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Arms are out of control. Arms kill more than half a million men, women, and children on average every year. Many thousands more are maimed, or tortured, or forced to flee their homes. The uncontrolled proliferation of arms fuels human rights violations, escalates conflicts, and intensifies poverty. The time for world leaders to act is now. to confront this crisis, Oxfam, Amnesty International, and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) have together launched an international campaign calling for effective arms controls to make people genuinely safer from the threat of armed violence. This volume provides a hard-hitting analysis of how abuse of small arms across the world is fuelling poverty and suffering.

The coffee price crash of 2001 had devastating effects on tens of millions of smallholder farmers and farmworkers around the developing world. Though recent improvements in the international price of coffee are providing some relief, the dynamics of the coffee market have not shifted in ways that guarantee long-term stability for those at the bottom of the supply chain. The 2001 crash took place in the context of a long-term trend in which coffee farmers, workers, and net coffee-exporting countries have seen the value of their coffee diminish. Coffee plays a crucial role in the livelihoods of millions of rural households in the developing world. Small-scale family farmers produce over 75% of the world’s coffee. Market volatility and declining terms of trade, along with inadequate access to infrastructure, financial resources, and market information, put sustainable livelihoods out of reach for millions of rural families. The coffee market continues to be a showcase of the need to address the commodity crisis on a global scale, a crisis that is hampering the development of many countries. This is directly linked to the global interest in wider peace and stability. The current discussions on the future of the International Coffee Agreement present an historic opportunity to address the ongoing crisis facing smallholder coffee farmers and farmworkers by contributing to sustainable coffee supply chains. At the 2nd World Coffee Conference in September 2005 several organisations presented the International Coffee Organisation and its delegates with the Carta de Salvador – the Salvador Declaration1, which stressed the ongoing effects of the coffee crisis facing small-scale family farmers and farmworkers. This paper calls on International Coffee Organisation members to support small-scale farmers and farmworker organisations by ensuring space for their direct participation in international debate, creating mechanisms that enhance the availability of market information to small-scale farmers, and maximizing opportunities to develop cohesive international strategies to provide technical support, access to credit, and direct access to markets.

Malawi is one of the worlds least-developed countries, ranked number 166 of 177 countries in the UN Human Development Index. The government of Malawi, with help from the international community, has made a genuine effort to improve health care in recent years.This report has revealed that there are still three key challenges for essential health services in Malawi; access to essential medicines, access to health services, compounded by user fees, especially in CHAM hospitals and the human-resource crisis.

Driven by upward trends in the number of climate-related disasters and human vulnerability to them, by 2015 the average number of people affected each year by climate-related disasters could increase by over 50 per cent to 375 million. This figure is likely to continue to rise as climate change gathers pace - increasing the frequency and/or severity of such events - and poverty and inequality force ever more people to live in high-risk places, such as flood plains, steep hillsides and urban slums, while depriving them of the means to cope with disaster. Climate change is a human tragedy that threatens to completely overload the humanitarian system. The potential human costs are unimaginable, and will be borne overwhelmingly by those least responsible for causing the problem: the world's poor.

Almost 250 million people around the world are affected by climate-related disasters in a typical year. New research for this report projects that, by 2015, this number could grow by 50 per cent to an average of more than 375 million people - as climate change and environmental mismanagement create a proliferation of droughts, floods, and other disasters. The predicted scale of humanitarian need by 2015 could completely overwhelm current capacity to respond to emergencies - unless the world acknowledges and responds to the growing threat. Even in daunting economic times, the world can afford to meet future humanitarian needs and fulfil the right to survive of vulnerable people. The skills and resources exist to mitigate the threats from climate-related catastrophic events. Some countries - rich and poor - have already demonstrated the political will to do just that. This report shows that the humanitarian challenge of the twenty-first century demands a step-change in the quantity and nature of humanitarian response. Whether or not there is sufficient will to do this will be one of the defining features of our age - and will dictate whether millions live or die.

