a cessation of arms transfers to Israel and Palestinian armed groups in order to protect civilians and allow Gaza’s only remaining lifeline, an internationally funded humanitarian aid response, to reach the 2.3 million in need.

Minister, we welcome Canada’s announced strong support for the “critical role” of the ICJ and commitment to abide by its rulings in the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel. However, the government of Canada cannot at the same time signal support for the ICJ, and adherence to its rulings, while continuing to arm those whom the ICJ has ruled are plausibly accused of genocide. We therefore urge immediate action on the part of your government by halting further arms exports, alongside export and brokering authorizations, to Israel.

Sincerely,

Above Ground, a project of MakeWay
Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights
Amnesty International Canadian Section (English speaking)
Amnistie internationale Canada francophone
Anglican Church of Canada
Canadian Boat to Gaza
Canadian Council of Muslim Women
Canadian Friends of Sabeel
Canadian Memorial United Church
Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council (CMPAC)
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
CJPME Saskatoon Chapter
Development and Peace – Caritas Canada
Doctors of the World Canada / Médecins du Monde Canada
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
Human Concern International
Human Rights Watch
Humanity & Inclusion Canada
Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Just Peace Advocates
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Labour Against the Arms Trade
London Chapter, Council of Canadians
Mennonite Central Committee Canada
Mennonite Church Canada Palestine-Israel Network
New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity
Ontario Palestinian Rights Association
Ottawa Food Bank
Oxfam Canada
Oxfam-Québec
Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU)
Peace Brigades International – Canada
People for Peace, London
Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund
Project Ploughshares
Regina Peace Council
Rideau Institute on International Affairs
Right On Canada
Save the Children Canada
Social Rights Advocacy Centre
The United Church of Canada
United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI)
WILPF Canada
Women’s Centre for Social Justice [WomenatthecentrE]
World BEYOND War Canada

Media contact

Vita Sgardello, manager, Communications, vita.sgardello@oxfam.org, 613-799-0234.

Oxfam Canada is calling on Canada to stop arms sales to Israel – learn more here.

The numbers are so staggering they are hard to comprehend: 25,700 people killed, thousands more unidentified, buried by the rubble. 1.9 million people displaced, 60% of buildings destroyed. Entire families, neighborhoods, places of worship and study, wiped out.

Arms Sales to Israel

What you may not know is that Canada has continued to transfer military weapons to Israel throughout this brutal war. This revelation is alarming, especially given the clear risk that these weapons could be used to commit war crimes. Amidst a conflict where the equivalent of two nuclear bombs’ worth of explosives have been dropped on the Gaza Strip, Canada’s ongoing military support to Israel raises serious ethical and legal concerns.

As a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty, Canada is legally responsible for ensuring that its arms exports do not contribute to serious violations of international law or harm women and children. The current situation in Gaza demands an immediate reassessment of Canada’s arms transfers, as they appear to violate the principles outlined in the treaty.

What is more, the International Court of Justice has found that South Africa has a substantial basis to bring a case against Israel for genocide. This underscores the gravity of the accusations against Israel and emphasizes the need for immediate action to halt any support that may contribute to such crimes.

In the face of our leaders’ failure to act responsibly, the responsibility of holding them to account falls on us—the concerned citizens. We cannot stand idly by while Canada continues to contribute to the devastation in Gaza. We urgently call upon Minister Mélanie Joly to exercise her powers and stop arms sales to Israel immediately.

Remember how you and thousands of others influenced Canada to call for a ceasefire? Let’s do it again.

Send a letter to Minister Mélanie Joly TODAY!

Israel’s current military campaign in Gaza is now considered to be amongst the deadliest and most destructive in recent history, according to experts. Humanitarian agencies, human rights groups, United Nations officials, and more than 153 member states have called for an immediate ceasefire for months, yet only a short reprieve took place in November.

Numerous world leaders have urged the Israeli government to reduce civilian casualties. Yet the Israel Defense Force continues firing explosive weapons and munitions in densely populated areas all throughout Gaza leading to more than 25,000 deaths and dire humanitarian consequences for the people of Gaza, who have nowhere safe to go.

Gaza’s remaining lifeline – an internationally-funded humanitarian aid response – has been paralyzed by the intensity of the hostilities. The shooting of aid convoys, the bombing of hospitals, recurrent communications blackouts, damaged roads, restrictions on essential supplies, an almost complete ban on commercial supplies, and a restricted bureaucratic process to send aid into Gaza – all have led to a grossly inadequate humanitarian response.

While Canada does not currently transfer arms to Palestinian armed groups, Canada’s transfer of arms to Israel amounted to CAD27 million in 2021, a record high since 1987. All UN member states, including Canada, have a legal responsibility to prevent atrocity crimes and ensure the protection of civilians and adherence to international humanitarian law.

Canadian Humanitarian Organizations demand an immediate ceasefire and call on Canada to halt the transfer of weapons as well as immediately suspend all arms export permits to Israel, while there is a risk such material be used to commit violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, including the parts transferred to the United States destined for Israel.

ED QUOTES:

“Doctors of the World is urging Canada to align with its vote in favor of a ceasefire at the UN General Assembly. Doctors of the World emphasizes the critical need for intervention amidst the prolonged and devastating onslaught of heavy bombing and shelling over a 365 sq km region, home to 2.2 million people. With the ceasefire yet to materialize, an urgent plea is extended to Canada and other nations to swiftly halt all weapons transfers to the conflicting parties—a vital, life-saving measure in the face of this dire humanitarian crisis.” – Nadja Pollaert, Executive Director, Doctors of the World Canada

“Mennonite Central Committee Canada continues to be gravely concerned by the humanitarian catastrophe currently taking place in Gaza. We urge the Canadian government to do everything in their power, including the halt of arms transfers and arms permits to Israel, to work for an immediate ceasefire, increased humanitarian assistance, and the upholding of international law and human rights. As a humanitarian peacebuilding organization with decades of experience, including 75 years in Palestine and Israel, we know that violence will not bring security, nor a lasting peace. Now is the time for clear and committed leadership for a just and lasting peace in Palestine and Israel.” – Rick Cober Bauman, Executive Director, Mennonite Central Committee Canada 

“For over 100 days now, airstrikes and ground military operations in Gaza have been killing an average of 250 Palestinians a day, which exceeds the daily death toll of any other major conflict of recent years. Over 25,000 tons of explosives have not only sacrificed over 25,000 lives and led to international law violations, they are also blocking the delivery of any meaningful, urgently needed humanitarian response. All governments exporting arms to the parties-involved have an obligation to stop fueling this violence and potential war crimes immediately. We must use all levers at this point to avoid complicity in these atrocities.” – Béatrice Vaugrante, Executive Director, Oxfam-Québec 

‘’More than 10,000 children have lost their lives and survivors endure the unspeakable including life-altering injuries, burns, diseases, inadequate medical care, abduction, and the loss of loved ones. We urge the Canadian government to immediately halt arms transfers to both Israel and Palestinian armed groups. Despite the Canadian government supporting a ceasefire and the UN Security Council voting for improved humanitarian access, the situation in Gaza has worsened. Too many children in Gaza and Israel are facing grave violations to their rights and one grave violation is one too many.’’ – Danny Genwright, President and CEO, Save the Children Canada 

“Humanity & Inclusion urges States, including Canada, to halt the transfer of weapons, parts, and ammunition to Israel, Palestinian Armed Groups. The protection of innocent civilians, who have been the collateral damage in this conflict for over 100 days, is at stake. We urgently call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire to put an end to the violence in the Gaza Strip.” – Anne Delorme, Executive Director, Humanity & Inclusion Canada 

“What we are seeing is a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza right now. Over 10,000 children have been killed by Israel’s bombardment on Gaza. We call on the Canadian government to follow through with its commitment to support a ceasefire including the halt of arms transfers and arms permits to Israel, to work for an immediate ceasefire, increased humanitarian assistance, and the upholding of international law.” – Usama Khan, CEO, Islamic Relief Canada 

Signatories

Doctors of the World Canada, Mennonite Central Committee Canada, Humanity & Inclusion Canada, Islamic Relief Canada, Oxfam-Québec, Oxfam Canada, Save the Children Canada

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Media contact

Vita Sgardello, manager, Communications, vita.sgardello@oxfam.org, 613-799-0234.

Oxfam Canada is calling on Canada to stop arms sales to Israel – learn more here.

“Nearly 300,000 people across 60 union parishads in Cox’s Bazar have been impacted and thousands have been displaced. The monsoon floods lent another hard blow to hundreds of thousands of refugees already recovering from the fury and destruction of Cyclone Mocha last May,” said Ashish Damle, Oxfam in Bangladesh Country Director.

Oxfam staff tell how in the Ukhiya camp-09, one mother and her one-year-old daughter were washed away by the landslide. In Bandarban, Chattogram region, 30,000 people were stranded, and hundreds lost their homes due to landslides. “People most urgently need food, cash and temporary shelters. They also need essential supplies for children, hygiene kits, raincoats and torchlights. Oxfam, together with our partners, are scaling up response to ensure those most affected receive the support they desperately need. But the heavy rains have also impacted essential infrastructure making our operations challenging,” said Damle.

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Donations can be made HERE.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Vita Sgardello
Manager, Communications
Oxfam Canada
(613) 799-0234
vita.sgardello@oxfam.org 

 As per the initial reports, at least 8 people have been killed, and the powerful storm has caused extensive destruction to infrastructure in the western Myanmar region, where thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been living in camps.   

Oxfam and partners are currently assessing the scale of devastation to mount a humanitarian response to provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, as well as emergency cash and food.

“Our teams in Sittwe faced the terrifying winds which damaged homes, toppled trees and disrupted power and communication lines. The cyclone has devastated the IDP camps in Rakhine. Connection with our staff resumed this afternoon (on 15 May) and are steadily receiving new reports, adding to the scale of devastation,” said Rajan Khosla, Oxfam Country Director in Myanmar.  

Even before the cyclone, an estimated 6 million people were already in humanitarian need in the states where the cyclone hit (Rakhine, Chin, Magway and Sagaing). The community’s needs for essentials like shelter, clean water, and sanitation will only rise.    

“The cyclone will immensely impact existing displaced people and particularly communities in Rakhine and Chin. More resources are required, and we call on the international community to provide adequate funds to help them live a life of dignity,” said Rajan Khosla.  

“We are working with local partners for response. Our emergency response team is ready for deployment to Sittwe, will reach as soon as the flight resume to operate, and start immediate response,” he added. 

In Bangladesh, while the cyclone veered away from its path, the strong winds blew away the temporary bamboo homes in the Teknaf area of Cox’s Bazar.   

“It is a relief that the cyclone passed away without causing loss of life in the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. But the makeshift infrastructure in the camps could not withstand the strong winds. We have already started our response. We distributed cash to communities ahead of the storm and provided clean water for families to survive the night. Oxfam’s main relief efforts will focus on our area of expertise: providing safe water for people, as well as sanitation supplies and public health support, to help prevent the spread of water-borne diseases,” said Ashish Damle, Oxfam Country Director in Bangladesh. 

Oxfam is working closely with local communities, partners, and authorities to ensure the coordination of efforts and the safety and well-being of those residing in the camps in Bangladesh. 

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Donations can be made HERE.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Elena Sosa Lerín
Communications Officer
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
elena.sosa.lerin@oxfam.org 

Şengül Akçar, Oxfam KEDV Executive Director said: “The pledges come at a make-or-break moment. Torrential floods in recent days have swept away temporary accommodations and flooded tents, bringing more despair for the survivors of the earthquake and the risk of disease outbreak. As we reach the 50-day mark since the quake, we need the international community to deliver on the pledges promised to prevent a double tragedy so every person affected can rebuild their lives.

“It is key that donors support an inclusive response. Women need to be at the forefront of recovery efforts, to be supported to empower themselves by engaging with small businesses and employment opportunities, and to feel safe. We cannot risk gender equality being wound back.”

Moutaz Adham, Oxfam in Syria Country Director said: “This earthquake has pushed people over the edge when they were already scrambling to meet their basic needs after 12 years of conflict.

“This aid will be a lifeline for many Syrians who were already struggling with hunger, skyrocketing inflation and poverty when disaster hit. But we need a long-term solution that goes beyond just humanitarian aid – farmers must be able to farm again, and bakers bake.  Donors must display the same generosity when delivering on aid pledges for Syria – we cannot risk another half-empty promise in 2023.”

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Notes to editors:

In Turkiye, torrential rains and unprecedented flooding last week saw thousands of people living in tents being evacuated and raised concerns of disease outbreak with many tented cities and temporary accommodations still lacking showers and toilets.

Oxfam KEDV is already responding to last month’s earthquakes, and has been working with the National Disaster Response Platform and a network of women’s cooperatives to facilitate the distribution of food, drinking water, temporary shelter, blankets, sanitary kits and powerbanks. Community kitchens have also been established in various locations, including in Sanliurfa.

In Aleppo, one of the affected areas in Syria, an Oxfam survey found that three in every four people have resorted to skipping meals since the earthquake. Across the entire country, four in 10 Syrians – or nearly nine million people – were affected by the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit last month, compounding an already acute humanitarian crisis.

Oxfam interviewed 300 displaced people in government-held areas of Aleppo between March 2 and 8. The survey found:

• Nearly 70 per cent said their homes had been partially destroyed.
• Over 65 per cent said they were relying on aid from NGOs to survive.
• Twenty-two per cent had lost their jobs or sources of income; and
• 37 per cent had borrowed money to cover their families’ needs.

Oxfam delivered clean drinking water to 46 locations and installed 40 water tanks in shelters. Oxfam distributed over 2,250 hygiene kits including soap and sanitary pads. We are also fixing taps and toilets in shelters and supporting safety checks to buildings. Oxfam aims to reach 800,000 of the most impacted people over the coming three years with lifesaving aid.

The international community only deivered half of the funds needed for Syria’s UN Humanitarian Appeal for 2022. It is likely, the same trend will occur for 2023.

For more details or to arrange interviews:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

At least five people have been killed so far and at least five others are reported missing, with the provinces of Sanliurfa and Adiyaman badly impacted.

Footage shows city streets in Sanliurfa turned into fast–flowing rivers, with cars and other debris being swept away, and people being rescued from the floodwaters.

Thousands of people who have been living in tents since February’s earthquakes have also been affected with reports some have been evacuated. A hospital’s emergency department was inundated as well as many homes and businesses, and schools were closed.

The General Directorate of Meteorology has issued an orange alert for a possible extreme downpour in the provinces of Kahramanmaraş, Şanlıurfa, Kilis, Gaziantep, Adıyaman, Malatya, Elazığ, Diyarbakır and Mardin, most of which were also badly impacted by the earthquakes, which killed more than 50,000 people.

Oxfam KEDV’s Deputy Executive Director Didem Demircan said the situation was incredibly difficult for many people who had already lost everything in the last disaster.

“The situation is extremely dire. Flooding is not unusual in this area, but to have this come in the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes is compounding the suffering of those still struggling to come to terms with the first disaster and its impact on their lives. As well as the tragedy of more lives lost, roads have been blocked again limiting access, dams are overflowing and large amounts of agricultural farmland have been impacted, with some harvests likely to have been lost,” Demircan said.

“Floodwaters and stagnant water also increase the risk of further contamination of drinking water supplies, which were already threatened by heavy infrastructure damage, and measures must be taken to prevent the outbreak of water–borne diseases. People impacted by this flooding will be in need of food, drinking water, sanitation and shelter, as well as furniture and bedding. Women will require extra support as risks to their safety always increase in disasters.”

Oxfam is already responding to last month’s earthquakes, and has been working with the National Disaster Response Platform and a network of women’s cooperatives to facilitate the distribution of food, drinking water, temporary shelter, blankets, sanitary kits and powerbanks. Community kitchens have also been established in various locations, including in Sanliurfa.

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

• Oxfam has been working in Syria since 2013 and in Turkey since 2017. With local partners, Oxfam is assessing the current humanitarian needs and mobilizing a response immediately.
• Donations may be made HERE.

For more details or to arrange interviews:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Oxfam surveyed 300 people displaced in Aleppo, and living in collective shelters, in the lead-up to Ramadan. It found that many have nothing left after the earthquake and from the effects of 12 years of conflict.

Many told Oxfam they had used up their last resources. Ninety per cent of them say there are unable to make any plans to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan. Across the entire country, four in 10 Syrians – or nearly nine million people – were affected by the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit last month, compounding an already acute humanitarian crisis.

Nearly 70 per cent of those surveyed said their homes had been partially destroyed. More than 65 per cent said they were relying on aid from NGOs to survive. Twenty-two per cent had lost their jobs or sources of income and 37 had borrowed money to cover their families’ needs.

Moutaz Adham, Oxfam Syria country director said: “people who have been made homeless by the quake have been forced to rely on harsh coping mechanisms to survive and they will face a tough and uncertain Ramadan.

“The data is stark and gravely concerning. People told us the earthquake has pushed them over the edge. For almost all families we talked to, this was at least the second time they had been forced out of their homes over the years of conflict. Almost half of them are now spending the vast majority of their income on food, leaving very little to cover all their other basic needs.

“Syrians have faced too many shocks for too long. It will be months, even years, before those who have lost everything after this latest disaster can rebuild their lives,” said Adham.

Jaydaa, from Aleppo, told Oxfam: “Before the quake, we only got to eat one meal a day, but at least we had a roof over our heads. Now we are left behind in a small tent to fend for ourselves against hunger and freezing temperatures at night.”

“Either from fleeing the conflict, the impacts of the earthquake or both, Syrians just want to live with dignity and look towards a future with hope. This earthquake, on top of 12 years of war, has devastated millions of people who were already having to live a hand-to-mouth existence,” said Adham.

Oxfam delivered clean drinking water to 46 locations; installed 40 water tanks in shelters; distributed over 2,250 hygiene kits including soap and sanitary pads and are also fixing taps and toilets in shelters and supporting safety checks to buildings.

“Syrians need support both to deal with the immediate devastation of the earthquake and to recover from the impacts of 12 years of conflict. We cannot allow Syrians to face another Ramadan like this,” he said.

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Notes to editors:

• Oxfam interviewed 300 displaced people in government-held areas of Aleppo between March 2 and 8 and asked about how the earthquake has impacted their lives.
• Oxfam is providing people impacted by the earthquake with clean drinking water. Oxfam teams are also installing water tanks in shelters, and fixing water taps and toilets. We are also delivering hygiene kits (including soap, sanitary pads, and diapers), so people can live with dignity. We have supported safety checks for damaged buildings, so families could return home. Oxfam aims to reach 800K of the most impacted people over the coming three years with lifesaving aid.
• Donations may be made HERE.

For more details or to arrange interviews:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Oxfam and partners are currently assessing the scale of devastation in order to mount a humanitarian response to provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, as well as emergency cash and food.

“This is a double tragedy for the people of Malawi and Mozambique as this is happening at the time when the two countries are already battered by a cholera outbreak,” said Dailes Judge, Oxfam in Southern Africa Programme Director.

Among the hardest hit areas are Quelimane district in Zambezia Province in Mozambique, and Blantyre City, Chikwawa, Thyolo, Phalombe and Nsanje districts in Malawi. Collapsing infrastructure particularly in the remotest areas is slowing relief efforts. Oxfam is working in close cooperation with both governments.

Cyclone Freddy made its first landfall on the eastern coast of Madagascar on February 21 and proceeded to hit Mozambique. The climate crisis has made extreme weather including cyclones more severe and prolonged.

“The people that contribute the least drivers of climate change are once again paying the steepest price to climate change, including their own lives,” said Lynn Chiripamberi, Oxfam in Southern Africa Humanitarian Programme Lead.

“A comprehensive humanitarian response is urgently needed to ensure those most impacted get immediate shelter, water and food. Equally important is for rich polluting nations to pay for the climate loss and damage of these countries,” added Judge.

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Donations can be made HERE.

For more details or to arrange interviews:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Hundreds of thousands of families are residing in informal settlements to stay close to homes that have been destroyed, where there is little to no access to water and basic sanitation, shelter, and food. Women and children are affected disproportionately, with many fearing for their safety.

In an area with a population of 15.2 million, almost two million people have evacuated from earthquake affected areas with government support or through their own means, straining the local economy and available safe housing across the country. Those who remain have no recourse but to stay outside, fearing returning indoors due to continuing aftershocks that continue to damage homes and infrastructure. The areas affected by the earthquakes in Türkiye include a large Syrian refugee population, who have already endured displacement.

Oxfam KEDV in Türkiye is coordinating with a network of grassroots women’s organizations and cooperatives, volunteers, civil society actors, and public authorities to rapidly provide food, clean water, showers, hygiene products, blankets, and help facilitate setting up shelters. With Oxfam KEDV, women’s cooperatives are operating community kitchens and providing food to people everyday.

Along with providing essential items, Oxfam KEDV is also initiating the repair of water reservoirs to ensure access to clean water and setting up of toilets and showers.

In the coming months, Oxfam KEDV intends to support 1.4 million people living in the areas most affected by the earthquake by providing access to food, restoring water systems, and supporting people’s livelihoods through training and financial support.

– 30 –

Oxfam has been working in Syria since 2013 and in Turkey since 2017. With local partners, Oxfam is assessing the current humanitarian needs and mobilizing a response immediately.

Donations may be made HERE.

For more details or to arrange interviews:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Meryem Aslan, Oxfam Spokeswoman in Turkiye said: “People are living in cars, mosques, in tents or huddling around fires in freezing conditions. Emergency shelters are overwhelmed and over-crowded. Many people do not want to stay in the area with hundreds of thousands having been evacuated out of the region.”

In Turkiye, Oxfam KEDV is working closely with dozens of grassroot women-led organizations and cooperatives to reach up to 1.5 million people over the first three years. Our teams have already provided food, shelter, blankets and psychological support to some of most affected areas including Gaziantep, Hatay and Mardin.

“Our teams are experienced, having responded to the 1999 earthquake, but we are facing new hurdles getting aid to those who need it.  We are dealing with destroyed roads, nearly 300 aftershocks and an unprecedented scale of devastation. The sheer number of fatalities is heart-breaking. Topping the list of items needed are body bags to bury the dead. In some areas, communication is also limited which is hampering aid distribution,” added Aslan.

The earthquake has impacted over 13 million people in Turkiye – one in every six people. Over 12,000 buildings have been destroyed and many more are threatening to crumble.

In Hatay, a city affected by the earthquake, only three hospitals remain standing. It is imagined that the earthquake response will take a year in Turkiye, but the after-effects will be felt for many more years to come.

In Syria, the earthquake has caused over 3,500 deaths and many more injured.

Abdelkader Dabbagh, Aleppo Area Manager for Oxfam in Syria said: “The earthquake has shattered an already conflict-torn country. People do not have a roof over their heads and are stuck in freezing temperatures with no idea where they could get their next meal. Our team is working with other humanitarian organizations to get clean drinking water and hygiene packs to survivors.”

We already started providing safe drinking water to people in Aleppo. We have also supported safety checks to 220 buildings and begun fixing water taps and toilets for over 1000 of the most impacted people. Over the next six months, Oxfam aims to reach more than 300,000 survivors.

Moutaz Adham, Oxfam in Syria Country Director, said: “This is nothing new for Syrians who have lived and are still living the horrors of over twelve years of conflict. To make matters worse, we are still facing an uphill battle due to years of chronic underfunding, skyrocketing inflation, and scarce supplies of fuel.”

Oxfam calls on the international community to meet the urgent needs of those affected by the earthquake in Turkiye and Syria, and to facilitate aid delivery to both countries along with a longer-term plan to support the survivors in the recovery efforts.

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Notes to editors: 

• Spokespeople are available for interview in Turkiye and Syria.
• B-roll and images are currently being developed and are available upon request.
• Oxfam KEDV was founded in 1986 and became an Oxfam affiliate in 2019. Previous to the earthquake, Oxfam KEDV was working with 78 grassroot women organisations and cooperatives in the affected areas and 600 throughout Turkey. We will work with these partners in our humanitarian response to the earthquake.
• Oxfam KEDV is also a member to the National Disaster Response Platform, a network formed in 2020 representing 27 national civil CSOs, which coordinates disaster and emergency responses in Turkiye. All NGOs registered with this platform must register with the Acik Acik Association which is responsible for ensuring the transparency and accountability of NGOS.
• Data on the death toll in Syria was sourced from AFP via the BBC.

Donations may be made HERE.

Oxfam has spokespeople available on the ground. For more details and to arrange interviews:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

An Oxfam colleague in Turkey  – an expert amateur mountaineer – travelled today into south-west Turkey, part of an official search-and-rescue mission mounted by Turkish authorities who called on civilian mountaineers to help.

Meryem Aslan, Oxfam spokesperson in Ankara, said: “The scale of destruction is vast. Following two big earthquakes and over 60 aftershocks, people are still in shock and fear, they don’t even have time to mourn the lost ones.” She managed to reach family and friends in affected areas by phone – thankful they were alive and well – but many buildings and home were now rubble, she said.

Oxfam KEDV, the Oxfam affiliate in Turkey, has partnerships with around 80 women’s cooperatives in ten Turkish provinces most affected by the quake and is currently assessing response plans with them given the scale of devastation. An Oxfam team is travelling to affected areas tomorrow (Tuesday) to conduct assessments, as part of the official National Disaster Response Platform.

“It is a double tragedy for survivors having to cope too with the cold and who will be unable to sleep outside. It is horrifying to contemplate how people will even be able to cope, given that some areas are even now in snow,” said Aslan.

“Reaching survivors will be extremely challenging with many roads and highways damaged or blocked, and over vast distances. Even as Turkey has a lot of expertise in dealing with the aftermath of earthquakes, the scale of this one is daunting. The death toll has already reached 1500 people and is growing.  The number of survivors who maybe left now with absolutely nothing is likely to be huge”, she said.

“Oxfam, together with partners, is gathering urgent information to assess the scale of devastation and what people most urgently need,” Aslan said. “Typically, Oxfam and partners would look to provide protection, water and sanitation, shelter and food support and in the longer-term rehabilitation and reconstruction. We are now assessing the type of immediate and longer-term support that is needed.

“We know that all countries affected by this awful earthquake, and the survivors of it, will need a lot of help and support – not only in the immediate short-term, but in the days and weeks and months ahead.”

In Syria, the cities of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Idlib have been badly hit by both the earthquake and continuous, severe aftershocks that have driven people into wintery streets fearing further collapses of buildings. Dozens of buildings have been badly damaged across Aleppo and 46 are reported to have collapsed. As nightly temperatures are expected to drop to zero degrees Celsius. Shelter, food, water, fuel and medical care for those who have been injured are desperately needed.

For Syria, this earthquake hits at a time when the highest humanitarian need in the country is at its highest.  Over 15m are in desperate need humanitarian assistance and support.

– 30 –

Oxfam has been working in Syria since 2013 and in Turkey since 2017. With local partners, Oxfam is assessing the current humanitarian needs and mobilizing a response immediately.

Donations may be made HERE.

Oxfam has spokespeople available on the ground. For more details and to arrange interviews:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Oxfam is supporting the Humanitarian Knowledge Hub (JMK) in responding to the earthquake which hit Cianjur and Sukabumi in Indonesia last week. The partners have started distributing basic sanitation kits to displaced people.

The Government of Canada has announced that it will match donations to the Humanitarian Coalition and its member charities up to $3 million.

“This announcement comes as millions of people in Pakistan have been devastated by flooding and landslides have destroyed homes, crops, roads and bridges. This opportunity for Canadians to double the power of their donation comes at a critical juncture, when immediate assistance is needed. We hope it will be used widely to support the people of Pakistan,” said Oxfam Canada Executive Director Lauren Ravon.

The following members of the Humanitarian Coalition are currently responding to the flooding emergency in Pakistan: Action Against Hunger, Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Canadian Lutheran World Relief, CARE Canada, Doctors of the World, Islamic Relief Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Québec, Save the Children Canada.

Canadians can give to Pakistan flood relief at www.together.ca or by calling 1-855-461-2154.

— 30 —

Editors notes:

• Since June 14, Pakistan has experienced three times more rainfall than an average monsoon season
• Flooding and landslides have destroyed homes, crops, health centres, roads and bridges
• More than 33 million people have been affected
• Rain is expected to continue through September
• There is an elevated risk of the spread of malaria, dengue fever and other diseases
• The priority needs include clean water, food, shelter and health care.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Marg Buchanan
Communications Manager
Humanitarian Coalition
(514) 627-3932
marg.buchanan@coalitionhumanitaire.ca

Oxfam’s partners are already working to help displaced people and they will decide on the most important support that local people most need, but efforts will likely be concentrated on emergency food, water and sanitation, including things like personal hygiene kits and temporary shelters.

Oxfam is seeking to raise over $5 million to channel into local organizations over the next 12 months to expand their work. The international aid organization is warning that recovery and rebuilding efforts will take time and will require a very large coordinated international response.

Oxfam Pakistan staff say the wild and heavy monsoon rain has produced a climate-induced humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Pakistan has declared a national emergency with more than 33 million people, or 15 per cent of the population, affected; more than 1,000 people killed; a million homes and two million hectares of crop lands destroyed. These figures will grow. Oxfam is calling on a proportionate huge response of aid by the international community.

Farah Munawar, Resilience and Livelihoods Project Manager, Oxfam Pakistan, said: “Many of those who have lost their homes are now living on roadsides, leading to serious security and safety issues specifically for women and girls, but also the wider community. There is insufficient access to clean drinking water, hygiene, toilets and sanitation facilities. Women and girls have extremely poor access to hygiene supplies.

“Affected people in Pakistan require urgent access to basic resources and facilities, including clean water, food and shelter.”

Syed Shahnawaz Ali, Country Director, Oxfam Pakistan, said: “We have to say it as it is — the humanitarian and environmental devastation we are experiencing is a result of climate change. Floods are not uncommon in Pakistan, but this is flooding on a scale bigger than anything we have ever seen.

“The rain patterns have become very unpredictable, and we are bracing for further downpours in September. It seems very likely that the scale of the challenges we face are bigger than we have seen reported so far. Further work is required to assess the full extent of this unfolding crisis.

“Oxfam is ramping up relief efforts and we’re calling for coordinated international action to tackle the enormous scale of this catastrophe. Only a well-resourced international response can prevent further loss of human life and injury over the coming weeks and months.

“It remains deeply unjust that Pakistan, which is responsible for less than 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, is one of the countries most vulnerable to severe weather due to the effects of climate change. It should be clear that Pakistan should not be made to pay the price for the carbon emissions of the richest countries in the world.”

– 30 –

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

While around 40,000 buildings were damaged – of which 3,000 severely – in the massive explosion, no accurate official data exists to track progress of the reconstruction. Although improvements have been made to many homes and businesses, much more is still needed as the challenges faced by the country only continue to escalate. As a stark reminder of the port blast, sections of the grain silos at the port – ground zero of the explosion-collapsed last weekend, sending waves of dust throughout the city.

Bojan Kolundzija, Country Director, Oxfam in Lebanon said: “Even before the blast, Lebanon was already in the prolonged predicament further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. In its aftermath, Lebanon is again struggling through crisis upon crisis as the shock waves from the conflict in Ukraine further exacerbate already skyrocketing commodity prices. Two years since the explosion, those who were already the most vulnerable are still struggling to meet their basic needs.”

A good illustration of how the blast amplified the plight of the country is the fact that 46 per cent of Lebanese and half the refugee population are assessed to be without enough food. Urban communities are still buckling under the weight of the crisis. In one Beirut neighborhood where Oxfam works, 70 per cent of households recently assessed were spending close to the average monthly minimum wage a month on food (where the monthly minimum wage is around 675,000 LBP/month), while 40 per cent could no longer afford basic health care. Over half of households, reached either with cash assistance or livelihoods support, had been forced to sell some of their possessions to cover rent, food, and education costs.

Immediately after the blast and through 2021, Oxfam partnered with 11 local organizations to deliver life-saving food, cash, house rehabilitation, medicine, psycho-social support, and legal assistance to almost 22,000 people and 117 small businesses. Despite wide ranging and sustained assistance to households and individuals, including support to the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and migrant workers, there are mounting needs among people and businesses affected by the blast.

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

• The statistics provided are based on 34 household assessments done by Oxfam in Lebanon in June 2022, (approximately 120 people) in the area of Bourj Hammoud, a neighborhood heavily affected by the Beirut blast.
• WFP’s Lebanon Country Brief June 2022 says 46 percent of Lebanese and half the refugee population are without enough food.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

More than a decade since the delayed response to the 2011 famine that killed more than 260,000 people in Somalia – half of them children under five – the world is once again failing to avert catastrophic hunger in East Africa. Today, nearly half a million people across parts of Somalia and Ethiopia are facing famine-like conditions. In Kenya, 3.5 million people are suffering extreme hunger. Urgent appeals are woefully underfunded, as other crises, including the war in Ukraine, are worsening the region’s escalating hunger crisis.

The number of people experiencing extreme hunger in the three countries has more than doubled since last year – from over 10 million to more than 23 million today. This is against a backdrop of crippling debt that more than tripled in under a decade – from $20.7 billion in 2012 to $65.3 billion by 2020 – sucking resources from public services and social protection in these countries.

The report, Dangerous Delay 2: The Cost of Inaction, examines the changes in the humanitarian aid system since 2011. It finds that despite an improved response to the 2017 East Africa drought when widespread famine was averted, the national and global responses have largely remained too slow and too limited to prevent a repeat today.

“Despite all the warning signs, rich countries like Canada have given too little too late – leaving millions of people facing catastrophic hunger. Hunger, in a world of plenty, is an avoidable tragedy and a political failure,” said Brittany Lambert, Oxfam Canada’s Women’s Rights Policy Specialist.

“We are particularly worried about women and girls. Food insecurity harms them disproportionately. It affects maternal and child health, increases gender-based violence and child marriage, and adds to their unpaid care load. Widespread hunger threatens the achievements of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy.”

“We’re seeing horrific numbers of severe malnutrition with close to 5.7 million children facing acute malnutrition through the end of this year. And with the UN warning that more than 350,000 could die if we do not act, the clock is ticking and every minute that passes is a minute too close to starvation and possible death of a child. How can we live with that if we let it happen again?” said Danny Glenwright, Save the Children Canada’s President and CEO.

“When children don’t have enough nutritious food to eat they go to bed hungry, they feel weak and have concentration problems, their mental wellbeing is affected, they are forced to walk long distances to get water during droughts and many drop out of school. This is not just a humanitarian crisis; this is the biggest challenge of our time—not responding accordingly will be a failure of humanity.”

Self-serving political choices continue to curtail a unified global response, despite improved warning systems and efforts by local NGOs, the report finds. G7 and other rich nations have turned inwards in response to various global crises, such as COVID-19 and more recently the Ukraine conflict, including by backtracking on their promised aid to poor countries and driving them to edge of bankruptcy with debt.

East African governments bear their own responsibility, having delayed their responses and often refused to acknowledge the scale of the crisis on their doorsteps. They have not adequately invested in agriculture or social protection systems to help people better cope with the drivers of hunger, including climatic and economic shocks.

The report sheds light on the continued failure of donors and aid agencies to prioritize local organizations at the forefront of the crisis response, which has slowed down the response further, even when they were ready to act.

Climate-induced drought, compounded by conflicts forcing people out of their homes, and COVID-19 economic turmoil have decimated people’s last ability to cope. The Ukraine conflict has also driven already soaring food prices to their highest level ever recorded, making food unattainable for millions.

Climate change has made this La Niña-induced drought in the Horn of Africa more severe and prolonged, now the worst in 40 years. The drought has eroded economic reserves, herd size, and human health and is a major factor behind the alarming numbers of people without enough to eat daily. Yet, the region is one of the least responsible for the climate crisis, emitting collectively 0.1 per cent of global carbon emissions.

Just two per cent ($93.1 million) of the UN’s current $4.4-billionappeal for Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia has formally been funded to date. In 2017, those same countries had received $1.9 billion in emergency funding. Although donors promised $1.4 billion of aid last month, it is shameful that only $378 million of that was new money.

“People are starving not because the world lacks food or money, but for a dismal lack of political courage. Rich nations successfully, and rightly, raised over $16 billion in one month to address the terrible crisis in Ukraine. They pumped over $16 trillion dollars into their economies in response to COVID-19 to support those in need. Countries can mobilize resources to prevent human suffering – but only if they choose to,” said Lambert.

“Canada can show political and financial leadership by putting famine at the center the agenda at the upcoming G7 Summit. Donors must work together to plug funding gaps and find ways to respond to hunger crises early, before they spiral out of control”, she added.

“Globally, up to 323 million people in 81 countries could be acutely food insecure or at high risk this year as a perfect storm of climate, conflict and Covid has resulted in crop failures, food shortages, skyrocketing prices on basic staples, along with inequality and economic system collapse,” added Glenwright. “Canada’s leadership at the G7 Summit is critical.”

Oxfam and Save the Children are calling for urgent action to tackle the catastrophic hunger crisis in East Africa:

• To help save lives now, G7 and Western leaders must immediately inject money to meet the $4.4 billion UN appeal for Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, and ensure the funding is flexible enough to be used where it is most needed.
• Donors must guarantee that at least 25 per cent of funds go to local responders at the heart of response, including women’s organizations working on the frontlines.
• Governments of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia must scale up social protection to help people cope with multiple shocks. They should invest at least 10 per cent of their budgets in agriculture, with a particular focus on smallholder and female farmers, as they had agreed in the African Union Malabo Declaration of 2014.
• National governments must prioritize lives over politics, by acknowledging and acting on early warnings. They should be quicker to declare national emergencies, shift national resources to those most in need, and invest in response to climate related shocks.
• Rich polluting nations must pay East Africa for its climate loss and damage. They must also cancel 2021-2022 debts for those countries, in order to free up resources to support people to mitigate and adapt to climate shocks.

Acting early on hunger not only saves lives, but prevents economic loss. USAID estimates that every dollar invested in early response and resilience in Somalia saves three dollars by preventing income and livestock losses.

– 30 –

Notes to the editor:

• Download the latest Dangerous Delay: The Cost of Inaction.
• All currency is in USD.
• “A Dangerous Delay: The cost of late response to early warnings in the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa” report published in 2012 can be found here.
• To calculate the daily deaths, we used the crude death rate, which is (0.5-0.99) per 10,000 people in IPC3 of food insecurity as specified in The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Global Partners (2021), as per Technical Manual Version 3.1: Evidence and Standards for Better Food Security and Nutrition Decisions. Then, we subtracted the normal daily death rate of 0.22 per 10,000 people per day; this figure is based on data from the UN and from national, EU, and Pacific Community statistical offices.
• Across the three countries, the crude death rate is at least 627-1,802 per day, 0.44-1.25 per minute, i.e., between one every 2.5 minutes and one every 48 seconds. These figures are conservative, since they are based on the crude death rate for IPC 3, and do not take into account the higher crude death rates for IPC 4 and 5.
• According to IPC (see IPC Population Tracking Tool, https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/population-tracking-tool/en/ ) and the FAO-ICPAC Food Security and Nutrition Working Group, 22.4 – 23.4m people across Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia will face high levels of acute hunger (IPC3 and above), including almost half a million in famine-like conditions. This includes: 7.4 million people across Ethiopia (as per the projection for July-September 2021) – including over 400,000 living in famine-like conditions (IPC 5); 5.5-6.5 million people in South East Ethiopia (April 2022 estimate), 3.5 million people from Kenya (March-June 2022 projection); and 6 million people are from Somalia, including 81,100 at IPC5 (April-June 2022 projection).
• Children malnutrition figures from April 2022 Horn of Africa Drought update.
• In May 2021, 10.2 million people were at IPC3 or above. Source: IPC info.
• According to FAO, global food prices reached an all-time high in March 2022, on average, the cost of a local food basket has increased by 23 per cent across the entire Eastern Africa region in one year (Feb 2021/2022). But Ethiopia and Somalia have seen 66 and 36 per cent rise in their food basket cost between Feb2021/2022. Source: FAO’s “implications of the Conflict in Ukraine on Food Access and Availability in the East Africa Region” update, p.2.
• In March-June 2021, the total number of people in IPC3+ across Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia was 10,183,133, according to IPC info.
• Comparative data between the 2011 famine and 2022 shows that 9 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia experienced acute hunger (IPC 3+), today that figure is between 22.4 and 23.4 million people, according to UNOCHA and IPC.
• The Ukraine crisis received $6.7 billion (in non-military aid) from the United States, and the EU Stand for Ukraine initiative raised over 10 billion euros to date.
• In the COVID-19 emergency, governments increased budgets promptly and decisively. Since 2020, countries have announced $16 trillion in fiscal actions. Source: IMF 2021
• The world’s farmers produce more than enough food to feed everyone (see the UN SDG news ).
• Global carbon emissions are from Our World in Data.
• Data on UN humanitarian appeals and donor funding are from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Financial Tracking Service.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Tiffany Baggetta
Head, Communications, Media & PR
Save the Children
(647) 517-4563
tbaggetta@savethechildren.ca

The international agency said another year of war would bring unimaginable suffering to civilians – almost two-thirds of Yemenis will go hungry this year unless the warring parties lay down their arms or the international community steps in to fill a massive gap in the appeal budget. This year’s aid program is currently 70 per cent underfunded, providing just 15 cents per day per person needing help.

The escalating cost of war includes:

• 17.4 million people are currently going hungry, with predictions this will rise to 19 million by the end of the year (62 per cent of the population and an increase of more than eight million since the conflict started).
• 4.8 million more people need humanitarian assistance than did in 2015, the first year of the conflict.
• Since UN human rights monitoring was withdrawn in October 2021 the civilian casualty rate has doubled, now reaching well over 14,500 casualties.
• 24,000 airstrikes have damaged 40 per cent of all housing in cities during the conflict.
• During the last seven years, over four million people have been forced to flee from violence.

The Ukraine crisis has exacerbated the situation, raising concerns over supplies of grain and cooking oil. Yemen imports 42 per cent of its grain from Ukraine and Oxfam has been told prices have already started to rise. Seven long years of war have also caused a fuel crisis. Prices have risen 543 per cent since 2019, tripling in just the last three months.

The increase in fuel prices has a knock-on effect, increasing prices of essential items such as food, water and medicines making them unaffordable for many who are already struggling to meet their daily needs. It is also causing a reduction in humanitarian aid deliveries to more remote areas as the fuel prices have increased so much some remote communities are now experiencing a reduced delivery of water and sanitation support.

“Yemenis are desperate for peace – instead they are facing yet more death and destruction. Violence and hunger are on the increase once more and millions of people cannot get the basics their families need,” said Ferran Puig, Oxfam’s Country Director in Yemen.

“People can’t afford to pump water to irrigate their crops and in remote areas where people rely on trucked drinking water, they can’t afford to pay increased prices meaning they have to use water that is not safe to drink.”

Health facilities across the country could soon be forced to shut off life-saving equipment because of lack of fuel. During the last few days, local media in Taiz have reported that the Al Thawra hospital has stopped its operations due to the fuel shortage.

A spiralling currency devaluation means that what little income people may have buys less and less every day forcing Oxfam and other aid agencies to regularly increase the cash transfers they provide to support vulnerable families.

Civilian deaths and injuries in the conflict have doubled since the UN body responsible for monitoring violations of international humanitarian law in Yemen was removed in October of last year. There have been over 14,554 civilian casualties since recording by the Civilian Impact Monitoring project started in 2017. During the last seven years, there have been over 24,600 airstrikes across Yemen. In the last few months, shifting frontlines have led to an increase in landmine deaths and injuries around Marib where retreating forces lay them to slow down their opponents.