Access to medicines is a major challenge for people in developing countries. With the right medicines, diseases such as HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria are treatable. Yet for millions of poor people, affordable medicines remain out of reach. UNITAID was established in 2006 as a new public health financing mechanism and a South-North collaboration. It is partially funded through an innovative airline tax that ensures stable long-term financing. UNITAID uses this unique feature to intervene in the market to make medicines for HIV, TB, and malaria affordable and available to people in low- and middle-income countries. Civil society (NGOs and communities affected by the diseases) plays an important role in influencing UNITAID policies and strategies. This document has been produced for the Civil Society Delegations to the UNITAID Board, and aims to encourage more civil society organisations to engage, so that UNITAID benefits from our collective inputs.

This paper discusses Oxfam's advocacy work in Honduras on women's political rights, and women's leadership and empowerment in the political sphere. Beginning with an overview of the constraints that women face if they wish to participate in politics, the paper then goes on to discuss Oxfam's advocacy and campaigning activities during and after the 2005 election period. These include lobbying and advocacy on political reform, campaigning to encourage people to consider voting for female candidates, and promoting women's leadership and political empowerment.

This is the first of nine papers in a series on Education and Gender Equality, which have been developed from the work of the Beyond Access: Gender, Education, and Development, project.1 The focus of the series is on how to ensure not only equal access to a basic education for boys and girls, but that gender equality is a key part of the practice of that education. With greater numbers of girls enrolling in schooling, much needs to be done to ensure good quality education for all children. How can NGOs, policy-makers, and researchers work together to ensure that all girls and boys have access to an education that is equitable and of good quality, and to ensure that they develop the knowledge and skills they need to achieve what they want for their lives? This introductory paper frames the issues and challenges to be faced in achieving gender equality and quality Education For All (EFA). These issues and challenges are taken up in more detail in subsequent papers.

This paper illustrates the challenges involved in providing good-quality gender-equitable education for children who are beyond the reach of mainstream, formal education. It focuses on children of nomadic and pastoralist households, identifying specific issues in providing schooling for them, and drawing on lessons from approaches and initiatives by various agencies (government and non-government). The paper explores specific forms of discrimination that nomadic and pastoralist girls experience in relation to education, and highlights the need for deeper gender analysis in order to inform policy making.

Women in Sierra Leone are under-represented in politics and over-represented among poor people. This paper describes the activities of two projects - the Women In Leadership project and its successor, the Promoting A Culture of Equal Representation project - that have aimed to increase the numbers of women in local and national government. In so doing, they have helped female election candidates to overcome some of the considerable barriers facing them.

Failure to achieve gender equality in education is often blamed on 'weak capacity'. This paper illustrates the ways in which individual, organisational, and institutional capacity all play important roles in producing positive results for girls. It is essential to recognise that these different forms of capacity are related, in order to prevent the disappearance of policies and strategies produced with the aim of achieving gender equality in education.

Despite being considered one of the most economically successful countries in Latin America, Chile is marked by high levels of social inequality. Women working in the agricultural and fish-farming sectors are particularly marginalised, and often work in unacceptable conditions, with little opportunity to challenge exploitative practices or to influence political decisions. This paper describes Oxfam GB's strategies to increase women's leadership and participation in economic and political sectors. It looks at the impact of these strategies and presents lessons learned.

This paper highlights the fact that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) do not directly address the issue of adult basic education and literacy, in spite of these being essential for achieving the Millennium targets. It explores the potential of adult basic education with gender equality to be transformatory for individuals, and for groups working to address key issues, such as gender-based violence, and HIV/AIDS. The role of governments and other key agencies in relation to gender equality and adult basic education is also explored. The paper concludes with a discussion of how to develop longer-term approaches to gender equality, adult basic education, and literacy.