“Yemen desperately needs a lasting peace so people can rebuild their lives and livelihoods. Without peace, the cycle of misery will continue and deepen. Until then, adequate funding for humanitarian aid is critical,” Puig said.

– 30 –

 Notes to editors:

•  The international escalation of conflict in Yemen occurred on March 26, 2015.
• Fuel price increase information up to mid-February: On the unofficial market, diesel is selling for US $40 for 20 litres in the North of Yemen while in the government controlled Southern areas sources say official prices were raised by 26 per cent  in mid-January to 17,700 Yemeni rial (YR) for 20 litres (US $70) while sources put unofficial prices at around 28,000-30,000 YR for 20 litres (US $111-120). The price of 20 litres of cooking gas has more than trebled in Northern Yemen – prices are now 17000YR (US$28) on the unofficial market compared the official price of 4750YR (around US $8).
• Impact of fuel crisis on food availability https://fews.net/east-africa/yemen/key-message-update/january-2022
• Displacement figures https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/iom-yemen-rapid-displacement-tracking-yemen-idp-dashboard-reporting-period-06-12-march 4279 Households = 25,674 people
• Hunger figure of 19M and 75% of population will need assistance this year  https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/under-secretary-general-humanitarian-affairs-and-emergency-relief-coordinator-martin-1
• Aid needs: 15.9M people needed humanitarian assistance – today the figure is 20.7M https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/2015-yemen-humanitarian-needs-overview vs https://hum-insight.info/plan/1077
• IPC hunger forecast 2022 https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/alerts-archive/issue-58/en/
• IPC Hunger 2014 https://www.fao.org/resilience/multimedia/maps/detail/zh/c/277311/
• Figure for aid per person = 1.3 BN pledged for 2022 divided by 22.8 M(75% of 30.3M population)= $57 per person in need per year = 15c per day for each person in need
• Number of airstrikes in Yemen from https://caat.org.uk/homepage/stop-arming-saudi-arabia/the-war-on-yemens-civilians/#:~:text=The%20Saudi%20Coalition’s%20air%20war,were%20clearly%20identified%20as%20civilian.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

The Philippines is struggling to recover from last month’s massive Typhoon Rai that caused losses worth 11.1 billion Php ($215m) to agricultural crops and farmland and another 17.5 billion Php ($330m) damages to homes, roads, electricity and water lines.

More than 420,000 hectares of land have been lost to storm floods, and as many as 925,000 homes damaged or destroyed. Key staple crops like rice, coconut and sugarcane have been wiped out across some regions of the country. The Philippines’ fisheries industry has lost over three billion’s Php ($58m) worth of fishing boats, gear, and stock.

Oxfam Philippines Country Director Lot Felizco said: “our staff reported finding people begging for scraps of food in Bontoc, Padre Burgos, Tomas Oppus and Malitbog, towns that were worst hit in Southern Leyte”.

“As the rest of the world starts a new year with hope, nearly seven million people – more than the entire population of Denmark – are struggling to come to terms with their homes damaged or destroyed and main incomes gone. Nearly 390,000 farmers and fishing folk have had their crops flattened, fishing boats smashed, or livestock killed or lost. They have been left with nothing,” said Felizco.

Typhoon Rai was the last – and by far the strongest – of 15 typhoons to have hit The Philippines in 2021.

Extreme weather events like Typhoon Rai are harbinger of worse to come. Scientists have long warned that rising global temperatures, induced by a man-made climate crisis, are causing typhoons to become more intense and more frequent.

Oxfam roundly criticized the last COP26 climate talks for showing an “appalling disregard“ for a financial plan needed to compensate countries, like The Philippines, for loss and damage. It has urged rich polluting countries to honour their promises not only to cut carbon emissions to avoid a catastrophic global temperature rise above 1.5C, but to also stump up funding for mitigation and adaptation – and loss and damage – to poorer countries.

Climate-fuelled extreme weather events, compounded by economic fallout from COVID-19 and existing inequalities, have pushed millions of vulnerable people in The Philippines to the brink of hunger and poverty.  In 2021, over 26 million people – nearly a quarter of the population – were already living under the poverty line, where families of five earn less than 12,082 Phs a month ($230 a month).

A recent survey in 2021 showed that 2.5 million Filipinos experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the three months (Jul-Sept 2021).

In The Philippines now – as local people struggle to clean up and recover their homes and livelihoods – urgent humanitarian funding is needed to provide lifesaving food and water, and to help people rebuild their homes, crops and businesses. Oxfam is urgently calling for four million Euros to help support its part of the collective humanitarian response in the country.

– 30 –

Notes to the editor:

• Figures on loss and damages according to Department of Agriculture – DRRM Operations Center. 
• As Jan 3, 2022 figures on infrastructure loss and damages are according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
• According to 2015-2020 data from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, around 54.9 million or 64 per cent Filipinos are chronically food insecure (IPC-Chronic level 2 and above). There are 14.5 million in level 3; and 7.1 million in level 4, totaling 21.6 million in IPC3 and above.
• Typhoon Rai has already killed more than 400 people, damaged nearly 830,000 houses, displaced over half a million from their homes, and left 6.8 million people in desperate humanitarian need.
• Oxfam, together with eight local partners have already reached over 38,000 people in the worst-hit communities in in Southern Leyte, Leyte province, and Siargao islands, with food packs, shelter repair materials, hygiene kits, sleeping kits, water kits, solar lights and solar packs. They also provided pre-disaster financial aid to 2,650 families in Eastern Samar to help them prepare for the typhoon.
• Data on hunger by the Social Weather Survey (SWS) reported in the 3rd quarter of 2021.
• Data on losses in agriculture and fishery sectors are from Philippines Department of Agriculture as of Jan 6, 2022.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Notes to editors:

Under the Building Resilient Adaptive and Disaster Ready Communities (B-READY) project, in coordination with Strengthening Harmonized Action for Disaster Risk Reduction, Preparedness and Early Recovery (SHARPER) project, the humanitarian groups utilized an early warning system technology developed by Global Parametrics and provided financial assistance to low-income communities before the typhoon hit.

Both projects involve non-government organizations, private sector groups, government, and science-based agencies, which aim to anticipate typhoons and empower vulnerable groups at risk to prepare for incoming disasters.

Oxfam Pilipinas Country Director Maria Rosario Felizco said that by shifting from giving post-disaster cash aid to providing pre-disaster cash aid, communities can recover from disasters sooner.

“To strengthen Filipinos’ disaster resilience, we need to move from a post-disaster response mechanism, and instead anticipate disasters and support vulnerable groups such as low-income families, elderly people, single women with children, and people with disabilities,” Felizco said.

The initiative also capacitates local leaders to improve disaster preparedness and response.

“With the early disaster warning technology of the BREADY project, local governments can start anticipating and planning for coming disasters that immensely helps communities to cope with disasters better,” Salcedo town Mayor Melchor Mergal said.

“The experience of Salcedo LGU is one of those we are looking at for the scaling up of B-READY. By following the B-READY protocol, an LGU is empowered to decide and make assessments for the need of an activation of the protocol,” Oxfam Financial Inclusion Manager Junver Arcayna said.

The Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) of Dolores, Eastern Samar also tried B-READY’s anticipatory action for the first time.

“We are glad to be part of the innovative shift to focus on anticipatory action instead of the default post-disaster response. With this project, we are confident that our community is ready to face the coming typhoon,” MDRRMO head Manuel Catuday said.

The B-READY project is an innovation that combines weather forecasting and pre-disaster cash transfer technology that allows communities to protect themselves and minimize damages to livelihoods and infrastructures before a disaster strikes. It is jointly implemented by Oxfam Novib, Oxfam Pilipinas, People’s Disaster Risk Reduction Network, PLAN International, PayMaya, Smart Padala, Global Parametrics, and the Local Government of Salcedo in Eastern Samar, with the donation of Dutch Relief Alliance.

The project is also in partnership with PayMaya and Smart Padala, which help strengthen the cashless ecosystem that allows target groups to access financial aid immediately.

On the other hand, SHARPER project ensures that communities affected by recurrent disasters are capacitated for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery by equipping them to co-lead disaster relief and recovery efforts in collaboration with local authorities.

This initiative is jointly implemented by Oxfam Pilipinas, People’s Disaster Risk Reduction Network (PDRRN); Sentro para sa Ikauunland ng katutubong Agham at Teknolohiya Inc. (SIKAT), and Oxfam America.

– 30 –

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Recorded cases of COVID-19 have tripled and the death rate has risen by more than fivefold (420 per cent) in the last month. Excluded from these figures are countless undiagnosed deaths of people in their homes due to the scarcity of tests and hospital beds. Nor does the official death toll of 1649 include the vast majority of Yemeni people who live in the north of the country where COVID-19-related data is not available.

Despite promises that COVAX, the global initiative to deliver vaccines, would achieve at least 23 per cent vaccination coverage in all member countries by the end of this year, less than one per cent of Yemen’s 30.5 million people have so far received one dose and only 0.05 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated.

Half-way through the year the COVAX scheme was already short by 88 per cent of the promised doses for Yemen, having delivered just 511,000 of 4.2 million. Fears that Yemen’s only source of vaccines to date will fail the country again increased last week when the initiative announced it was a half a billion doses short of its global supply target.

Muhsin Siddiquey, Oxfam’s in Yemen’s country director, said: “Yemen has one of the highest COVID-19 fatality rates in the world – it simply can’t cope with this virus. The conflict has decimated the already fragile healthcare system. Many people are very weak because they can’t afford to feed themselves properly or to buy basic medicines. Others are unable to afford the cost of transportation to a medical centre because of the ongoing fuel crisis.

“Vaccination is a simple solution that would save lives, but the international community is failing the people of Yemen who need doses now. We need the vaccines that have been promised but it is also shameful that having bought up all the vaccines for themselves, rich countries like the UK and Germany are blocking the solutions that would see the rights and recipes of these lifesaving vaccines shared so that more can be produced for countries like Yemen. Protecting lives should be more important than protecting the outsized profits of pharmaceutical corporations who have already made billions from this crisis.”

Over four million Yemenis have been displaced during the conflict with around two million living in Marib, currently the site of fierce fighting. Conditions in the camps are dire, many people have no access to clean water, sanitation facilities or healthcare.

According to the UN two out of three Yemenis lack access to healthcare services. Seven years on from the start of the conflict, only an estimated half of healthcare facilities are still operating. An estimated 20 million Yemenis need healthcare assistance including 5.9 million children. Sources report that Yemen’s doctors in public hospitals have been working unpaid with some sleeping in hospitals and clinics as they cannot afford accommodation.

This year the UN requested donor countries to provide $3.9 billion for essential humanitarian aid – so far less than half has been donated with healthcare only receiving 11 per cent of the funds it needs.

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

COVID-19 STATS:

• Number of cases of COVID August 2020 – September 19, 2021 = 1260
• Number of cases of COVID July 2020 – August 19, 2021 = 420
• Number of deaths due to COVID August 2020 – September 19, 2021 = 229
• Number of deaths due to COVID July 2020 – August 19, 2021 = 44
• Source – Johns Hopkins University
• Vaccine supply raw data from Airfinity, Vaccination raw data from Our World in Data (All vaccine data from 20.09.21).

• Source for Covax vaccine supply stats:  https://www.who.int/news/item/08-09-2021-joint-covax-statement-on-supply-forecast-for-2021-and-early-2022
• The IRG government in the South of Yemen closed schools last week (w/c 13 September).
• Latest key figures on IDPs https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-unhcr-operational-update-covering-period-24-august-3-september-2021
• COVAX = COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines directed by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the World Health Organization.
• Yemen healthcare needs: https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-response-plan-2021-march-2021-enar
• Broadcast quality B roll of the camp and crowded local markets is available upon request.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

With numbers expected to rise, the Haitian Civil Protection General Directorate (DGPC) so far reports at least 1419 people dead and 6900 injured.

Tropical Depression Grace is also expected to cause extensive damage.

And all this is happening in a country rocked by political chaos since the assassination of their president last month, in a context of insecurity, social upheaval and rising hunger, where hospitals were already dealing with an influx of people suffering from COVID-19.

Humanitarian Coalition members and their local partners are actively responding to the crisis by providing life-saving assistance to affected families.

Richard Morgan, executive director of the Humanitarian Coalition, says, “We are shocked and saddened by this disaster, and our hearts go out to the people of Haiti, both there and here at home in Canada. We call on all Canadians to do what they can to help. Acting quickly and giving generously will save lives.”

The following agencies are members of the Humanitarian Coalition: Action Against Hunger, Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Canadian Lutheran World Relief, CARE Canada, Doctors of the World, Humanity & Inclusion, Islamic Relief Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Québec, Plan International Canada, Save the Children, World Vision Canada.

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For more information or to request an interview:

Marg Buchanan
marg.buchanan@humanitariancoalition.ca
514-627-3932

The one-time emergency COVID-19 billionaire tax would raise $5.4 trillion and still leave the world’s 2,690 billionaires $55 billion richer than before the virus struck. Governments across the world are massively under-taxing the wealthiest individuals and big corporations, which is undermining the fight against COVID-19 and poverty and inequality.

The world’s billionaires have a collective net worth of $13.5 trillion ― up from $8 trillion at the beginning of the pandemic, a gain of nearly 69 per cent. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ wealth increased by $79.4 billion during the pandemic, rising from $113 billion in March 2020 to $192.4 billion. Billionaire wealth has increased more over the past 17 months than it has in the past 15 years, and 325 new billionaires joined the ‘3-comma club’ since the pandemic began ― equivalent to roughly one new billionaire minted every day.

Less than one per cent of people in low-income countries have received a vaccine, while the profits made by Big Pharma has seen the CEOs of Moderna and BioNTech become billionaires. The COVID-19 crisis has pushed over 200 million people into poverty and cost women around the world at least $800 billion in lost income in 2020, equivalent to more than the combined GDP of 98 countries. At the same time, 11 people are now dying of hunger and malnutrition each minute, outpacing COVID-19 fatalities.

Morris Pearl, former Managing Director at Blackrock and Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, said: “The surge in global billionaire wealth as millions of people have lost their lives and livelihoods is a sickness that countries can no longer bear. Rich people getting endlessly richer is not good for anyone. Our economies are choking on this hoarded resource that could be serving a much greater purpose. Billionaires need to cough up that cash ball ―and governments need to make them do it by taxing their wealth.”

Governments have in the past turned to the wealthiest in response to major crises. After World Wars I and II, one-off wealth taxes were levied in European countries and Japan to fund reconstruction. France, for example, taxed excessive wartime wealth gains at a rate of 100 per cent after the Second World War. More recently, following the global financial crisis of 2008, countries including Iceland introduced temporary wealth taxes to help refill public coffers.

Policymakers, leading economists, civil society organizations, the UN, IMF and the World Bank are calling for one-time ‘solidarity taxes’ and longer-term wealth taxes targeted at the super-rich to mitigate the economic impacts of the pandemic and reduce inequalities. In December 2020, debt-saddled Argentina adopted a one-off special levy dubbed the ‘millionaire’s tax’ that has brought in around $2.4 billion to pay for pandemic recovery.

Siham Rayale, Oxfam Canada’s Women’s Rights Policy & Advocacy Specialist said: “Billionaire Jeff Bezos could personally pay for enough vaccines for the whole world, yet he would rather spend his wealth on a thrill ride to space. COVID-19 is turning the gap between rich and poor into an unbridgeable chasm. The obscene levels of wealth gained from the pandemic by a handful of mega rich individuals should immediately be taxed at 99 per cent ― enough to fully vaccinate everyone on Earth and help millions of workers who lost their jobs due to COVID-19. Only with this kind of radical and progressive policy making will we be able to fight inequality and end poverty.”

The Festival to Fight Inequality, a two-day virtual gathering of thousands of activists from nearly 30 countries, will take place August 13-14. They will discuss solutions to the worsening global inequality crisis, including taxing the rich.

Njoki Njehu, Pan Africa Coordinator of the Fight Inequality Alliance, said: “With a 99 per cent tax on billionaires’ COVID-19 wealth gains, we are calling time on this age of greed. Billionaire wealth is not earned. Billionaires are profiting from working people’s hard graft and pain. It’s their money ’earned’ by your sweat ―and it’s high time that sweat began to pay off. Governments need to tax the rich for us to stand any chance of reversing the inequality crisis we’re in.”

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

• The cost of vaccinating the world’s adult population was calculated as follows: two doses at $7 per dose for 5 billion people, for a total of $70 billion. This is based on the average cost per dose. Oxfam, the Fight Inequality Alliance, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Patriotic Millionaires do not endorse such high prices for vaccines and, as part of The People’s Vaccine Alliance, are campaigning for patent-free access to allow generic manufacturers to produce COVID-19 vaccines to drive down prices.
• According to the ILO’s World Employment and Social Outlook 2021 Flagship Report, 220 million people are currently unemployed.  Of these, 114 million people were made jobless by COVID-19. To give a one-off $20,000 cash grant to all workers currently unemployed would cost $4.4 trillion dollars.
• Analysis of Forbes’ real-time and annual billionaire lists shows that the world’s billionaires increased their wealth by $5.5 trillion over the past 17 months, from $8 trillion on 18 March 2020 to $13.5 trillion on 31 July 2021. This is more than the $5.4 trillion billionaires gained over a period of 15 years, from 2006 to 2020. A one-off 99 per cent levy on billionaires’ $5.5 trillion pandemic windfalls would raise $5.445 trillion.
• At least nine people have become new billionaires since the beginning of the pandemic, thanks to the excessive profits pharmaceutical corporations with monopolies on COVID-19 vaccines are making.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed over 200 million people into poverty, according to estimates by World Bank researchers.
• United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged governments to “consider a solidarity or wealth tax on those who have profited during the pandemic, to reduce extreme inequalities”. The IMF and the World Bank have also called for wealth taxes to help cover the costs of COVID-19.
• Argentina has collected 223 billion pesos (around $2.4 billion) from its one-off pandemic wealth tax.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

More than a million people have died from COVID-19 since G7 leaders last met back in February, when they made vague pledges to increase the global vaccine supply, but crucially failed to collectively back the waiver of intellectual property rules and investment in manufacturing vaccines in developing countries that would really make the difference.

As G7 Health Ministers meet today for talks ahead of the Leaders’ Summit next week, The People’s Vaccine Alliance is calling on the G7 to stop making empty promises and protecting the interests of pharmaceutical companies, and instead take urgent action to close the massive vaccine void between their nations and poorer countries.

New calculations from the Alliance, which includes Health Justice Initiative, Oxfam, and UNAIDS, found that last month people living in G7 countries were 77 times more likely to be offered a vaccine than those living in the world’s poorest countries. Between them, G7 nations were vaccinating at a rate of 4.6 million people a day in May, meaning, if this rate continues, everyone living in G7 nations should be fully vaccinated by January 8, 2022. At the current rate – vaccinating 63,000 people a day – it would take low income countries 57 years to reach the same level of protection.

Of the 1.77 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines given globally, 28 per cent have been in G7 countries. In contrast just 0.3 per cent of COVID-19 jabs have been given in low-income countries, despite the fact G7 and low-income countries have a fairly similar population size.

“Almost 60 per cent of Canadians have received at least one shot but many countries, including Senegal, Mali and Haiti, are struggling to get vaccines to healthcare workers. It is baffling to see Canada continue to push for protecting big pharma IP when the majority of Canadians (76 per cent) are in support of waiving it,” Siham Rayale, Oxfam Canada’s women’s rights policy specialist said.

“We cannot keep relying only on COVAX to reach the most vulnerable. Canada should join the emerging global consensus to end pharma monopolies and stop this pandemic everywhere.”

According to Fatima Hassan, Founder and Director of Health Justice Initiative in South Africa, eight people have died from COVID-19 every minute since G7 leaders last met.

“That’s more than a million lives lost, while just a few countries, including the UK and Germany, continue to block proposals to waive patents on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments which would enable every qualified manufacturer in the world to produce vaccines instead of a handful of US and European pharma corporations,” Hassan said.

“Whatever pledges and promises the G7 make, they are still leaving pharmaceutical corporations to decide who lives and who dies, unless they back the ending of these COVID-19 vaccine monopolies.”

While some G7 members claim they have done their bit by pledging doses or funding to COVAX, the initiative, which was set up to help developing countries access COVID-19 vaccines, is massively failing. COVAX has delivered less than a third of the doses it promised to by the end of May and the Alliance warned that at the current rate, it is likely to reach only 10 per cent of people at best in developing countries by the end of the year.

“It is obscene that Canada, the UK, Germany and other rich countries, which are able to vaccinate their own people, are preventing poor countries from making the doses they need to save lives,” Rayale said.

“The sad fact is developing countries cannot depend on COVAX or the good will of the pharma industry to save the lives of their people. G7 leaders must take this moment to stand on the right side of history by putting their full support behind the vaccine patent waiver supported by more than 100 countries. The G7 may be getting the vaccines they need but too much of the world is not and people are paying for patent protection with their lives.”

Of the G7 nations, only the US are backing the proposal at the WTO to waive intellectual property rights. The UK and Germany are opposing, while Canada, France, Japan and Italy are on the fence. This is despite the fact the public are strongly in favour of the idea, with polling showing that an average of 70 per cent of people across G7 nations believing that governments should ensure pharmaceutical companies share their formulas and technology, so that qualified manufacturers around the world can help increase the supply.

Dr Mohga Kamal-Yanni, Senior Health Policy Advisor to The People Vaccine Alliance, said: “The G7 must act now to force companies to share the vaccine technology and know-how with qualified manufacturers in developing countries in order to maximize supply.

“Last week the WHO has re-launched its COVID-19 Technology Access Pool to facilitate sharing vaccines technology, knowhow and intellectual property. The G7 must show a strong political support for the pool if they are serious about ending the pandemic. They must also announce funding to support technology transfer and manufacturing in developing countries. Every day they delay is a day that lives could be saved.”

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

• Since G7 leaders last met for a virtual summit on February 19 – 1,019,828 people have died from COVID-19, the equivalent of eight people per minute, according to data from Our World in Data https://ourworldindata.org/covid-deaths
• Vaccine supply and delivery data from Airfinity, Our World in Data, UNICEF and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Projections of how long vaccinations could take are based on the average rate of vaccinations from May 1 – 25, 2021.Calculations were made on May 26, 2021.
• Between them, G7 nations are vaccinating at a rate of 4,630,533 people per day. At that rate it would take 227 days to fully vaccinate their entire population, until January 8, 2022, assuming everyone receives two doses. Between them, Low Income Countries are vaccinating at a rate of 62,772 people per day. At that rate it will take them 57 years to vaccinate their entire population, until October 7, 2078, assuming everyone receives two doses.
• Between them, Low Income Countries are vaccinating at a rate of 62,772 people per day. At that rate it will take them 57 years to vaccinate their population with at least single dose until October 7, 2078.
• According to new calculations made by the People’s Vaccine Alliance using Our World In Data from 2May 25 – 1,774,959,169 vaccines have been administered globally. People living in G7 countries received 497,150,151 of these vaccines (28%) their combined population is 774,917,290. People living in low Income countries received 5,481,470 vaccines (0.31%), their combined population is 660,310,395.
• For the month of May, 497.15m doses were given in G7 countries, divided between 774m people = 0.6423 doses per person, 5.48mdoses were given in low income countries divided between 660m people = 0.0083 doses per person, 0.6423 divided by 0.0083 = 77.4 – therefore, last month people in G7 countries were 77 times more likely to get a vaccine than those in poor countries.
• The statistic that COVAX will only reach 10 per cent of people in developing countries this year does not include India.
• More information on G7 public opinion polling by the People’s Vaccine Alliance available here: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/05/an-average-of-7-in-10-across-g7-countries-think-their-governments-should-force-big-pharma-to-share-vaccine-know-how/

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

400,000 people in Gaza do not have access to regular water supply after 11 days of bombardment devastated electricity and water services and severely impacted the three main desalination plants in Gaza city, Oxfam warned today.

Oxfam Country Director in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, Shane Stevenson said: “Every one of the 2.1 million people living in the Gaza strip has been affected by Israel’s bombing that took 240 lives, destroyed or damaged 258 buildings containing nearly 1,042 homes and commercial offices, and devastated vital public services.”

Around 100,000 Palestinians were displaced by the bombing and are attempting to return home. Even if their homes are still standing, life for them will not be normal.

“Gaza is largely dependent upon fuel for its electricity, including to pump clean water from wells into homes. With the disruption in the supply causing a shortage of fuel, hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza will soon have no access to basic hygiene,” Stevenson said.

“Electricity cuts and the destruction of office buildings have forced many small businesses to come to a halt. Israel’s authorities have stopped the bombing but are now restricting fuel deliveries. They have also closed most of the Gaza fishing zone, meaning nearly 3600 fishermen have now lost their daily income and food”.

“Water is doubly important, during this critical phase of the Coronavirus pandemic, to help people limit the spread of COVID-19. Six hospitals and 11 clinics have also been damaged including the only COVID-19 laboratory in Gaza,” he said.

Gaza and the West Bank have already seen more than 330,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 3,700 people have died due to the virus.

Even before the recent hostilities, the average daily consumption of water was just 88 liters per capita — far below the global minimum requirement of 100 liters. Oxfam is already working with partners to provide people with immediate lifesaving clean water, hygiene kits and cash to help people buy food and their essentials, and to restore destroyed water systems. The agency aims to reach an additional 282,000 people and needs $4.4 million (CAD) to ramp up its humanitarian assistance in Gaza.

“Meeting people’s immediate humanitarian needs is critical now. But Gaza cannot rebuild without addressing the root causes of the conflict. The cycle of war means any humanitarian effort now could be lost again tomorrow. The international community must ensure concrete political action to bring an end to the occupation and the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip,” Stevenson added.

– 30 –

 Notes to the Editor :

• The World Health Organization has set the minimum requirement for daily per capita water consumption at 100 liters. This amount should cover basic domestic needs such as drinking, bathing, cooking, and washing. In Gaza, average daily per capita consumption is only 88  liters; in Israel, by comparison, it is more than 200.
• Figures on impacted hospitals were reported in OCHA Flash Report #9, May 19
• The COVID-19 laboratory has now resumed working as per OCHA Flash Report # 11 on May 21.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Teams have already started providing face masks, hand sanitizer and other protective equipment in parts of Maharashtra following a request from state health authorities. Distribution of PPE to 500 frontline health workers will begin in Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the coming days.

Oxfam India is procuring oxygen tanks, beds, digital thermometers, and other medical equipment to help government hospitals where supplies are desperately low. We are also preparing to provide food rations and cash support to stranded migrant workers and other marginalized groups, and hand-washing stations in public spaces.

Pankaj Anand, Humanitarian and Programmes Director, said: “I do not know of a single family that has not seen at least one of its members infected. The surge in coronavirus cases has caught the country off guard. We are seeing hundreds of thousands of new cases every day and many more deaths. The health infrastructure in India is bursting at the seams [under huge pressure] and there are widespread reports of shortages of oxygen and other medical supplies in large cities.”

Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India, said: “Our immediate priority is to supply hospitals and health workers with medical equipment and PPE so they can continue treating those who are sick. But to avoid a worse humanitarian disaster it is vital we stop the spread and so we are also preparing hand-washing stations and awareness campaigns to help people stay safe. We are particularly concerned about migrant workers and other marginalized groups who may be stranded in the open and will be hit hardest by lockdowns and the economic shock. Oxfam India is preparing to provide food rations and cash assistance to help the most vulnerable people to survive the coming weeks.”

Oxfam India Executive Director Amitabh Behar, said: “India is the ‘pharmacy of the world’ and yet it is gasping for breath. This is wrong. India needs the world’s help now – with international aid and resources and assistance – but it needs the freedom too to unleash its own pharmaceutical might to produce Covid vaccines and not be bound by the patents and licenses and deals that it has had to make with the big pharmaceutical companies.”

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

India is in the midst of a major health crisis. Your support is critical: https://secured.oxfam.ca/page/81322/donate/1

Oxfam India will begin supplying PPE to 500 frontline health workers in five states in the coming days. It is also procuring oxygen tanks and masks, beds, digital thermometers and other medical equipment to help supply government hospitals, as well as 900 emergency food rations to support the most marginalized groups. Oxfam India and its partners are monitoring the situation in 16 states across India.

Since the first outbreak of COVID-19 last year, Oxfam India has been working to provide food, PPE, safety kits, cash assistance and livelihoods training across 15 states (Assam, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana). Oxfam India is committed to reaching the most vulnerable and marginalized groups including Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims and women and girls.

The sudden disruption caused by lockdowns has had a severe impact on daily wage labourers, migrants and informal workers who are struggling to feed themselves and their families. The sudden spike in cases COVID-19 in states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi has resulted in many migrant workers becoming stranded in railway stations, bus terminals or at their places of work. Oxfam’s field teams report that these groups, who are often excluded from government support, need food and handwashing facilities to reduce their chances of becoming infected.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Epidemiologists, from some of the world’s leading academic institutions, delivered a stark warning today of the risk the world is taking by failing to ensure all countries have sufficient vaccines to protect people from COVID-19.

In a survey of 77 epidemiologists from 28 countries, carried out by The People’s Vaccine Alliance, two-thirds thought that we had a year or less before the virus mutates to the extent that the majority of first-generation vaccines are rendered ineffective and new or modified vaccines are required. Of those surveyed, almost a third gave a timeframe of nine months or less. Fewer than one in eight said they believed that mutations would never render the current vaccines ineffective.

The overwhelming majority – 88 per cent – said that persistent low vaccine coverage in many countries would make it more likely for vaccine resistant mutations to appear.

The People’s Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of over 50 organizations including African Alliance, Oxfam and UNAIDS warned that at the current rate it was likely that only 10 per cent of people in the majority of poor countries will be vaccinated in the next year.

Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed – who included epidemiologists, virologists and infectious disease specialists from institutions including Johns Hopkins, Yale, Imperial College, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Cambridge University, the University of Edinburgh and The University of Cape Town – said that open sharing of technology and intellectual property could increase global vaccine coverage. The People’s Vaccine Alliance is calling for the lifting of pharmaceutical monopolies and the sharing of technology to urgently boost vaccine supply.

Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, said: “The more the virus circulates, the more likely it is that mutations and variants will emerge, which could make our current vaccines ineffective. At the same time, poor countries are being left behind without vaccines and basic medical supplies like oxygen.

“As we’ve learned, viruses don’t care about borders. We have to vaccinate as many people as possible, everywhere in the world, as quickly as possible. Why wait and watch instead of getting ahead of this?”

While he didn’t specify a timeframe, Gregg Gonsalves, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Yale University, echoed the urgency to vaccinate globally. Gonsalves said, “With millions of people around the world infected with this virus, new mutations arise every day. Sometimes they find a niche that makes them more fit than their predecessors. These lucky variants could transmit more efficiently and potentially evade immune responses to previous strains. Unless we vaccinate the world, we leave the playing field open to more and more mutations, which could churn out variants that could evade our current vaccines and require booster shots to deal with them.

“We all have a self-interest in ensuring that everyone around the world, no matter where they live have access to COVID-19 vaccines. The virus doesn’t respect borders and new variants somewhere on the planet mean none of us are safe.”

Quarraisha Abdool Karim, Associate Scientific Director of CAPRISA and Professor in Clinical Epidemiology at Columbia University, said, “As nations start to expand their vaccination programs we are once again reminded about our inter-dependence. High coverage rates and herd immunity in one country or region of the world while others, particularly low- and middle-income countries, continue to wait in line will create the perfect environment for the virus to continue to mutate and negate the benefits of any vaccine protection.

“In contrast, there are enormous benefits for everyone to have more equitable access to available doses of vaccines and achieve herd immunity globally sooner. As scientists, advocates, and decision-makers we must ensure that as many people are vaccinated all over the world and as soon as possible so that we can all focus our efforts in rebuilding our communities, livelihoods, and economies and know that we are all safe from COVID-19 and be better prepared for the next pandemic.”

The survey shows that it is imperative for the safety of all citizens in all countries that people in developing countries are vaccinated as soon as possible. Failure to tackle global vaccine inequality heightens the risk of further mutations.

Despite this imperative, rich country defence of the monopolies of pharmaceutical giants mean that global supplies are being artificially rationed, with a handful of companies deciding who lives and who dies. Earlier this month, rich countries blocked a proposal to waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines. The People’s Vaccine Alliance urges them to reconsider when talks resume at the World Trade Organization in April.

The Alliance is also calling for all pharmaceutical corporations working on COVID-19 vaccines to openly share their technology and intellectual property through the World Health Organization COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, in order to speed up and ramp up the production and rollout of vaccines to all countries.

Anna Marriott, Oxfam’s Health Policy Manager, said: “In many rich nations, vaccinated people are starting to feel safer, but unless we vaccinate all nations, there is a huge risk that the protection offered by vaccines will be shattered by fresh mutations.

“This survey highlights that we need a people’s vaccine, not only to protect people in the world’s poorest countries, but to ensure that people all over the world who’ve already been vaccinated aren’t put at risk again.”

Current vaccines appear to be at least partially effective against existing mutations but where new vaccines are needed it will take many months before they are approved for use and even longer to begin rolling them out. In the meantime, lockdowns and travel bans will continue to be the main protections against rising infections and fatalities. New vaccine recipes will also be subject to the same pharmaceutical monopolies, further restricting access for the rest of the world.

Dr Mohga Kamal Yanni, Senior Health Policy Advisor to The People Vaccine Alliance said, “If we were in a war with a country called COVID, would governments leave vital decisions on production, supply and price in the hands of arms producing companies?

“Given vaccines are our most crucial weapon in the fight against COVID-19, world leaders must take control to enable the World Health Organization’s COVID Technology Access Pool to facilitate sharing of technology and Intellectual Property so that all capable companies can maximize global vaccine production.”

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

Of the 77 respondents to the survey:

• 66.2% thought we had a year or less before the virus mutates to the extent that the majority of first-generation vaccines are rendered ineffective (18.2% of which thought we have 6 months or less and 32.5% said 9 months or less).
• 7.8% thought we would never see mutations rendering the current vaccines ineffective and new or modified vaccines being required and a further 7.8% didn’t feel confident in putting a time estimate. 18.2% thought we had 2 years or more before mutations render the current vaccines ineffective and new or modified vaccines are required.
• 74% said that open sharing of technology and intellectual property could increase global vaccine coverage. 23% said maybe and 3% said no.
• 88.3% said that persistent low vaccine coverage in many countries would make it more likely for vaccine resistant mutations to appear, 6.5% said it wouldn’t and 5.2% didn’t answer the question.
• The survey was carried out between February 17 and March 25, 2021. Survey respondents include epidemiologists, virologists and infection disease specialists form the following universities / institutions: Aalborg University Hospital in Denmark, Académie nationale de médecine in Paris, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Amader Hospital India, AMREF International University in Kenya, Belgian Lung and Tuberculosis Association, Cambridge University, Center for Family Health Research in Zambia, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in South Sudan, Centre for Infections Disease research Zambia, Columbia University USA, Complutense University in Madrid, Danish Medical Association, école de santé publique de l’Université in Montréal, Emory University USA, Forum for ethics review committees in India, fundacion huesped in Argentina, Georgetown USA, Good Clinical Practice Alliance – Europe (GCPA), Hamdard University in India, Ibn Sina Academy of Medicine and Sciences in India, Imperial College London, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine USA, ISPG – Instituto Superior Politecnico de Gaza, Johns Hopkins University USA, Johnson & Johnson, Kabale University in Uganda, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Lebanese University, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Makerere University in Uganda, Movement for Community-led Development, Mpilonhle in South Africa, National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani in Italy, National Research Ethics Board/PREVAIL in Liberia, OTRANS-RN in Guatemala, Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam, Portland State University School of Public Health USA, St. Luke’s Medical Center in the Philippines, Tufts University USA, University College London UK, University College London Institute for Global Health UK, University of Cape Town, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc in Belgium, University of the East Ramon Magsaysay in the Philippines, UK Emergency Medical Team, Unicamillus International University of Medical Science in Italy, Union of Junior Doctors in Denmark, Universidad Autónoma Gabriel Rene Moreno in Bolivia, Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Argentina, University of Cambridge UK, University of Cape Town in South Africa, University of Edinburgh UK, University of Maryland USA, University of Oxford, University of Pretoria in South Africa, University of Southern Denmark, University of Zimbabwe, University of Zambia, Walter Sisulu University in South Africa, World Health Organisation India, Wits University in South Africa and Yale School of Public Health USA.
• The respondents were from the following 28 countries: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Guatemala, India, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Norway, Philippines, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, UAE, Uganda, UK, USA, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

At least 56 people are reported dead, more than 826 injured and more than 15,000 fled from their homes following 6.2 magnitude earthquake which damaged and destroyed hundreds of homes around the cities of Majene and Mamuju in the west of the island.  Many of those who fled the quake are now sheltering in 15 camps.

Oxfam is working through its local partners Jejaring Mitra Kemanusiaan (JMK-Humanitarian Knowledge Hub) to help those affected by the earthquake.

Oxfam in Indonesia’s Humanitarian Operation Lead Dino Argianto said:

“Initially, access to some of the affected areas was blocked due to damage to the road between the two cities. Now it has been cleared, we have been able to travel to the camps and have seen the conditions people are living in.

“The camps are overcrowded, with no precautionary measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and there is limited PPE available – yet this is a part of Indonesia that is currently classified as a high transmission risk zone.

“There are many displaced people on the road, and no segregation in the camps, leading to safety concerns particularly for women and children.

“We were able to do an initial assessment and distribute some tarpaulin for shelter, hygiene kits and dignity kits for women, but much more is needed.”

Oxfam in Indonesia will continue to work through its local partner, JMK, in close coordination with government bodies and departments, such as the National Disaster Management Office, Ministry of Social Affairs and other humanitarian agencies.

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For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Nearly 70 poor countries will only be able to vaccinate one in 10 people against COVID-19 next year unless urgent action is taken by governments and the pharmaceutical industry to make sure enough doses are produced, a group of campaigning organizations warned today.

By contrast, wealthier nations have bought up enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations nearly three times over by the end of 2021 if those currently in clinical trials are all approved for use. Canada tops the chart with enough vaccines on order to vaccinate each Canadian five times. Updated data shows that rich nations representing just 14 per cent of the world’s population have bought up 53 per cent of all the most promising vaccines so far.

The organizations, including Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now and Oxfam, who are part of an alliance calling for a People’s Vaccine, used data collected by science information and analytics company Airfinity to analyze the deals done between countries and the eight leading vaccine candidates. They found that 67 low and lower middle-income countries risk being left behind as rich countries move towards their escape route from this pandemic. Five of the 67 – Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan and Ukraine – have reported nearly 1.5 million cases between them.

“No one should miss out from a life-saving vaccine because of the country they live in. Unless something changes dramatically, billions of people around the world will not receive a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 for years to come,” said Kate Higgins, Interim Executive Director of Oxfam Canada.

“While Canadians are of course concerned about our own access to the COVID-19 vaccine, we are asking people to extend their compassion – not just to our neighbours and the most at risk people in this country – but to people everywhere. Everyone on the planet needs this vaccine, and we need Canadians to help us push to make this possible.”

Heidi Chow, from Global Justice Now, said: “All pharmaceutical corporations and research institutions working on a vaccine must share the science, technological know-how, and intellectual property behind their vaccine so enough safe and effective doses can be produced. Governments must also ensure the pharmaceutical industry puts people’s lives before profits.”

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has already received approval in the UK and vaccinations are beginning this week. Canada has agreements with Pfizer and Moderna for COVID-19 vaccine. Regulators are expected to approve Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in Canada in a matter of days. They are likely to receive approval from other countries, including the US, shortly. One further potential vaccine, from Oxford in partnership with AstraZeneca, is expected to be submitted or are awaiting regulatory approval in various countries. The Russian vaccine, Sputnik, has announced positive trial results and four other candidates are in phase 3 clinical trials.

So far, all of Moderna’s doses and 96 per cent of Pfizer/BioNTech’s have been acquired by rich countries. In welcome contrast, Oxford/AstraZeneca has pledged to provide 64 per cent of their doses to people in developing nations. Yet despite their actions to scale up supply they can still only reach 18 per cent of the world’s population next year at most. Oxford/AstraZeneca deals have also mostly been made with some of the big developing countries like China and India, while the majority of developing countries have not done deals and have to share the COVAX pool of vaccines between them.

This demonstrates that one company alone cannot hope to supply the whole world, and that only open sharing of technology between vaccine producers can make this possible.

The People’s Vaccine Alliance is calling on all pharmaceutical corporations working on COVID-19 vaccines to openly share their technology and intellectual property through the World Health Organization COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, so that billions more doses can be manufactured, and safe and effective vaccines can be available to all who need them.

The Alliance is also calling on governments to do everything in their power to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are made a global public good — free of charge to the public, fairly distributed and based on need. A first step would be to support South Africa and India’s proposal to the World Trade Organization Council this week to waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments until everyone is protected.

The vaccines developed by AstraZeneca/Oxford, Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have received more than $5 billion dollars of public funding, which the alliance said placed a responsibility on them to act in the global public interest.

Lois Chingandu, Director of Frontline AIDS, said: “This pandemic is a global problem that requires a global solution. The global economy will continue to suffer so long as much of the world does not have access to a vaccine.

“We need to put pharmaceutical industry profit aside during this unprecedented pandemic, both to save humanity and the economy.”

Momentum is mounting for a People’s vaccine, which has already been backed by COVID survivors, health experts, activists, past and present world leaders, faith leaders and economists including: Cyril Ramaphosa, Imran Khan, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Gordon Brown, Helen Clark, Mary Robinson, Joseph Stiglitz, John Nkengasong and Thomas Piketty.

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Notes to editors:

• A breakdown of 8 leading vaccine candidates in Phase 3 that have done substantial deals with countries worldwide can be viewed here.
• All figures are based on the fact two doses are required apart from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which is a single dose vaccine.
• The Peoples’ Vaccine Alliance is a coalition of global and national organizations and activists united under a common aim of campaigning for a ‘People’s Vaccine’. The call for a People’s Vaccine is backed by past and present world leaders, health experts, faith leaders and economists. For more information visit: https://peoplesvaccine.org
• The figures have been calculated by analyzing data from Airfinity for November 2020. The statistic ‘9 out of 10 people missing out on vaccines in 67 countries’ is based on the fact that 30 low income countries and 37 lower-middle income countries currently will only have access to any vaccine through the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment (AMC). The 67 countries do not include middle income countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam, who have also made their own bilateral deals. So far, the COVAX AMC has managed to secure 700 million doses from the leading vaccine candidates, to be distributed between the 92 countries that have signed up. The figure was reached by dividing 700 million doses by the population of the 92 countries (3.6 billion), then dividing that by two, as two doses are required by the vaccines already secured by COVAX AMC to vaccinate each individual. Details  of the COVAX AMC can be found here: https://www.gavi.org/news/media-room/92-low-middle-income-economies-eligible-access-covid-19-vaccines-gavi-covax-amc
• The 67 countries are: Afghanistan, Angola, Algeria, Benin, Bhutan, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, The Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kenya, Kiribati, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor Leste, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, Vanuatu, West Bank and Gaza, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
• Calculations of proportion of doses for rich and poor nations were based on analyzing data on supply deals gathered by Airfinity. We examined the vaccine candidates that are in phase three trials that have done significant supply deals with countries across the world, cross-checking with original sources. There are currently eight of these: Astra Zeneca/Oxford, Novovax, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi/GSK, Pfizer/BioNTech, Gamaleya/Sputnik, Moderna and Sinovac.
• According to data from Johns Hopkins, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan and Ukraine have had over 1.46m cases between them: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

COVID-19 infections could rise exponentially as a result of these consecutive hurricanes and overcrowding shelters, Oxfam warns.