In the mid-1980s, the Australian government embarked on the first initiative to analyse government budgets from a gender perspective. In 1995, South Africa and the Philippines became the second and third countries to attempt gender-responsive budget exercises. By 2003, there had been similar initiatives in more than sixty countries. This paper uses the gender-response budgeting approach to explain how governments and donors can promote gender equality in education through their decisions on financing.

Sub-Saharan Africa has some huge problems to resolve if it is to achieve gender equality in education, and fulfil the Millennium Development Goals related to education and gender. Conversely, the region also has some of the most innovative and enterprising examples of initiatives that promote gender equality in education. This paper focuses on sub-Saharan Africa and considers some of the most significant obstacles that African girls face in achieving the education that is their right. The paper then reviews the most significant initiatives - those that are 'gender-neutral' and those that have a specific focus on gender equality - that have enabled African countries to overcome these obstacles.

Why do some countries succeed in promoting gender parity and equality in education while others do not? The answer often given is 'political will'. All too often, however, no further explanation is offered. There has been little effort to understand why governments are unwilling or unable to change their policies and priorities to achieve equal access to education for girls and boys, as expressed in the third Millennium Development Goal. This paper considers the concept of political will and explores the role that it plays in improving gender parity and equality in education.

The legacy of years of violent political turmoil and entrenched ideas about gender roles makes it very difficult for women in Haiti to be active in the political arena, despite the fact that many have already proved themselves to be dynamic and able leaders of their communities. This paper describes the work of women's-rights organisation Fanm Yo La in mobilising women to vote and to hold their elected representatives to account, and in supporting women candidates before and after election.

The right to participate in decision-making at the local, national, and international level is one which women are often denied, whether as active citizens or as leaders. In particular, women living in poverty often have very little opportunity to influence decisions and policies that will have a direct influence on their lives and livelihoods, and on the welfare of themselves and their communities. This paper is part of a set of ten papers which bring together lessons and experience on women's leadership and participation from Oxfam GB and its partners.

The global food system works only for the few – for most of us it is broken. It leaves billions of us lacking sufficient power and knowledge about what we buy and eat and the majority of small food producers disempowered and unable to fulfil their productive potential. The failure of the system flows from failures of government – failures to regulate, to correct, to protect, to resist, to invest – which mean that companies, interest groups, and elites are able to plunder resources and to redirect flows of finance, knowledge, and food. This report describes a new age of growing crisis: food price spikes and oil price hikes, devastating weather events, financial meltdowns, and global contagion. Behind these, slow-burn crises smoulder: creeping and insidious climate change, growing inequality, chronic hunger and vulnerability, the erosion of our natural resources. Based on the experience and research of Oxfam staff and partners around the world, Growing a Better Future shows how the food system is both a driver of this fragility and highly vulnerable to it, and why in the twenty-first century it leaves 925 million people hungry. The report presents new research forecasting price rises for staple grains in the range of 120–180 per cent within the next two decades, as resource pressures mount and climate change takes hold. For more on interpreting the food price scenarios outlined in Growing a Better Future, see the Note on Food Price Scenarios added in November 2011. The report is now also available as an eBook, presenting expanded versions of case studies from Bolivia to Malawi, alongside new papers and research which develop and update the main themes of the report. The iBook edition is optimised for use on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, and includes a video endorsement from Brazil’s former President Lula da Silva and a short documentary on India’s failing food system. It is available to download free from the iBookstore. The standard EPUB edition is suitable for iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7 devices, and can also be accessed in full using a desktop eBook reader or Calibre. Its smaller file size means it is more suitable for a low-bandwidth connection. A Kindle edition is available from the Amazon Kindle Store.