“Iota will have a devastating impact on areas already hit by hunger, drought, COVID19 and the calamity visited earlier from Eta. Millions of people have already lost everything they had,” said Asier Hernando, Oxfam’s Regional Director in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Heavy rains and winds resulted in flash floods, rivers to overflow and landslides. Hurricane Eta, the most powerful cyclone that hit Central America in years, hit the region last month, impacting more than six million people.

Oxfam, together with local partners, continues to provide humanitarian response in Central America. To date, Oxfam has reached 32,500 people affected by the emergency with food, hygiene kits, and shelters support to shelters.

“Oxfam is on the ground and now assessing the damages caused by Iota. There had already been a lot of damage to infrastructure caused by Eta and this urgently needs attention. We’ve had to temporarily suspend our on-going relief operations because of this new storm Iota, we cannot risk the lives of the people who are providing the response,” said Gloria García Parra, Oxfam’s Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Humanitarian aid is urgently needed to help Oxfam and its local partner organizations to provide vital lifesaving support to people impacted.

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Notes to editors

• The passage of Storm Amanda through Guatemala and El Salvador in May and the Nejapa landslide, also in El Salvador, had already caused significant damage and losses in the region, affecting the most vulnerable families.
• Oxfam is currently working to address the food insecurity caused by the drought in the Central American Dry Corridor, as well as, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with 10 local partner organizations, Oxfam teams are currently identifying the extent of the damage in the most affected areas.
• The Central American region has been hit by the COVID 19 pandemic with more than 260 thousand cases already registered.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Oxfam analyzed the deals that pharmaceutical corporations and vaccine producers have already struck with nations around the world for the five leading vaccine candidates currently in phase 3 clinical trials, based on data collected by Airfinity.

The international agency also warned that the same companies simply do not have the capacity to make enough vaccines for everyone who needs one. Even in the extremely unlikely event that all five vaccines succeed, nearly two thirds (61%) of the world’s population will not have a vaccine until at least 2022. It’s far more likely some of these experiments will fail, leaving the number of people without access even higher.

The calculations expose a broken system that protects the monopolies and profits of pharmaceutical corporations and favours wealthy nations, while artificially restricting production and leaving most of the world’s population waiting longer than necessary for a vaccine.

One of the leading vaccine candidates, developed by Moderna, has received $2.48 billion (USD) in committed taxpayer’s money. Despite this, the company has said it intends to make a profit from its vaccine and has sold the options for all of its supply to rich nations – at prices that range from $12 to $16 per dose in the US to around $35 per dose for other countries – putting protection out of reach for many people living in poverty. While it may be making real efforts to scale up supply, according to reports, the company only has the capacity in place to produce enough for 475 million people, or six per cent of the world’s population.

Oxfam and other organizations across the world are calling for a People’s Vaccine – available to everyone, free of charge and distributed fairly based on need. This will only be possible if pharmaceutical corporations allow vaccines to be produced as widely as possible by freely sharing their knowledge free of patents, instead of protecting their monopolies and selling to the highest bidder.

Chema Vera, Interim Executive Director of Oxfam International, said: “Governments will prolong this crisis in all of its human tragedy and economic damage if they allow pharmaceutical companies to protect their monopolies and profits. No single corporation will ever be able to meet the world’s need for a COVID-19 vaccine. That’s why we are calling on them to share their knowledge free of patents and to get behind a quantum leap in production to keep everyone safe. We need a People’s Vaccine, not a profit vaccine.”

Beyond the five leading vaccine candidates, reported vaccine deals also reveal stark inequalities between countries. The UK government has managed to secure deals on several leading vaccine candidates, equivalent to five doses per head of population. By contrast, Oxfam analysis reveals that Bangladesh has so far secured only one dose for every nine people.

There are also large differences in the willingness of pharmaceutical companies to set aside supply for poorer nations. While Moderna has so far pledged doses of its vaccine exclusively to rich countries, AstraZeneca has pledged two-thirds (66%) of doses to developing countries. Although AstraZeneca has done most to expand its production capacity by partnering with and transferring its technology to other manufacturers, it could still only supply up to 38 per cent of the global population, and only half of this if its vaccine requires two doses.

Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under-Secretary General, said: “We in the AIDS movement have seen in the past how corporations use monopolies to artificially restrict supplies of life-saving medicines and inflate their prices. UNAIDS and other members of the People’s Vaccine Alliance are calling for a new approach that puts public health first by sharing knowledge and maximizing supply. Anything short of that will lead to more deaths and economic chaos, forcing millions into destitution.”

The estimated cost of providing a vaccine for everyone on earth is less than one per cent of the projected cost of COVID-19 to the global economy. The economic case for requiring pharmaceutical companies to share their vaccine knowledge free of patents so that production can be scaled up as fast as possible could not be clearer, the agency said.

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Notes to editors:

• Nine COVID-19 vaccines are currently going through phase 3 clinical trials, of which supply deals have been made public for five. These vaccines are being developed by AstraZeneca, Gamaleya/Sputnik, Moderna, Pfizer and Sinovac. Data on vaccine supply and production has been provided by Airfinity, the data and science analytics company.
• Oxfam calculated the combined production capacity of these five vaccine candidates at 5.94 billion doses, enough for 2.97 billion people given that all five future vaccines will or are highly likely to require two doses. Supply deals have already been agreed for 5.303 billion doses, of which 2.728 billion (51 per cent) have been bought by developed countries including the UK, US, Australia, Hong Kong & Macau, Japan, Switzerland and Israel, as well as the European Union. The remaining 2.575 billion doses have been bought by or promised to developing countries including India, Bangladesh, China, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico among others. Included within the supply for developing countries are the 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine pledged to the Covax Advanced Market Commitment (AMC), the vaccine pooling mechanism. To avoid double counting we have assumed the recent additional agreement between the AMC and the Serum Institute of India to ‘accelerate’ the production of 100 million AstraZeneca or Novavax vaccines is already captured within those companies’ respective supply deals with the Serum Institute.
• The calculation for the UK is based on Airfinity’s data and includes all of the UK’s published vaccine deals. The calculation for Bangladesh is based on the country’s share of the doses currently available under the Covax AMC, and would be the same for all 92 AMC eligible countries if the vaccine is distributed evenly.
• The People’s Vaccine Alliance is a coalition of organisations and activists united under a common aim of campaigning for a ‘people’s vaccine’ for COVID-19 that is based on shared knowledge and is freely available to everyone everywhere. The alliance is calling on pharmaceutical corporations to share all vaccine knowledge with other companies and research institutions, including through the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP).
• The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook from June 2020 projected the cumulative loss to the global economy for 2020 and 2021 at $12 trillion.
• Using data provided by the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, Oxfam has calculated that the estimated cost to research, make, procure and distribute a vaccine to everyone on the planet could cost $70.6 billion.
• Therefore,the cost of providing a vaccine for everyone on Earth is equivalent to 0.59% of cost of COVID-19 to the global economy.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Countless Lebanese networks came alive in shock and horror with those of us trying to understand what happened as we searched frantically for family and friends thousands of kilometres away.

During this time, many of us kept sharing a common phrase – our hearts have broken many times over Beirut but never like this.

Explaining my love of Beirut is equal parts tricky and hard. Since leaving the city, I have spent my life thinking of how and when to return. I was born in Lebanon, left like millions of families, and couldn’t wait to return for a stretch of unforgettable and formative years.

The author working as a journalist covering the 2006 war with Israel in which the south of Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut were levelled. Photo: Shawn Jackson

My time there was long enough for me to live a full and rich career as a journalist and end it.

Long enough to find my little streets, shops, and cafes in Gemmayzeh that are now destroyed.

Long enough to build countless traditions with family, friends, and memories with my mom, like finding a hidden gem named Mayrig that served Armenian food. It is also now gone.

Long enough to fall in love, have my heart broken, and then healed.

Long enough to forge lifelong friendships. Long enough to breathe in the Mediterranean Sea air and have it flow through my veins.

Long enough to live through a war, develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, risk my life chasing stories while street bombs were being secretly set for Beirut’s activists and prominent voices, get broken down with anger, and long enough to realize I had to leave.

And yet, it turns out it wasn’t long enough.

Lebanon is one of the few countries in the world where the number of diaspora Lebanese outnumber those living there. People of Lebanese origin – whether born there, of Lebanese ancestry, or even those with a tenuous link to the country and more specifically to Beirut – experience an inexplicable link to this country that transcends logic.

In a strange way, Beirut is etched into our psyche in a way that is mythical, magical, and almost whimsical. We all dream of returning one day, but it takes a certain kind of stamina and resilience to make it in Beirut. That’s what the city’s bones are made of – steel, stone, and resilience.

Edward Said, a Palestinian writer, once wrote of Beirut, “These incomprehensibly brave people are too stubborn, too unwilling to start lives over again, too anchored in the city to leave… their mere survival, in ways we can neither trace nor reconstruct, seems miraculous.”

The magnitude of what has happened is hard to fathom. Not just the size and sheer force of the explosion. It’s also the longer term impact on a country already struggling with the weight of a broken economy, severe inequalities, decades of refugee influx and the COVID-19 pandemic that had already stretched the country’s resources and health systems to non-existent.

And yet, despite the struggles, the love for this city is something passed down from generation to generation. Whether it’s mornings listening with family to Fairouz and Majida el-Roumi waxing lyrical about the city, or the zaatar and labneh that we were fed throughout childhood, or the endless search for that smell of jasmine that just wafts over your shoulder when you least expect it. It’s rooted in you.

If heart tissue were made of memories, the strongest ones you would find holding it together are the ones that shimmer with memories of Beiruti gold.

Not the first time Beirut has been destroyed. The author as she covered the 2006 war with Israel in which the south of Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut were levelled. Photo: Shawn Jackson

It is as he sat in refuge, in this sanctuary city, that the Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish wrote his book Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut 1982. As he desperately sipped his Beiruti coffee, and listened to the sounds of a city under siege, he wrote, “…we have nothing to lose, so long as Beirut is here and we’re here in Beirut.”

The richness of Beirut is seeded in its history. Revolutions have started in Beirut and feminists like May Ziadeh, Layla Baalbaki, and Laure Moghaizel have forged incredible gains for Arab women, lost them, kept pushing for more, and paved the way for women like my formidably feminist mother, and for me to continue the fight.

I spent year after year as a young girl, surrounded by my mother and aunts, listening to the same stories of how they travelled across the country, in the dead of night, during a brutal civil war, to deliver important strategic documents to fighters in the north. Those are the roots of my career fighting for women’s rights. It is where I forged my beliefs that women are not victims without agency, but strong, brave, and heroic in times of greatest need.

I have no doubt that the women of Beirut – the nurses, the doctors, the firefighters, the soldiers, the mothers – will yet again rebuild this city and fight for justice for those who have suffered in this tragedy.

But that fight can sometimes be complicated. Despite being born in Lebanon to a Lebanese mother, I am of Palestinian origin, which makes me ineligible for citizenship. This is an injustice that Lebanese activists and organizations have been fighting for decades – the right for mothers to pass on their citizenship to their children. And yet to date, it’s something I am not able to pass on to my son.

Nevertheless, to me, like many, that piece of paper matters little. In my heart, I will always be Lebanese no matter what passports I hold. My son will always be a descendant of strong, proud, Phoenicians. And someday, I imagine, he will hold the same strident love for Beirut that I do that he also won’t be able to explain.

Rubble and debris sits on a damaged automobile on a residential street in Beirut, Lebanon on Aug. 5, 2020. Photographer Credit: Hasan Shaaban/Bloomberg.

He will visit his ancestors, listen to Fairouz sing her love for the city, eat zaatar and labneh, and continue the endless search for that elusive scent of jasmine. He will walk through streets rebuilt for the hundredth time.

For they will be rebuilt. Make no mistake. Each time with more grandeur, and even more steel and resilience.

Because Lebanon, after all, is home to some of the oldest cities in the world and if there is another thing that the Lebanese are known for – apart from their stubborn spirit – is their endless love for their Beirut.

Mayssam Zaaroura was a former journalist in Lebanon and now is Oxfam Canada’s Women’s Rights Knowledge Specialist for Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).

Medical and water infrastructure in Yemen has been hit during air raids almost 200 times since the conflict escalated more than five years ago, Oxfam said today, as the country continued to battle its outbreak of COVID-19.

That’s equivalent to one air raid every 10 days during the conflict affecting hospitals, clinics, ambulances, water drills, tanks and trucks, according to an Oxfam analysis of information on airstrikes collected by the Yemen Data Project.

Arms exporting countries have profited from the sale of billions of dollars-worth of munitions to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners throughout the course of more than five years of war in Yemen, despite knowing that some of these arms could be used in violation of international humanitarian law. The conflict escalated in March 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition backed the internationally recognized government against the Houthis

Yemen reported its first case of the coronavirus in April. As of August 12, there are 1,845 cases and 529 deaths from COVID confirmed but its thought the true number of people affected is much higher than this.

Yemen’s medical facilities have been decimated by more than five years of war, with only half fully functional. The United Nations estimates that 20.5 million people – two thirds of the population – need help to get clean water. Oxfam warned last month that thousands of people could be dying from undetected cases of cholera because COVID-19 has overwhelmed the country’s remaining health facilities.

Muhsin Siddiquey, Oxfam’s Yemen Country Director said: “Vital infrastructure like hospitals, clinics, water tanks and wells have consistently been in the cross hairs throughout this conflict. Their damage and destruction make Yemen even more vulnerable to diseases like COVID and cholera.

“Lives aren’t just lost when the bombs fall but also during the weeks, months or years it takes for hospitals and wells to be rebuilt.

“The international community cannot continue to turn a blind eye to Yemen’s suffering which is being fuelled by arms sales.”

The Civilian Impact Monitoring Project (CIMP), which collects reports of all incidents of armed violence with a direct civilian impact, has recorded 115 occasions when medical or water facilities have been hit in the last two and a half years. This includes airstrikes, shelling and small arms fire with 102 civilians dead and 185 injured due to these incidents.

CIMP received reports of airstrikes on three quarantine centres – one in Saleef district of Hudaydah governorate in late March and two in Al Maljim district of Bayda governorate in early April.

So much damage has been done to civilian infrastructure, rebuilding it is likely to cost tens of billions of dollars. The UNDP has cited a 2016 damage and needs assessment which estimated the cost of damage to physical infrastructure in Yemen to be between USD $4 to $5 billion, including $79 to $97 million to water, sanitation and hygiene.

Since the confirmation of cases of coronavirus in Yemen in April, Oxfam has refocused its work to respond to the pandemic. We are working on rehabilitating the water supply to one of the main hospitals in Aden, distributing hygiene kits for the most vulnerable households, and trucking in clean water to camps for people who have had to flee their homes. Across Yemen, we’re training community health volunteers to spread the word about coronavirus and the importance of hygiene and hand washing.

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

• The Yemen Data Project recorded 86 air raids on medical facilities and 107 on water tanks, trucks, drills and dams between March 26, 2015 and June 30, 2020.
• CIMP recorded 115 incidents involving medical or water infrastructure between January 1, 2018 and July 31, 2020.
• The UNDP report into the economic cost of the war is available here.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

It is estimated that the explosion on August 4 of a warehouse in the port of Beirut has left at least 100 people dead, and thousands injured. More than 300,000 people have lost their homes.

In response to this disaster – complicated by an already critical situation in the country – the Honourable Karina Gould, Minister of International Development, announced this morning that the donations from individual Canadians made to the Humanitarian Coalition or one of its 12 members before August 24 would be matched by the government, up to a maximum of $2 million.

“This announcement comes as hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon, already affected by the pandemic and precarious economic situation, have been pushed over the brink by this week’s devastating explosion. This opportunity for Canadians to double the power of their donation comes at a critical juncture, when immediate assistance is needed. We hope it will be used widely to support the people of Lebanon,” said Oxfam Canada Interim Executive Director Kate Higgins.

Members of the Canadian public can make a donation to provide emergency assistance to the people of Lebanon securely online at www.together.ca, or by phone at 1 800 464-9154.

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Editors notes:

• Spokespeople from the member organizations of the Humanitarian Coalition, as well as their teams on the ground in Lebanon, are available for interview in French and English.
• The Humanitarian Coalition brings together leading aid organizations to provide Canadians with a simple and effective way to help during international humanitarian disasters. The following agencies are members of the Humanitarian Coalition: Action Against Hunger, Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Canadian Lutheran World Relief, Care Canada, Doctors of the World, Humanity & Inclusion, Islamic Relief Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Québec, Plan International Canada, Save the Children, and World Vision.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Marg Buchanan
Communications Manager
Humanitarian Coalition
(514) 627-3932
marg.buchanan@coalitionhumanitaire.ca

Oxfam is extremely concerned about the ability of communities in Beirut, and the rest of Lebanon, to recover from the latest crisis. Even before the blast, Lebanon was at breaking point, with people struggling to cope with multiple, complex crises of economic collapse and a global pandemic.  The scale and magnitude of the disaster means hundreds of thousands of people now need immediate aid including food, shelter, water, fuel, protection, as well as support to rebuild their lives and livelihoods well into the future.

Oxfam Lebanon Policy Lead, Bachir Ayoub said this ‘crisis on crises’ creates huge challenges for people in Lebanon for years to come.

“Lebanon was already struggling to cope. The economy has been in a tailspin, the local currency has lost approximately 80 per cent of its value, and the last month has seen a dramatic increase in coronavirus cases with hospitals already under pressure.

“People whose homes have been damaged or completely destroyed will not be able to access their money to start to repair or rebuild, and essential items like wheat and medicine will soon be scarce, as the Port of Beirut, the major storage and supply point, has been obliterated. A massive effort will be required to recover.

“The devastation in Beirut is unimaginable, and the road to recovery will be long and hard. Like all of Beirut, Oxfam staff have been affected. Some have had homes completely destroyed, others have sustained injuries. Thankfully, all are safe. We stand in solidarity with all have been affected as we work together to rebuild.”

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Notes to editors: 

• Oxfam has been working in Lebanon since 1993 providing humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people affected by conflict, and promoting economic development, good governance at a local and national level, and women’s rights through work with local partners. Oxfam also works with local partners to contribute to the protection and empowerment of marginalized women and men.
• Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees per capita in the world: 1 out of every 4 people. In response to the Syria crisis, Oxfam has been providing water and sanitation, and emergency cash assistance for refugees and poor Lebanese, helping refugees with legal protection issues, and supporting small businesses and private-sector job creation. Oxfam is currently working in North Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, South Lebanon, and in Palestinian camps and gatherings.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Heavy rains have swollen river basins in north Bangladesh, leading to severe flooding, submerging towns and destroying homes and crops in a region already suffering due to the coronavirus pandemic, Oxfam said today.

The floods, which are predicted to peak this weekend (July 18 and 19), have already claimed eight lives and affected 2.2 million people, only two months after the region was hit by Cyclone Amphan, the strongest storm in a decade. Heavy monsoon rains have also caused damage and are limiting the movement of vulnerable people in the over-crowded Cox’s Bazar refugee camps.

Vincent Koch, Humanitarian Director, Oxfam in Bangladesh said: “Bangladesh is already facing multiple crises with Covid-19 and its economic fallout, making these floods even more deadly.”

“People in low-lying areas are at risk of water-borne illnesses caused by the floods which in turn makes them more vulnerable to contracting Covid-19. These communities have already lost savings or vital remittances because of lockdown and have no support to fall back on.”

The floods began in late June and the situation has deteriorated in the last week as major rivers have risen above danger levels.

The Cox’s Bazar refugee camps, home to almost a million Rohingya refugees, have been spared the worst of the flooding, but heavy monsoon rains have damaged shelters and increased the possibility of landslides as the camps are built on steep hillsides.

Koch said: “Refugees in the camps have described a ‘crisis for dry space’, with wet mud encroaching into shelters leaving no dry areas to sleep.  The bamboo bridges and pathways that criss-cross the camps have become more precarious making it more difficult for the elderly and people with disabilities to get around.”

In communities in the north affected by the floods, Oxfam and its partners are preparing to provide clean water and sanitation services and shelter. In the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps, Oxfam continues to provide water and sanitation and repair rain-damaged infrastructure.

Koch said: “Increases in rainfall, building on the rivers and a changing climate have increased the frequency of floods in South Asia over the last 20 years. Extreme weather events now are happening multiple times a year, giving communities no time to recover before the next flood. Char and flood-vulnerable communities need information, both about heavy rain forecasts and upcoming flooding. But this information is often inaccessible to the most marginalized and vulnerable communities.”

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Notes to editors:

• In Cox’s Bazar, Oxfam is helping contain coronavirus by providing water and sanitation and increasing hygiene awareness to 173,000 people in the Rohingya refugee camps and 9,000 people in the surrounding community.
• To help communities better prepare for flooding, Oxfam and its partners are working to improve early warning systems through facilitating the dissemination of information about floods from water infrastructure managers and from disaster risk reduction agencies.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

As many as 12,000 people could die per day by the end of the year as a result of hunger linked to COVID-19, potentially more than could die from the disease, warned Oxfam in a new briefing published today. The global observed daily mortality rate for COVID-19 reached its highest recorded point in April 2020 at just over 10,000 deaths per day.

‘The Hunger Virus’ reveals how 121 million more people could be pushed to the brink of starvation this year as a result of the social and economic fallout from the pandemic including through mass unemployment, disruption to food production and supplies, and declining aid.

Oxfam’s Interim Executive Director Chema Vera said, “COVID-19 is the last straw for millions of people already struggling with the impacts of conflict, climate change, inequality and a broken food system that has impoverished millions of food producers and workers. Meanwhile, those at the top are continuing to make a profit: eight of the biggest food and drink companies paid out over $18 billion to shareholders since January even as the pandemic was spreading across the globe – 10 times more than the UN says is needed to stop people going hungry.”

The briefing reveals the world’s 10 worst hunger hotspots, places such as Venezuela and South Sudan where the food crisis is most severe and getting worse as a result of the pandemic. It also highlights emerging epicentres of hunger – middle income countries such as India, South Africa, and Brazil – where millions of people who were barely managing have been tipped over the edge by the pandemic. For example:

• Yemen: Remittances dropped by 80 per cent – or $253 million – in the first four months of 2020 as a result of mass job losses across the Gulf. Borders and supply route closures have led to food shortages and food price spikes in the country which imports 90 per cent of its food.
• Brazil: Millions of poor workers, with little in the way of savings or benefits to fall back on, lost their incomes as a result of lockdown. Only 10 per cent of the financial support promised by the federal government had been distributed by late June with big business favoured over workers and smaller more vulnerable companies.
• India: Travel restrictions left farmers without vital migrant labour at the peak of the harvest season, forcing many to leave their crops in the field to rot. Traders have also been unable to reach tribal communities during the peak harvest season for forest products, depriving up to 100 million people of their main source of income for the year.
• Sahel: Restrictions on movement have prevented herders from driving their livestock to greener pastures for feeding, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people. Just 26 per cent of the $2.8 billion needed to respond to COVID-19 in the region has been pledged.

Women, and women-headed households are more likely to go hungry despite the crucial role they play as food producers and workers. Women are already vulnerable because of systemic discrimination that sees them earn less and own fewer assets than men. They make up a large proportion of groups, such as informal workers, that have been hit hard by the economic fallout of the pandemic, and have also borne the brunt of a dramatic increase in unpaid care work as a result of school closures and family illness.

“Governments must contain the spread of this deadly disease but it is equally vital they take action to stop the pandemic killing as many – if not more – people from hunger,” said Vera.

“Governments can save lives now by fully funding the UN’s COVID-19 appeal, making sure aid gets to those who need it most, and cancelling the debts of developing countries to free up funding for social protection and healthcare. To end this hunger crisis, governments must also build fairer, more robust, and more sustainable food systems that put the interests of food producers and workers before the profits of big food and agribusiness.”

Since the pandemic began, Oxfam has reached 4.5 million of the world’s most vulnerable people with food aid and clean water, working together with over 344 partners across 62 countries. We aim to reach a total of 14 million people by raising a further $113 million to support our programs.

– 30 –

Notes to editor:

• The Hunger Virus: How the coronavirus is fuelling hunger in a hungry world is available to download.
• Stories, pictures, and video highlighting the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hunger across the globe are available on request.
• The WFP estimates that the number of people in crisis level hunger − defined as IPC level 3 or above – will increase by approximately 121 million this year as a result of the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. The estimated daily mortality rate for IPC level 3 and above is 0.5 − 0.99 per 10,000 people, equating to 6,000 − 12,000 deaths per day due to hunger as a result of the pandemic before the end of 2020. The global observed daily mortality rate for COVID-19 reached its highest recorded point in April 2020 at just over 10,000 deaths per day and has ranged from approximately 5,000 to 7,000 deaths per day in the months since then according to data from John Hopkins University. While there can be no certainty about future projections, if there is no significant departure from these observed trends during the rest of the year, and if the WFP estimates for increasing numbers of people experiencing crisis level hunger hold, then it is likely that daily deaths from hunger as a result of the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic will be higher than those from the disease before the end of 2020. It is important to note that there is some overlap between these numbers given that some deaths due to COVID-19 could be linked to malnutrition.
• Oxfam gathered information on dividend payments of eight of the world’s biggest food and beverage companies up to the beginning of July 2020, using a mixture of company, NASDAQ, and Bloomberg websites. Numbers are rounded to the nearest million: Coca-Cola ($3,522M), Danone ($1,348M), General Mills ($594M), Kellogg ($391M), Mondelez ($408M), Nestlé ($8,248M for entire year), PepsiCo ($2,749M) and Unilever (estimated $1,180M). Many of these companies are pursuing efforts to address COVID-19 and/or global hunger.
• The 10 extreme hunger hotspots are: Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Afghanistan, Venezuela, the West African Sahel, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Haiti.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Recent funding gaps and other challenges in Yemen will put an additional estimated 5.5 million people in the war-torn country at risk of losing access to life-saving aid, such as food, cash and clean water this year, 24 international humanitarian NGOs said ahead of the Virtual Yemen Pledging Conference.

With Covid-19 spreading rapidly in the country, the withdrawal of donor funds from the largest humanitarian crisis in the world will cost lives, these organizations warned.

The Pledging Conference is a donor event and an opportunity for aid agencies to ask donors for funds to cover essential activities in Yemen.

Ahead of the event, which is taking place today, a survey was conducted among INGOs working in Yemen to assess the impact on Yemeni civilians if funding shortfalls persist.

The nine NGOs, which responded to the survey, expect a combined drop in funding of $82.5 million compared to 2019, including a sharp reduction in the means to support the already collapsing health sector – affecting an estimated total of 5.5 million people.

This number gives us an indication of what the funding shortfall would mean for the wider humanitarian response but the impact on the sector is thought to be even higher with millions more likely to lose out.

It could reduce health services such as mobile clinics as well as the organizations’ ability to provide community water systems, threatening a spike in cholera and the fight against the spread of Covid-19.

This will also push vulnerable communities closer to starvation when already 8.5 million people are having their food aid halved in the midst of lockdowns and job losses. Almost 1.5 million families in Yemen depend on food assistance to survive, many of whom have already been impacted by the scale-down of the World Food Program’s (WFP) monthly food distributions. Without an urgent injection of funds some organizations will be forced to stop all support for agriculture and livelihoods across the country. Currently, 20.1 million people in Yemen are in need of food assistance, and half of all families are buying food on credit.

Ensuring the supply of necessary goods in Yemen is logistically challenging and access issues have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 outbreak – owing to quarantine measures required in seaports, humanitarian supplies through Hodeidah and Aden have been cut by two thirds.

The undersigned NGOs warned that the impact of the current funding gaps, along with the ongoing violence and the effect of Covid-19 preventive measures, will be disastrous for Yemeni children and their families.

“This conference is a critical opportunity to save thousands of lives and turn things around, but we need to act now,” said the organisations.

“The largest humanitarian crisis in the world is now compounded by an unprecedented pandemic. Donors must increase their funding for humanitarian response in Yemen, with priority given to critical life-saving aid, such as food and cash, health services, water, sanitation and hygiene awareness and protection. If funding is critical, peace is the only way to guarantee Yemen’s future. We call on all governments at the conference to apply pressure on warring parties to implement a nationwide ceasefire immediately and restore peace talks.”

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Notes to Editors:

• *In the lead-up to the Yemen pledging conference, a rapid survey was conducted among operational INGOs managing humanitarian programs across Yemen in order to demonstrate the likely negative outcomes for the Yemeni people if funding shortfalls persist and donors continue to withhold assistance. Nine agencies responded, helping to provide an indication of the funding challenges affecting the wider NGO community.
• Signatory agencies include:

1. ACTED
2. Action Contre la Faim (ACF)
3. ADRA
4. CARE
5. Danish Refugee Council (DRC)
6. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe
7. Global Communities
8. Human Appeal
9. International Rescue Committee (IRC)
10. INTERSOS
11. Islamic Relief
12. Médecins du Monde (MdM)
13. Mercy Corps
14. Muslim Hands
15. Norwegian Refuge Council (NRC)
16. Oxfam
17. Polish Humanitarian Action (PHA)
18. Première Urgence- Aide Médicale Internationale (PU-AMI)
19. Relief International
20. Save the Children
21. Search for Common Ground
22. Solidarites
23. War Child UK
24. ZOA

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Money transfer providers in six governorates across Yemen told Oxfam they have seen the number of remittances drop by as much as 80 per cent between January and April this year as Yemenis working in Gulf states, the UK and the US saw their incomes plummet due to lockdowns and social distancing.

The World Bank estimates that one in 10 people in Yemen wholly rely on money transfers to meet their basic needs. Remittances to Yemen in 2019 totalled $3.8 billion – 13 per cent of GDP.

One service provider in Sa’ada said the number of remittances his business had received this year had dropped from 2,500 in January to barely 100 in March and April – a reduction of 96 per cent. He estimated that up to 30,000 people were dependent on this money.

At the same time, suspected cases of COVID-19 have surged, especially in the country’s southern city of Aden. There have been more than 250 confirmed cases across 10 governorates with 49 deaths. It is likely the truer number is much higher as testing facilities are limited and half the country’s health facilities were already out of service before the virus hit.

Muhsin Siddiquey, Oxfam’s Yemen Country Director said: “COVID-19 is already exacting a terrifying toll on Yemenis; both those suffering directly from the virus and the millions of people hit by the economic fall-out from the pandemic.

“All of this comes on top of more than five years of war which have created a huge humanitarian crisis, hunger, disease and a decimated health system. Without the safety net of remittances, more Yemenis may be forced to rely on aid as a lifeline. Although the world is reeling from the virus, the international community needs to make sure that life-saving aid continues to flow to those most in need.”

The vast majority of Yemeni migrants reside and work in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Most are not covered by those states’ economic initiatives to protect jobs and businesses so have faced the loss of their income as well as continued living expenses.

Abu Ameer, who fled fighting near his home in Haradh to Sana’a three years ago, had been relying on money transfers from his son in Saudi Arabia as the only income for his family of seven, but his son had to stop working in April due to the lockdown. Ameer said, “Since then, I purchase food on credit from the grocery and have two months overdue rent. I hope my son will be able to work and send money soon to pay what we owe and feel secure again.’’

Remittances are an important source of foreign currency, helping to stabilize Yemen’s hard-hit economy. Yemen’s Central Bank is the main funding body for imports, which the country relies on for basic supplies including oil, food and medicine. The Yemeni Rial experienced a sharp depreciation in 2018, which pushed up the cost of food and fuel. The decline in remittances is expected to trigger another wave of depreciation as the country’s foreign currency reserves dwindle.

The UN is requesting $2 billion at the virtual online pledging conference to fund its work in Yemen until the end of 2020. Without securing funding, vital aid programs could be closed down within weeks. Oxfam is urging donors to continue to fund life-saving aid and critical work to respond to COVID-19.

– 30 –

Notes to Editors:

• Oxfam International’s Executive Director, Jose Maria Vera, will be addressing the virtual pledging conference on behalf of international NGOs working in Yemen. It is due to begin at 8am EST on June 2.
• World Bank data on remittances to Yemen is available here.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Oxfam warned today that millions of people in East and Central Africa, already suffering due to flooding and the impact of COVID-19, are at risk of increased hunger and poverty as the region braces for the latest generation of locusts which are due to hatch in June – just when crops are to be harvested.

The highest rainfall in 40 years in parts of the region has caused severe flooding which has killed over 400 people, forced half a million people from their homes and destroyed crops and livelihoods.

The heavy rains, exacerbated by climate change, have also created the perfect conditions for the breeding of locusts, raising fears that the swarms could be 400 larger times than the original swarms. The locust outbreak, already the biggest in 70 years, has decimated thousands of hectares of crops throughout larger swathes of the region, especially Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Restrictions imposed by governments to contain coronavirus are also hampering efforts to stop the spread of locusts. Stocks of pesticides are dwindling as border closures have strangled the supply chain and overnight curfews restrict the ability of pilots to spray insecticide in key breeding areas.

The floods and the new wave of locust infestation will lead to increased food shortages in a region where over 33 million people are already severely food insecure.  At the same time, the economic fallout from governments’ efforts to contain the pandemic is likely to push millions of people further into poverty as there are little or no social safety nets to protect them.

Lydia Zigomo, Oxfam’s Regional Director in the Horn, East and Central Africa said: “The region is facing multiple concurrent crises – each compounding the other and making it more difficult to tackle and contain. Together they form a lethal combination that threatens to increase hunger, poverty and suffering for millions of the most vulnerable people.

“In a grim coincidence, the recent rains have created the perfect breeding conditions for locusts while restrictions introduced to contain coronavirus have hampered efforts to control their spread.”

Last week, The World Bank announced $500 million in grants and low-interest loans to help countries in Africa and the Middle East combat the impact of locusts. Kenya and Uganda have received large loans from the International Monetary Fund to support their responses to COVID-19, including the expansion of social protection programs.

Oxfam is calling on more international donors to support governments in the region in providing immediate assistance, including increased cash grants, to help the poorest and most vulnerable people survive the multiple crises.

Zigomo said: “Cash grants and other forms of social protection can play a huge role in protecting vulnerable people, and they are a critical and urgent response to this triple crisis. Donors must support governments to expand their social protection systems.”

Somali farmer Frudusa Mali Muhamed living in Ethiopia, whose entire onion crop was devastated by locusts, said: “All my three hectares of onion are now gone. After the locust attack, the farm soon turned into a breeding ground for swarms that later killed all the onion buds and roots.”

Despite the lockdown restrictions, Frudusa has been forced to sell tea on the street to support her family and recover the money she lost.

Oxfam is working closely with local partners in Ethiopia, Kenya. Uganda and Somalia, to provide cash assistance to more than 6000 households to buy food. Oxfam is also distributing soap, hygiene kits and clean water to hospitals and communities. Oxfam staff have been increasing public awareness to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, including broadcasting messages in local languages with megaphones in rural villages.

To overcome some of the lockdown challenges, Oxfam is working with mobile phone operators to supply e-vouchers for soap and water through “water ATMs”– pre-paid machines that dispense water to the most vulnerable communities.

Oxfam also developed a mobile GPS app that allows community volunteers to record data on local locust infestations which are then shared with government response teams.

Oxfam is calling for almost $46 million to help almost three million people with lifesaving aid in the region.

– 30 –

Notes to Editors:

• Oxfam is committed to supporting governments to scale up social protection systems and to ensuring support reaches those who most need it, in an inclusive, transparent, and accountable way.
• Currently, the Horn, East and Central Africa region has over 9000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and over 300 deaths, with the risk of this increasing as many countries in the region have poor health systems and are still planning to do mass testing.
• African economies will likely go to recession in 2020 with an expected loss of $157 billion to $212 billion GDP loss in Africa as a result of COVID-19 according to the African Development Bank (AfDB) President Akinwumi So far, African countries have lost around $29 billion due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to UN estimates. This is the equivalent of Uganda’s entire Gross Domestic Product.
• Over 33 million people in east and central Africa are currently severely food insecure and require food assistance. Of these, almost 17 million are in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan.

For more information and interviews with Oxfam spokespeople please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Millions of people are being evacuated in India and 12,000 shelters have been prepared in Bangladesh to house nearly five million people in the expected path of the cyclone.  Camps in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, home to almost a million Rohingya refugees, are also likely to be hit and are especially vulnerable given the cramped conditions and an increasing number of coronavirus cases.

Oxfam, working with partners, is preparing life-saving assistance including safety equipment, clean water, sanitation, food and shelter for people in the cyclone’s path.

Pankaj Anand, Director of Programs and Humanitarian response, Oxfam India said:

“Cyclone Amphan is a crisis on top of a crisis.  Many of the cyclone evacuation shelters are already being used as coronavirus quarantine centres or housing migrants who have returned to their coastal communities because of lockdown.  People are worried there won’t be enough space in the shelters and that they might catch coronavirus in them.”

Dipankar Datta, Country Director, Oxfam Bangladesh said:

“It is already a huge challenge to contain the spread of coronavirus amongst the Rohingya refugees living in over-crowded camps, sharing water and toilet facilities. Cyclone Amphan is also a major threat to the millions of vulnerable Bangladeshis living in low-lying flood prone coastal areas.”

Without assistance, people will be at risk not only to water-borne and other infections rampant during inclement weather, but also coronavirus, with their immunity compromised.  Between the two countries, there are nearly 130,000 COVID-19 reported cases, including an increasing number of cases in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.

In Bangladesh, there are fears that up 1.4 million people may be displaced due to the cyclone and 600,000 homes could be destroyed. Oxfam is working with partner organisations to help evacuate people to cyclone shelters, provide safe drinking water and dry food. To prevent the spread of coronavirus, it is distributing masks, providing handwashing facilities and helping disinfect cyclone shelters.

In the low-lying coastal areas, Oxfam is also preparing de-salination plants to provide safe drinking water because when the areas flood the salty water is undrinkable.

Parul Begum is a community leader in a small vulnerable coastal village in Bangladesh and supported by Oxfam partner, Society for Development Initiatives. She said that people are more concerned about coronavirus than going to the shelters for safety:

“This cyclone is one of the most powerful ones we have faced so far but people are really worried about how they will maintain social distancing in the cyclone shelters.  We do not go to the shelters alone but also take our cattle with us. People are unsure about the hygiene and safety arrangements.  Also, the cyclone shelters do not have adequate facilities for expectant and lactating mothers or sufficient privacy for women and girls.”

In India, Oxfam is working with local partners in communities in Odisha and West Bengal pre-positioning emergency supplies such as shelter material (tarpaulins, ground sheets, blankets), clean water, sanitation, hygiene kits, solar lantern and dignity kits for women and girls. It is also providing training to ensure that the cyclone response is carried out in a safe way to prevent coronavirus spreading further in the community.

– 30 –

Notes to the editors:

• VNR available of Cox’s Bazar – footage shot Sunday 17 and Monday 18 May 2020. Contains interviews with a female Rohingya refugee and Moury Rahman, Oxfam’s Senior Public Health Promotion in the camp as well as B roll of camp, people handwashing, social distancing, wearing masks. More footage and photographs from Cox’s Bazar will be available from Wednesday.
• In Bangladesh, Oxfam is providing water and sanitation and increasing hygiene awareness to 173,000 people in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and 9,000 people in the surrounding community. It also helping almost 400,000 people in the coastal districts.
• Oxfam India is working across 14 states to help five million people with hygiene training and over one million people with food during the coronavirus lockdown migration.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Dipankar Datta, Oxfam Bangladesh Country Director said: “Our worst fears have been confirmed as the virus hits the overcrowded camps where many people are suffering from pre-existing health conditions.

“With 40,000 people crammed per square kilometre maintaining social distance is impossible. People share water and toilet facilities making it extremely challenging to maintain the strict  hygiene needed.  If a serious outbreak is to be avoided more prevention and containment measures – adapted to the needs of women and men – must be rapidly put in place.”

If the cyclone hits, the contamination of water sources caused by heavy rains and flooding could lead to a spike in illnesses. And any weakening of people’s immune systems will likely leave them even more vulnerable to the coronavirus.

Oxfam is providing humanitarian relief, including essential water and sanitation to the refugees and the local host community.

Datta said: “Every effort is being made to keep the people safe, but there are huge gaps. We need more funds to immediately ramp up hygiene, health, and protection facilities to save lives. All governments and international agencies must step in to make sure no one is left behind.

“Our frontline workers and partners are providing clean water and toilets in Cox’s Bazar, and supporting the local host community with food and hygiene kits. Since the pandemic began, Oxfam teams have been promoting awareness on hygiene, hand washing, and Covid-19 prevention practices.”

Last week, Oxfam installed an innovative new contactless hand washing station designed with community input to reduce the risks of Covid-19 transmission. In the coming weeks teams will install more facilities.

Oxfam aims to raise approximately $3m to be able to ramp up its response in the camps.

To date, less than a fifth of the UN Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya refugees has been funded.

Datta said: “While nations around the world are understandably focused on containing the spread of the pandemic amongst their people, it is crucial that the international community does not turn its back on at-risk populations. Special attention needs to be paid to the particular risks faced by women and girls during the Covid-19 crisis. “

– 30 –

Notes to the editors:

• In Bangladesh, Oxfam has stepped up its work on hygiene promotion and water and sanitation facilities for the most vulnerable marginalized communities including in the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, where some 855,000 refugees currently live in extremely overcrowded conditions. With 23 local partners, Oxfam reached  106,050 people in 21 districts with food, hygiene promotion and protection materials in the country.
• Oxfam is also providing hygiene promotion activities and essential water and sanitation to 173,000 Rohingya refugees in the camps and 9000 people in the host communities in Cox’s Bazar.
• There are now roughly 19,000 confirmed cases in Bangladesh– and likely many more due to limited testing capacity.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

The agency is urging governments and pharmaceutical companies to guarantee that vaccines, tests, and treatments will be patent-free and equitably distributed to all nations and people, ahead of the World Health Assembly next week. The virtual meeting on May 18 will be attended by health ministers from 194 countries.

The Gates Foundation has estimated that the cost of procuring and delivering a safe and effective vaccine to the world’s poorest people is $25 billion. Last year the top 10 pharmaceutical companies made $89 billion (USD) in profits – an average of just under $30 billion (USD) every four months.

Oxfam warned that rich countries and huge pharmaceutical companies – driven by national or private interests – could prevent or delay the vaccine from reaching vulnerable people, especially those living in developing countries.

The EU has proposed the voluntary pooling of patents for coronavirus vaccines, treatments, and tests in their draft resolution for the World Health Assembly. If made mandatory and worldwide, this would ensure that all countries could produce, or import low cost versions, of any available vaccines, treatments, and tests. However, leaked documents reveal that the Trump administration is trying to delete references to pooled patents and insert strong language on respecting the patents of the pharmaceutical industry. This would give pharmaceutical companies exclusive rights to produce, and set prices for, any vaccines, treatments and tests they develop – even if taxpayer money has been used to fund their research and development.

Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam International Interim Executive Director said, “providing a vaccine to 3.7 billion people could cost less than what the 10 biggest pharmaceutical companies make in four months. Anything less than guaranteeing that a vaccine is made available free of charge to all people would be obscene.

“Vaccines, tests and treatments should be distributed according to need, not auctioned off to the highest bidder. We need safe, patent-free vaccines, treatments and tests that can be mass produced worldwide, and a clear and fair plan for how they will be distributed.”

Once vaccines or treatments are developed, there is also a high risk that rich and powerful governments will outbid poorer nations and force their way to the front of the queue, as they did in the scramble for other essential medical supplies such as personal protective equipment and oxygen.

In March, drug manufacturer Gilead moved to extend the monopoly on a potential treatment for the virus, and only withdrew it after a public outcry. Gilead has now donated a significant portion of its current supply of Remdesivir to the US government, but news reports suggest the company could make significant profits from subsequent production. Some Wall Street analysts expect Gilead to charge more than $4,000 per patient for the drug, even though the cost of Remdesivir can be as low as $9 per patient.

Many poor countries are unable to access essential vaccines and medicines due to patent rules, which give pharmaceutical companies monopoly rights and the power to set prices well above what they can afford. Pneumonia is the biggest killer of children under the age of five, with 2,000 children dying every day. For over a decade, millions of children have not had access to patented pneumonia vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline due to its high cost. After years of campaigning by Médecins San Frontieres, both companies reduced their prices in 2016, but only for the very poorest countries, leaving millions of children still without access to their vaccine.

Oxfam is proposing a four-point global plan that calls for:

1. Mandatory sharing of all Covid-19 related knowledge, data and intellectual property, and a commitment to make all public funding conditional on treatments or vaccines being made patent-free and accessible to all.
2. A commitment to deliver additional global vaccine manufacturing and distribution capacity with funding from rich country governments. This means building factories in countries willing to share and investing now in the millions of additional health workers needed to deliver prevention, treatment, and care both now and in the future.
3. A globally agreed, equitable distribution plan with a locked-in fairness formula so that supply is based on need, not ability to pay. Vaccines, treatments, and tests should be produced and supplied at the lowest cost possible to governments and agencies, ideally no more than $2 a dose for a vaccine, and provided free at the point of delivery to everyone that needs it.
4. A commitment to fix the broken system for the research and development of new medicines. The current system puts pharmaceutical profit above the health of people across the world meaning many needed put unprofitable medicines never get developed, and those that do are too often priced out of reach for the poorest countries and people.

Vera concluded, “Delivering an affordable vaccine for everyone will require unprecedented global cooperation. Governments must rip up the rulebook and prioritize the health of people everywhere, over the patents and profits of pharmaceutical corporations. Governments must ensure that no one is left behind.”

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

• A background briefing paper is available on request.
• The Gates Foundation estimated the cost of producing and distributing a vaccine and have confirmed that this cost relates to the production and distribution in low and lower middle income countries only.
• The 2019 profits for the top ten pharmaceutical companies can be found here
• The Gilead monopoly decision can be found here, future Gilead cost of Remdesivir here and remdesivir potential cost per patient here
• Oxfam believes that vaccines should ideally be produced and supplied for no more than $2 per dose. This is a reasonable challenge to set given that new complex vaccines for big killers like pneumonia are already available for this price.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

As Ramadan begins this week, eight regional and international organizations warn of the impact of the coronavirus combined with the lean season and conflict and insecurity, which will stretch the West Africa population in a period of fasting and sharing for some.

Food workers are struggling to continue their activities and see their livelihoods threatened. Measures must be taken to protect the most vulnerable and ensure food production, so that hunger and malnutrition are no longer a daily threat.

In the region’s main cities as well as in rural areas, despite Governments efforts, many communities are today facing difficulties in accessing food markets, with prices increasing quickly and many basic commodities becoming less available, the consequences of restrictive measures put in place, confinement or curfews, border closures and insecurity in certain areas.

In Burkina Faso, Amadou Hamadoun DICKO, President of the Association for the Promotion of Livestock in the Sahel and Savannah (APESS) said, “In a few days the 100 kg bag of millet has gone from 16,000 to 19,000 CFA and the litre cooking oil has almost doubled. Likewise, for breeders, the price of a bag of cotton cake to feed their animals has increased. With the virus, in addition to insecurity, I wonder how Ramadan will be lived this year.”

The coronavirus crisis combined with insecurity is exacerbating the threat of market stability and hitting an already very fragile food situation with full force. In countries facing humanitarian crises, access to food has become very difficult. In Burkina-Faso or Niger, humanitarian aid is unable to reach and cover the food needs of thousands of displaced persons, and the emergency has become vital.

While the agricultural season is also beginning, producers and farmers are already severely affected economically by the crisis and have difficulties in accessing quality seeds and fertilizers. A little more than 30 per cent of West Africa’s economy is devoted to agriculture, which is the largest source of income and livelihood for 70 to 80 per cent of the population, mainly women who are on the frontline.

“We have lost 75 per cent of our market because of the lockdown of the city of Bobo Dioulasso,” says Mrs. Toe Hazara, who works at the Café Rio dairy in Burkina Faso. “This situation is unbearable because we can no longer support the expenses of our 13 employees and pay our suppliers.”

Pastoralist communities, already hit hard by the impacts of climate change and insecurity, are also impacted, as they can no longer ensure the transhumance of livestock, made impossible by the closure of regions or borders, which risks increasing conflicts between herders and farmers.

“The introduction of curfews restricts the possibility of watering the animals at night, so the crowds around the water points are very high during the day,” Ismael Ag, breeder member of the Billital Maroobé Network (RBM), said.

To overcome this crisis, farmers, herders, fishermen and food processors are counting on the support of the region’s Governments to carry out a production campaign that has begun in most localities.

Ibrahima Coulibaly, President of the Network of Farmers’ and Producers’ Organizations of West Africa (ROPPA) said, “We also hope that political decision-makers and citizens will become more aware of the need to encourage local production and consumption, which has even more meaning and importance today. We, the leaders of peasant organizations and international NGOs call on all governments to control prices, to ensure the supply of food from family farms and the transport of goods across borders, but also to put in place social safety nets to help the most vulnerable.

In this global crisis, regional and international solidarity is also required and the support of donors to West African States, farmers’ organizations and civil society is urgently needed, to help them face this crisis in a fragile regional context.”

The signatory organizations include: Action Against Hunger, APESS, Care, Oxfam, RBM, ROPPA, Solidarités International and Save the Children

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For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

This increase alone is equivalent to more than the total debt (USD $12.4 billion) owed this year by the poorest countries to multilateral institutions like the IMF and World Bank.

The value of the IMF’s gold holdings has jumped by 14 per cent in just four months from USD $138.2 billion in January to USD $157.6 billion in mid-April.

The agency is calling on the IMF to sell some of its gold holdings to expand debt relief and help poor countries fight the virus and save lives. Sixty-four countries spend more on external debt payments than on public healthcare. Oxfam estimates that USD $19 billion could fund the salaries of 6.3 million nurses in Africa for one year.

The IMF’s gold bonanza coincides with investors clamoring for ‘safe-haven’ assets like government bonds and gold. According to the IMF, a record USD$100 billion has been pulled from emerging economies over the last two months —more than triple the amount during the same period at the start of the 2008 financial crisis.

The IMF has used revenues from gold sales in the past to provide debt relief to heavily indebted countries, most of them in Africa.

Nadia Daar, Oxfam International’s Head of Washington DC Office, said, “Poor countries with fragile health systems are drowning in debt. With gold prices hitting a seven-year high, the IMF should use the windfall profits from gold sales for debt cancellation to avert catastrophic loss of life in developing countries.

“This week, the IMF, World Bank and G20 need to step up and agree to cancel all developing country debt payments for 2020 and commit to encouraging private creditors to get on board too. This would unlock billions of dollars that can pay for new hospitals and medical supplies and personnel to treat everyone who gets sick.”

Among the priorities outlined in a new statement to the IMF and World Bank released ahead of their Spring Meetings, Oxfam is also calling on the IMF to issue at least US$1 trillion in additional international reserves, known as Special Drawing Rights, to dramatically increase the funds available to countries. Under current rules, this would give the Ethiopian government access to an additional $630 million —enough to increase its health spending by 45 percent.

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Notes to editors

• The World Bank and IMF 2020 Spring meetings will take place virtually from 16-17 April. G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will meet virtually on 15 April.
• Oxfam calculated the increase in value of IMF gold holdings by comparing the change in gold prices per ounce (GC1:COM) from January 1, 2020 and April 13, 2020. With 90.5 million ounces, IMF’s holdings were valued at $138.2 billion on January 1, 2020 and $157.6 billion on April 13, 2020 —resulting in a gain of $19.3 billion. The price of gold goes up and down daily, but it has been steadily increasing since beginning of 2019. If looking at change in value since the last Spring Meetings (April 15, 2019), the value of IMF gold holdings has increased $40.8 billion.
• Download A Response Like No Other: Urgent Action needed by the International Financial Institutions.
• Download Dignity Not Destitution: An Economic Rescue Package for All. This recently published report outlines how to tackle the coronavirus crisis and rebuild a more equal world.
• Download How to Confront the Coronavirus Catastrophe, a five-point plan to enable poor countries to take action to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and build the capacity of health systems to care for those affected.
• Figures for Ethiopia from Development Finance International.
• Over 200 organizations, including Oxfam, have signed a statement calling for the cancellation of all debt payments due from developing countries to bilateral, multilateral and private creditors, and more than 750,000 people have signed a petition calling for urgent debt relief.

For more information and interviews, please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Oxfam’s new report ‘Dignity Not Destitution’ presents fresh analysis, which suggests between six and eight per cent of the global population could be forced into poverty as governments shut down entire economies to manage the spread of the virus. This could set back the fight against poverty by a decade, and as much as 30 years in some regions such as Africa and the Middle East. Over half the global population could be living in poverty in the aftermath of the pandemic.

The analysis was conducted by researchers at King’s College London and the Australian National University.

An ‘Emergency Rescue Package for All’ would enable poor countries to provide cash grants to those who have lost their income and to bail out vulnerable small businesses. It would be paid for through a variety of measures including:

• The immediate cancellation of US$1 trillion worth of developing country debt payments in 2020. Cancelling Ghana’s external debt payments in 2020 would enable the government to give a cash grant of $20 dollars a month to each of the country’s 16 million children, disabled and elderly people for a period of six months.
• The creation of at least US$1 trillion in new international reserves, known as Special Drawing Rights, to dramatically increase the funds available to countries. This would give the Ethiopian government access to an additional $630 million — enough to increase their health spending by 45 per cent.

“The devastating economic fallout of the pandemic is being felt across the globe. But for poor people in poor countries who are already struggling to survive there are almost no safety nets to stop them falling into poverty,” said Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam International Interim Executive Director.

“G20 Finance Ministers, the IMF and World Bank must give developing countries an immediate cash injection to help them bail out poor and vulnerable communities. They must cancel all developing country debt payments for 2020 and encourage other creditors to do the same, and issue at least US$1 trillion of Special Drawing Rights.”

Existing inequalities dictate the economic impact of this crisis. The poorest workers in rich and poor nations are less likely to be in formal employment, enjoy labour protections such as sick pay, or be able to work from home. Globally, just one out of every five unemployed people have access to unemployment benefits. Two billion people work in the informal sector with no access to sick pay — the majority in poor countries where 90 per cent of jobs are informal compared to just 18 per cent in rich nations.

Women are on the front line of the coronavirus response and are likely to be hardest hit financially. Women make up 70 per cent of health workers globally and provide 75 per cent of unpaid care, looking after children, the sick and the elderly. Women are also more likely to be employed in poorly paid precarious jobs that are most at risk. More than one million Bangladeshi garment workers — 80 per cent of whom are women — have already been laid off or sent home without pay after orders from western clothing brands were cancelled or suspended.

Many wealthy nations have introduced multi-billion-dollar economic stimulus packages to support business and workers, but most developing nations lack the financial firepower to follow suit. The UN estimates that nearly half of all jobs in Africa could be lost. Micah Olywangu, a taxi driver and father of three from Nairobi, Kenya, who has not had a fare since the lockdown closed the airport, bars and restaurants, told Oxfam that “this virus will starve us before it makes us sick.”

Delivering the $2.5 trillion the UN estimates is needed to support developing countries through the pandemic would also require an additional $500 billion in overseas aid. This includes $160 billion which Oxfam estimates is needed to boost poor countries’ public health systems and $2 billion for the UN humanitarian fund. Emergency solidarity taxes, such as a tax on extraordinary profits or the very wealthiest individuals, could mobilize additional resources.

“Governments must learn the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis where bailouts for banks and corporations were paid for by ordinary people as jobs were lost, wages flatlined and essential services such as healthcare were cut to the bone. Economic stimulus packages must support ordinary workers and small businesses, and bail outs for big corporations must be conditional on action to build fairer, more sustainable economies,” added Vera.

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Notes to editors:

• The World Bank and IMF 2020 Spring meetings will take place virtually from April 17 – 19. G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will meet virtually on April 15, 2020.
• At Oxfam’s suggestions, researchers at Kings College London and the Australian National University calculated how many more people might be pushed into poverty by the global pandemic. The results of the analysis will be published in Oxfam’s briefing paper ‘Dignity not Destitution,’ on April 9. A more detailed working paper on the analysis will also be published on the April 9 by the UN University World Institute for Development Economics Research.
• Download Dignity Not Destitution: An Economic Rescue Package for All.
• In 2018, there were 3.4 billion people living on less than $5.50 per day according to the World Bank. Researchers used mathematical models to predict how many more people would fall below World Bank poverty lines of $1.90, $3.20 and $5.50 a day based on a five, 10 and 20 per cent drop in income. A 20 per cent drop in income would mean an estimated 547.6 million more people living on less than $5.50 a day. Taking the range of estimates into account researchers predict a six to eight per cent rise in poverty compared to 2018 levels.
• News outlets are reporting over one million garment workers in Bangladesh have lost their jobs as a result of orders being cancelled or suspended. The percentage of women working in the Garment industry in Bangladesh is from the World Bank.
• Figures for Ghana from Diloá Jacob Bailey Athias of Development Pathways, based on UNDESA population figures.
• Figures for Ethiopia from Development Finance International.
• Oxfam is scaling up its cash transfer programming and food assistance in vulnerable communities across the globe — from poor urban settlements in Bangladesh to rural indigenous communities in Guatemala. Oxfam has been a leader in cash transfer programming for more than 20 years; in Yemen, we provide cash to families displaced by the conflict to buy food; in Colombia, we provide cash to Venezuelan migrants on the move; and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which faced the world’s second largest Ebola epidemic in history, we distribute cash and vouchers to allow the most vulnerable households to buy food and basic necessities.

For more information and interviews, please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

The virus could also be catastrophic for people and places hit by conflicts, like Yemen, Syria and South Sudan, who are already struggling with malnutrition, diseases like cholera and a lack of clean water and health facilities.

The standards for refugee camps, agreed by agencies responding to humanitarian crises, were simply not designed to cope with a global pandemic. They state that there should be one tap for no more than 250 people and 3.5 square metres of living space per person.

In some cases, even these minimum requirements are not met. The sprawling Rohingya refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh is severely overcrowded with 40,000 people per square kilometre.

Malnutrition and diseases like dysentery, cholera and typhoid are already a high risk in Cox’s Bazar, undermining the health of these communities. There is also very limited access to basic health services, let alone more specialized care.

In Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, which was built for 3,000 people but now hosts nearly 20,000 people, there are up to 160 people using the same toilet and over 500 people per one shower. In some parts of the camp, 325 people share one tap and there is no soap. Fifteen to 20 people can be living in a single shipping container, or in tents or makeshift shelters.

Advice from the World Health Organization states that people should stay a metre away from anyone coughing or sneezing, wash their hands frequently and seek medical help as soon as symptoms become apparent to avoid spreading coronavirus.

Oxfam’s Coronavirus Response Operations Lead, Marta Valdes Garcia, said: “The death toll around the world is rising rapidly but this will be just the tip of the iceberg if and when the virus spreads to the world’s most vulnerable communities. Camps for people who have been forced to flee their homes are simply not set up to cope with a pandemic like coronavirus. Aid agencies will need to work even harder to prepare for and deal with the arrival of this disease.

“While many nations are understandably focused on containing the spread of the pandemic amongst their own population, it’s crucial they don’t turn their back on millions of the most vulnerable people worldwide. The international community needs to mobilize huge resources behind developing countries to cope if we’re to honour the promise of ‘no-one is safe until we’re all safe’.

“Millions of people in countries for instance across central, southern and eastern Africa are already suffering chronic and severe food shortages and will be equally hit hard by the disease and any restrictions needed to help deal with it, which are likely to further compromise their food security as well as their jobs and livelihoods.”

Oxfam’s expertise in water, sanitation, hygiene and public health promotion – vital for any attempts to manage the rate of inevitable infections – is working closely with local partner organizations to increase the number of communal taps and water distribution systems, toilets and engaging communities on improved hygiene practices.

Oxfam says it will need CAD $153.5 million to fund its coronavirus response plan, working with local partner organizations in more than 50 countries and aiming to reach more than 14 million women, men, girls and boys. Oxfam will focus its work to prevent the spread of the disease in vulnerable communities, supporting people’s basic food needs and livelihoods, and in protection.

Women are usually hardest hit during emergencies and as they carry out most of the care work are especially vulnerable to exposure to the virus. Oxfam is also concerned about risk of gender-based violence as families are forced to remain in their homes and support centres and networks are closed.

Communities, local NGOs, women and refugee-led organizations are already mobilizing, and Oxfam is working alongside them to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. Oxfam is also scaling up its work to help people in the poorest countries make a living and feed their families should coronavirus hit.

Beyond refugee camps, many other communities with whom Oxfam works are particularly vulnerable to the disease. In Gaza, where there are already 10 confirmed cases, there are more than 5,000 people per square kilometre and fewer than 70 intensive care beds for a population of two million. In Yemen, only 50 per cent of health centres are functioning, and those that are open face severe shortages of medicines, equipment and staff. Around 17 million people – more than half the population – have no access to clean water.

Efforts to respond to humanitarian crises in several locations, like Yemen and Syria, were already underfunded. Now they must compete with each other for the resources to fight the coronavirus all while the world reels from the economic effects of widespread shut-downs. The UN has called for $2 billion to fund a global coordinated response to coronavirus in vulnerable countries. Oxfam supports the UN call for a global cease-fire in order to help countries in conflict to cope.

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Notes to editors:

• The standards for size and capacity of refugee camps are set out here:
• Information on camp density in Bangladesh is available from UNHCR here:
• Oxfam is helping vulnerable communities affected by coronavirus, including:
  • Working with local partners to help 118,000 Rohingya people in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, and Rakhine state in Myanmar with clean water, soap and hygiene kits, as well as public health awareness information, including using female volunteers to disseminate hygiene and prevention awareness messages to women and girls at their doors. We are also supporting 5,000 vulnerable households in communities around Cox’s Bazar with water and sanitation.
  • Prompting hygiene awareness and hand washing to 76,000 Syrian refugees in Zaatari camp, Jordan and distributing soap in communities hosting Syrian refugees in Lebanon ­­­­­­­
  • Rehabilitating a hospital and its isolation unit that serves a community of 50,000 in Iraq
  • Planning to build or repair 107 water points for people in Burkina Faso who have fled fighting
  • Carrying out hygiene awareness training for refugees in the north of Uganda
  • In Yemen, Oxfam is training volunteers to raise awareness and promote hygiene amongst conflict-affected communities.

For more information and interviews, please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org 

The pandemic has caused widespread suffering in rich countries, overwhelming some of the best healthcare systems in the world. But with the disease now spreading to many poor countries where high levels of poverty and inequality risk accelerating the disease, the public health challenges are even greater. Nearly three billion people across the developing world do not have access to clean water, and millions more do not have access to adequate healthcare and live in crowded slums or refugee camps where social isolation is impossible.

Women make up 70 per cent of the world’s health care workers and are at highest risk of infection. Women are also the most likely to shoulder the burden of caring for sick relatives and looking after children at home. As people become more and more confined in their movements, women are also at greater risk of domestic violence. As the pandemic spreads, life will be particularly hard for the poorest and most marginalized women on the planet.

“In Mali there are three ventilators per million people. In Zambia, one doctor for 10,000 people,” Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam International Interim Executive Director said. “We know from Oxfam’s experience of fighting Ebola, that with rapid action, this disease can be stalled and its catastrophic impact stopped. But we must act now and on a scale never seen before.” 

The Imperial College estimates that in the absence of interventions the Coronavirus could have led to 40 million deaths in the coming year. Oxfam calculates that doubling the health spending of the 85 poorest countries, home to nearly half the world’s population, would cost CAD $223.6 billion. This is less than 10 per cent of the US fiscal stimulus to fight Coronavirus. While some donor institutions have begun to increase funding, the scale is not anywhere near the immense size of the challenge.

“Canada has made a strong statement by earmarking funds in the federal COVID-19 response for global interventions,” says Kate Higgins, Oxfam Canada’s Interim Executive Director. “This a global pandemic that has no boundaries. But we know that the poorest and most vulnerable, especially women, will be hardest hit. Now, more than ever, Canadians need to extend our compassion beyond our borders to those living in poverty around the world.”

Oxfam is working with local partners, ministries of heath and key UN agencies in 65 countries to respond to the crisis and help save lives. In Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh where over 855,000 Rohingya are living in makeshift camps, Oxfam is already scaling up preventive measures like soap distribution and handwashing stations at communal facilities to help 70,000 refugees. In Zaatari camp, Jordan — the largest Syrian refugee camp in the world — Oxfam has already started hygiene and hand washing awareness for 2,000 children and aims to reach 78,000 people with water, hygiene and sanitation. And in Burkina Faso, where 780,000 people are internally displaced, Oxfam is currently working in some of the largest internally displaced person areas ensuring that both host communities and displaced people have access to safe, clean water. To meet the desperate humanitarian need now emerging, all governments must step up and fully fund the UN Global Humanitarian Response plan.

“We are proud to see Canada stepping up globally, but this is only the tip of the iceberg,” warns Higgins.

Oxfam is calling for the G20 and other national governments to tackle the virus head on by agreeing an ambitious Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response. The five-point plan calls for:

• Huge investment in prevention. Public health promotion, community engagement, access for humanitarian workers and provision of clean water and sanitation, especially handwashing
• 10 million new paid and protected health workers. Together with urgent funding and equipment for local responders and humanitarians already on the ground
• Healthcare must be free.  All fees for health should be removed, and free testing and treatment delivered
• Governments must requisition all private facilities. Governments must requisition all healthcare capacity in their countries, ensuring that all facilities, private and public, are directed towards fighting this virus and meeting all other essential healthcare needs
• Vaccines and treatments must be a global public good. Global agreement must be reached that vaccines and treatments, when ready, will be made rapidly available to everyone who needs it free of charge. The profits of pharmaceutical corporations cannot be put ahead of the future of humanity

 Vera added “We can only beat this pandemic if we act in solidarity with every country and for every person. No one is safe until we are all safe.”

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Notes to editor: 

• Oxfam’s policy briefing How to Confront the Coronavirus Catastrophe is available here: https://oxfam.box.com/s/d6ogo3gl7pia7yn5po1iv6y9px40n8r9
• More detail on the Imperial College Research is available here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/196496/coronavirus-pandemic-could-have-caused-40/
• Oxfam International is a confederation of 20 independent affiliates and last year, helped over 19 million people with support including clean water, sanitation, food and shelter.

For more information and interviews, please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org 

I recently visited Mozambique to see for myself the situation on the ground and hear first-hand about the devastation of Cyclone Idai. I heard story after story of how the cyclone had destroyed everything, and how difficult people’s lives have been in the aftermath. In Machimedje, a very remote resettlement camp that’s only accessible on a long, slow and treacherous dirt road, I met Marta, Maria and Isabel. They told me how their houses had been destroyed, their possessions lost and their crops obliterated. I heard how they had to relocate and rebuild their homes because the land they owned and had lived on had become too susceptible to floods. They explained how there are no nearby schools, markets or medical facilities and how their lives as women and as mothers – finding food for their families, fetching water, looking after their children – had become even more difficult than before. All of these stories were a stark reminder that it is nearly always women who are hardest hit in when disaster strikes.

What was so evident, and yet still so shocking to me, was that this cyclone was just one of several severe weather events that had hit these families and communities. In the five months prior to Cylone Idai, southern Africa experienced its most severe drought in decades, which destroyed harvests and left millions of people hungry. So when the cyclone hit, many families were already at rock bottom – they had spent all their savings and sold whatever they could to buy food. Following Cyclone Idai, many communities were hit by flash floods. Now, Malawi and Mozambique are facing an invasion of red locusts that are destroying their crops. When does it stop?

For me, the experience of these communities is so illustrative of the injustice of climate change. These increasingly frequent and severe weather events, associated with the escalating climate crisis, are hitting the people who have contributed the least to climate change the hardest. In Mozambique, where nearly half the population lives in chronic poverty, the average person is responsible for around 50 times less carbon emissions than a person in the United States. And yet, they’re facing some of climate change’s most acute and direct impacts.

While at times I was enraged by what these communities face, I was also uplifted by the work being done to support them. Oxfam donors helped 788,168 people across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe following the cyclone – including those in some of the most remote and difficult to reach areas. There’s no doubt in my mind that Oxfam’s work with local partners and the Humanitarian Coalition is making a difference.

There’s Veronica, a passionate humanitarian and gender officer with AJOAGO, an Oxfam partner, who inspires me with the work she is doing in communities every day. She provides dignity kits for menstruating women and girls, facilitates theatre activities on preventing child marriage and protects women who have experienced family violence. As a Mozambican, she’s committed to shifting gender norms in these communities, while also helping them rebuild. She’s feminist humanitarianism in action.

Then there’s Isabel, who heads a local women’s rights organization in Beira. For weeks after the cyclone hit she provided humanitarian aid to her community. An active member of the gender justice platform put together as part of the broader humanitarian response, Isabel also supports young sex workers and women living with HIV. As you can imagine, these women’s lives have become even more precarious following the cyclone. She is one of the world’s brave women devoting her life to women’s rights. 

I left Mozambique deeply frustrated by the climate crisis, but also motivated to take action – especially where climate injustice and gender injustice intersect. It should not be the poorest – especially the world’s poorest women – who are hardest hit by the climate crisis.  We must support the activists, movements and organizations fighting for climate justice, and support the communities that climate change is hitting hardest.  I look forward to working with Oxfam supporters, colleagues, allies and partners towards a more just and sustainable world. 

For more about Oxfam’s humanitarian response to Cyclone Idai, click here

A new Oxfam briefing, ‘After the Storm,’ highlights that over 100,000 people in Mozambique and Zimbabwe are still living in destroyed or damaged homes and makeshift shelters, while critical infrastructure including roads, water supplies, and schools have yet to be repaired – making it difficult for people to access vital services or get back to work. It also shows that 9.7 million people across the three countries remain in desperate need of food aid as a result of cyclones, floods, drought and localized conflict.

The briefing explains how a toxic combination of factors – including an intensifying cycle of floods, drought and storms, deep rooted poverty and inequality, a patchy humanitarian response, and a lack of support for poor communities to adapt to, and recover, from climate shocks – have increased people’s vulnerability and made it harder for them to recover.

“Cyclone Idai was anything but a natural disaster. This tragedy was fuelled by the climate crisis and super charged by poverty, inequality and the failures of national governments and the international community,” Nellie Nyang’wa, Oxfam’s Regional Director for Southern Africa said.

“The people of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi are trying to piece their lives back together in the face of huge challenges. Politicians in the region, and across the globe, need to match their commitment.”

Cyclone Idai is just one in of a number of extreme weather events to have hit Southern Africa in recent years. Idai landed five months into a drought that left millions in need of food aid – and the third severe drought to hit the region in the space of five years. Less than six weeks later, Cyclone Kenneth battered northern Mozambique. Torrential rain and flash floods then hit northern and central Mozambique, between December 2019 and February 2020.

Despite the escalating climate crisis, poor communities are not getting enough help to adapt, and there is no dedicated funds to help poor countries recover from the loss and damage caused by climate-fueled disasters. Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, was forced to take on an additional debt of $118 million from the International Monetary Fund to begin rebuilding. The cyclone caused an estimated US$3.2 billion worth of damage – roughly half of Mozambique’s national budget and equivalent to the impact of 23 Hurricane Katrina’s hitting the United States.

Virginia Defunho, a farmer and a mother from Josina Machel village in Mozambique lost everything in the cyclone. The crops she planted in the aftermath of the cyclone were damaged by severe floods in January.

“Idai has destroyed my mind. It makes me feel angry sometimes,” she said. “My child is crying because he wants food and there is nothing to give. My child has succeeded to grade 10, but I don’t have the money to pay for him to enrol back at school. We are worried about the future because we don’t know if the weather is going to be like this or if it will change back to normal. If [the cyclone] comes a second time, what will our lives be?”

A slow and patchy international humanitarian response has also hampered recovery. Less than half of the US$450.2 million humanitarian funding requested by the UN in the wake of the cyclones has been committed to date. The flow of funds is also slowing with just $42,000 pledged since the beginning of the year.

Poverty and inequality also exacerbate the destructive power of the cyclone and act as major barrier to recovery. While the richest live on the highest ground in the strongest houses and can rely on savings and insurance to help them recover, the poorest communities struggle to rebuild their lives. Women in Malawi own just 17 per cent of the land in the country, even though they produce 80 per cent of household food. As a result, women who were displaced from their land are less able to protect their property for their return – and are left at the back of the queue when it comes to accessing alternative plots of land.

“Rich polluting governments must ensure the humanitarian appeal is fully funded and deliver the climate finance that communities need to adapt to and rebuild from climate shocks. National governments must help climate proof our communities – for example by helping small holder farmers to adapt their farming techniques – and tackle the poverty and inequality that make people more vulnerable to disaster,” added Nyang’wa.

– 30 –

Notes to Editor:

• The briefing “After the Storm: barriers to recovery one year on from Cyclone Idai” is available here
• Cyclone Idai before and after b-roll available here.
• Stories and pictures from Mozambique – including Virginia Defunho are available here.
• Oxfam raised over US$16 million to help 788,168 people across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in the aftermath of the cyclones – including communities in some of the most remote and difficult to reach areas.
• Oxfam and our partners provided emergency assistance such as food aid, blankets and hygiene kits; installed latrines and water pumps in temporary camps; and helped raise awareness of issues such as gender-based violence, which often spikes after a disaster.
• Oxfam is also working with communities over the long term to help them adapt to changing the climate – for example by helping smallholder farmers diversify their crops and adapt their farming techniques.

For more information or a media interview contact:

Paula Baker
Oxfam Canada
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

The north is at greatest risk because of the scarcity of water in the area. The five governorates of Sana’a, Hajjah, Hudaydah, Taiz and Dhamar have consistently reported high rates of cholera since 2017.

More than 56,000 suspected cases have already been recorded in the first seven weeks of 2020, roughly equal to the same period last year. The number of cases of cholera in 2019 was the second largest ever recorded in a country in a single year, surpassed only by the numbers in Yemen in 2017.

At over 860,000 suspected cases, the total in 2019 is more than two and a half times the size of the third largest number in a single country in one year. In 2017 in Yemen there were over a million cases.

Yemen’s cholera outbreak began in April 2017 and quickly spiralled out of control with more than 360,000 cases recorded in the first three months. Although the rate of new infections had slowed a year later, the number of suspected cases began to rise again in early 2019.

The prolonged, consistent nature of new cases over the last 14 months shows the disease is still rampant in Yemen.

Muhsin Siddiquey, Oxfam’s Yemen Country Director said: “’The outlook is bleak for people in Yemen with cholera continuing at similar levels to last year and the rainy season likely to see thousands more people infected.

“This is a health crisis hiding in plain sight. It’s shocking that this ongoing crisis is getting so little attention.

“A lack of clean water and food has left many people weak and vulnerable to disease, and yet aid agencies are struggling to reach those most in need because of access constraints imposed by all sides.

“We need urgent action from the international community to ensure safe, secure and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid and to bring the parties together to agree a nationwide ceasefire.”

The number of deaths from cholera in 2019 dropped to 1025 – less than half the number of fatalities in 2017. But efforts to definitively beat the disease have been massively undermined by the war, which has decimated health, water and sanitation systems.

Medical supplies are in chronically short supply and only around half the health facilities in Yemen are fully functioning. Fluctuating exchange rates have pushed up the price of diesel, in turn increasing the price of trucking clean water to parts of the country where groundwater is unavailable. More than 17 million people struggle to get clean water.

Siddiquey said: “The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is entirely man made and those who continue to arm all sides in this war bear responsibility for its devastating consequences.”

Since the escalation of the conflict in Yemen in 2015, Oxfam has provided clean water and sanitation to more than one million people, including in hard-to-reach areas of the country, through providing water by truck, repairing water systems, delivering filters and jerry cans, as well as building latrines and organizing cleaning campaigns.

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Notes to Editors:

• Statistics for suspected cholera cases and deaths from 2017 to 2020 are available from the World Health Organization here
• Figures on previous cholera outbreaks have been taken from the World Health Organisation’s Global Health Observatory data repository here
• The total number of cases in Yemen between January 2017 and December 2019 was 2,253,488.
• The third largest outbreak in a single year was in Haiti in 2011 when 340,311 cases were recorded.

For more information:

Paula Baker
Oxfam Canada
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

“Everyone is in panic and trying to make noise to drive the locusts away,” says Oxfam’s Ethiopia Country Director Gezahegn Gebrehana.

This is the worst locust crisis in 70 years for Kenya alone. Locust breeding is continuing with more juvenile insects developing now, so the swarms could still get bigger, more widespread and last until June if not brought more quickly under control. There are already 22.8 million people living in acute to severe food insecurity in those six countries, following consecutive failed rainy seasons, unusual floods and storms.

The fast-moving locust swarms have been made worse by climate change because they have been encouraged to feed on newly “greened” vegetation, the result of unusual weather patterns. They are devastating pastures and grasslands and could ruin new food crops from the March-to-July growing season.

“We depend on livestock and, if there is no fodder for our livestock, life will be difficult for us. We ask for help urgently,” said Mohammed Hassan Abdille, a farmer from Bura Dhima in Tana River, Kenya.

Oxfam is gearing up its humanitarian operations and will work closely with local partners and communities. It will aim to reach more than 190,000 of the most vulnerable people with cash assistance, livestock feed, seeds and health services.

In Somalia, together with our partners, it aims to reach 11,670 households of the most vulnerable people. In Kenya, Oxfam will work inside the Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) Humanitarian Platform that has members in seven of the 13 affected counties and aims to assist 3000 households in the first phase of operations, and another 5,000 in the second. In Ethiopia, Oxfam aims to reach another 5,000 households with similar aid.

Oxfam will need to secure more than $5 million to mount this response. Oxfam teams in South Sudan and Sudan are also preparing against the likelihood of new infestations there.

Oxfam says that lessons from the last local plague in the Sahel in 2003-5 showed that a two-pronged attack was vital, to control the pests as well as work to do everything possible to protect local people’s livelihoods and restore them as quickly as possible.

Oxfam continues to urge international donors to fully fund the FAO’s $76m appeal as soon as possible. The current total stands at around $18m. “This is the time for decisive action,” said Gebrehana.

Notes to editors:

• Nearly 22.8 million people are severely food insecure (IPC 3 and above), as follows : in Ethiopia (6.7 million people), Kenya (3.1 million), Somalia (2.1 million), South Sudan (4.5 million), Sudan (5.8 million) and Uganda (600,000).
• Given the scale of the current swarms, aerial control is the only effective means to reduce the locust numbers. In Ethiopia, ground teams and four aircraft are conducting control operations against swarms – nearly 8000 hectares were treated in the first two weeks of January 2020. In Kenya, four aircraft are currently spraying, but operations have been limited due to available capacity or collective experience – Kenya last faced a Desert Locust invasion in 2007.
• The outbreak, which has primarily been driven by the recent climatic shocks in the region, comes after Oxfam warned of a potential outbreak in Uganda end of last month.
• The swarms, which could grow 500 times bigger by June, are devastating pasture and food supplies across parts of Ethiopia and Kenya and could also put South Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti at risk, making it the worst of such situation in 25 years.
• In Kenya, the locust swarms have increased significantly over the past month across 13 counties, including Isiolo, Samburu, Wajir, Garissa, Tana River, Marsabit, Laikipia, Mandera, Kitui, Baringo, Meru, Embu and Turkana.

For more information:
Paula Baker
Oxfam Canada
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Oxfam Philippines Country Director Maria Rosario Felizco said that many of communities impacted were still recovering from the impacts of Typhoon Kammuri (local name: Tisoy) and are in dire need of support: “Oxfam is deeply concerned about the situation of communities hit by Typhoon Phanfone. Many of the communities are still struggling to get back on their feet in the wake of Typhoon Kammuri, which hit earlier this month.”

Oxfam staff member Leah Payud, based in Leyte, where the typhoon made one of its landfalls, described the devastation experienced by her community: “Ursula carved the same path as Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Although weaker, its devastating impacts are widely felt, especially here in Leyte, where houses have been damaged and electric posts toppled. We spent Christmas Day in total darkness.”

Oxfam is working closely with humanitarian organization People’s Disaster Risk Reduction Network (PDRRN) to assess the damage from the storm. Teams immediately visited four towns in Leyte and Eastern Samar, where Oxfam has ongoing projects. According to Esteban Masagca, PDRRN Executive Director, early assessments by staff and volunteers indicate coastal villages urgently need emergency shelter materials, bedding, portable water, and food. Power outages, loss of access to infrastructure such as schools and markets, and severe damage to houses along the shore also loom as serious problems post-disaster.

Masagca said: “Families are urgently requesting emergency shelter-grade materials because the storm completely destroyed their homes along the coast. Families need bedding and mosquito nets, especially as dengue continues to be a major threat in the communities. Portable water is urgently needed since water refilling stations cannot operate because of the ongoing power blackout. Water kits and disinfectants are crucial to prevent water-borne diseases, as many sources of water have been contaminated. It truly saddens us that thousands of families will enter the New Year without food, or even homes.”

Felizco continued: “Families will need support during this time of great need. Oxfam and our partners are working closely with local government and other humanitarian agencies to ensure the immediate needs of survivors are addressed effectively. We will prioritize the needs of women and girls throughout our emergency assessment and response.”

Oxfam has been working in the Philippines for 30 years to address the underlying causes of poverty through its various programs on economic justice, conflict transformation, gender justice, and rights in crisis.

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For media interviews, please contact:

Paula Baker
Oxfam Canada
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Oxfam welcomes the real strides which have been taken to include more refugees at the Forum, they have been represented on high-level panels alongside governments, business leaders, and UN agencies. However, this still accounts for only 2 per cent of the total attendance list of nearly 3000 participants.

During the forum, Victoria Nyoka, a refugee from South Sudan living in Uganda said, “The organizers of this forum should have prioritized voices of refugees, particularly those from the grassroots level. While participants have made over 700 pledges, they need to move beyond fine words and put them into practice.”

“At this forum, Oxfam gave up its seats on high level panels and meetings to ensure refugee voices can be heard. In the future, member states should ensure they include refugees at every high-level forum to its delegation,” said Danny Sriskandarajah, the Chief Executive at Oxfam Great Britain.

Member states, private sector foundations and UN agencies have signed a pledge on meaningful refugee participation. This was put forward by refugees from the Global Refugee-led Network which calls for refugees to be included in all decisions affecting their lives. Oxfam calls upon more stakeholders to sign this pledge.

While the Forum has been taking place in Geneva, millions of refugees remain at risk or are stuck in limbo because many countries are still failing to shoulder their fair share of responsibility for protecting people forced from home.

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Notes to editors: 

• The Global Refugee-led Network (GRN) is a network of refugee-led groups in six regions, North America, South America, Europe, Africa, MENA and the Asia Pacific. It is governed by an eighteen-person steering committee, with three representatives from each of the six regions. Steering committee members represent the regional branches of the Network, which work autonomously under the umbrella of the Global Refugee-led Network to shape local, national and regional policies.
• For more information about GRN visit: https://www.globalrefugeelednetwork.org/
• Link to the pledge
• For more details on latest figures and key demands from countries at the forum please check Oxfam’s report “Welcome, Support, Pledge, Resettle”

For media interviews, please contact:

Paula Baker
Oxfam Canada
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Danny Sriskandarajah, the Chief Executive at Oxfam Great Britain said: “Millions of vulnerable refugees are at risk or stuck in limbo because many countries are failing to shoulder their fair share of responsibility for protecting people forced from home. This conference could help to fix some of the most glaring faults in current refugee processes – but only if countries step up by committing to welcome more people, provide more reliable funding, and to fully include refugees in decisions about their futures.”

Devine Caneza, a Burundian refugee who has been living in Uganda since 2015 said: “We must have representatives when decisions are made about us. We are the ones who know very well the situation of our lives and what is needed to help other refugees.”

Oxfam is supporting eight refugees invited into this summit to make sure their voices are heard. Together they are calling for United Nations Member States to do their fair share to offer international protection to people who have been forced to flee their homes, so that they can live in safety and with dignity.

Oxfam says that some progress has been made to meaningfully include refugees in discussions, but more effort is needed to ensure that these experts are not only consulted but directly involved. Oxfam and The Global Refugee Network have called on member states, INGOs and UN agencies to sign a single pledge to meaningfully engage refugees in all processes and decisions which affect them.

Asan Juma Suleiman, a South Sudanese refugee living in Uganda said: “By involving us and hearing our stories in the peace process, refugees like me can help ensure an everlasting peace. We can help to restore hope. To world leaders, my life matters as a human being, not as a refugee.”

In 2016 the leaders of 193 governments committed to the more equitable and predictable sharing of responsibility for refugees as part of the New York Declaration and this promise was reaffirmed by 176 governments last December through the Global Compact on Refugees.

However, despite these commitments, it is still mainly geography that dictates where most refugees end up. Currently around 80% of the world’s 25.9 million refugees and 3.5 million asylum seekers are hosted by predominantly low-and-middle income countries, often for long periods of time – simply because these countries are the immediate neighbours.

Oxfam says that resettlement options are hugely lacking. At present only ten countries offer more than 1,000 resettlement places a year, far more countries must at least rise to this level.

“Our first priority must be to ensure that countries are sharing their responsibilities more fairly to accept refugees through resettlement and other safe legal routes. But we also need to ensure that host countries have long-term and predictable financial support. This is crucial so they can meet the needs of both refugees and their local host communities,” Sriskandarajah said.

Joelle Hangi, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo now living in Kenya, said, “Refugees like me want more support to be able to stand on our own two feet and address our own issues. We’re the one who understand these things better than anyone else. We need access to quality education and to be included in policy debates. Countries need to offer people a hopeful future, those of us who may have experienced real trauma, and who just want to be able to live in safety and with dignity. We want to contribute as productive members of the societies that are offering us a future.”

Oxfam’s key asks for the summit are:

• Member states should live up to their commitments and do more to support refugees and host communities.
• Refugees and refugee-led organisations should be put at the heart of discussions and decisions.
• All countries should step forward to increase their resettlement places.
• States must also put in place the necessary measures to welcome spontaneous arrivals of asylum seekers.
• Governments must meet their aid commitments and ensure long-term, multi-year predictable funding for host countries.

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Notes to the editor:

• Globally there are 70.8 million people who have been forcibly displaced. 25.9 million are refugees, 3.5 million are asylum seekers and 41.3 million are internally displaced.
• Oxfam together with NRC, DRC, IRC and Save the Children have all contributed to the consultation and analysis of the Global Compact for Refugees
• Spokespersons including Danny Sriskandarajah and 8 (refugees) will be available for interviews at the conference.

For media interviews, please contact:

Paula Baker
Oxfam Canada
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org