The food system is a complex web of people, businesses, organizations and governments involved in the production, distribution, sale and consumption of food. Irrespective of who we are or where we are on the planet, the food we eat is made available by this global food system. But at the beginning of the twenty-first century, this system is not working properly - it leaves nearly one billion people hungry every day. It is obvious that the food system needs fixing, but the sheer size and complexity of the system can seem overwhelming; and the power of some of the corporations and governments involved is daunting. Urgent action is needed to change the policies and practices that play a huge part in the broken food system. This report shows the connections between the global food system and our daily lives. It looks at households in towns and cities in six countries: Brazil, India, the Philippines, Spain, the UK and the USA. Oxfam gathered information from 5,000 women about food prices, food choices, and opinions on how their food is produced. The survey results suggest a significant opportunity: households in towns and cities across the world would like to have a better food system. This report begins to explore how, together, they might bring that about.

Since it was launched in 2003, Brazil's Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) strategy has allowed 28 million people to break free from the cycle of hunger. These impressive figures suggest that public policy can have a significant impact in the fight against hunger. This report looks at some of the conditions contributing to the success of the strategy, including political will combined with a plan that is coherent, consistent, multidimensional and participatory., The United Nations launched the Zero Hunger challenge in 2012, and countries and regions around the world are looking at the lessons from Brazil's experience. In West Africa, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has initiated a process for achieving Zero Hunger in West Africa., An editorial by the West Africa GROW campaign and a preface by Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (2008-2014) are included in the French report and as separate documents in English. The editorial reflects on the practicalities and challenges in terms of social mobilization and the region's capacities to carry such an ambitious initiative. How can the necessary political will be ensured in a region of diverse states?

Economic inequality has reached extreme levels. From Ghana to Germany, Italy to Indonesia, the gap between rich and poor is widening. In 2013, seven out of 10 people lived in countries where economic inequality was worse than 30 years ago, and in 2014 Oxfam calculated that just 85 people owned as much wealth as the poorest half of humanity., Extreme inequality corrupts politics and hinders economic growth., It exacerbates gender inequality, and causes a range of health and social problems. It stifles social mobility, keeping some families poor for generations, while others enjoy year after year of privilege. It fuels crime and even violent conflict. These corrosive consequences affect us all, but the impact is worst for the poorest people., In Even it Up: Time to end extreme inequality Oxfam presents new evidence that the gap between rich and poor is growing ever wider and is undermining poverty eradication., If India stopped inequality from rising, 90 million more men and women could be lifted out of extreme poverty by 2019., This report delves into the causes of the inequality crisis and looks at the concrete solutions that can overcome it. Drawing on case studies from around the world the report demonstrates the impact that rising inequality is having on rich and poor countries alike and explores the different ways that people and governments are responding to it., The world has woken up to the gap between the rich and rest. From Spain to South Africa, and Peru to Pakistan, people are already demanding a world that is fairer. This report supports a new campaign to join this growing movement to end extreme inequality and Even it Up.

Oxfam’s Global Leaders Empowered to Alleviate Poverty (LEAP) program ran for four years from 2011, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its main purpose was to promote political leadership for global development. The global reach and the range of partnerships involved in the LEAP project enabled Oxfam to identify and demonstrate improvements in practice across six areas: How to influence policy Effective tactics The global balance in practice The role of Civil Society in global development policy Public support for global development issues How the project developed - identity, strategy and priorities, The external and independent evaluation of the first three years of LEAP focussed on two main areas of work: Oxfam’s relative contributions to policy advocacy outcomes; and how, and how far, Oxfam’s linking of global, national and local advocacy for policy change can show measurable added value., The evaluation concludes that LEAP offered Oxfam and its partners increased influence on policy processes and outcomes, as well as increased advocacy capacity across a range of issues. It identifies three strands from the project for future action: Improving and making the case for aid to fight hunger and poverty Increasing G20 and BRICSAM leadership on global poverty Making the US a global development leader, For each strand the report outlines internal and external issues: Which factors facilitated and hindered the success of the project? What strategies were most and least effective? Did ‘linking to global’ add value and amplify voices in and from the Global South? How far did the project encourage staff from Oxfam and external stakeholders to reflect on the development and management of the project? What were challenges of coordinating staff, partners, governments, policies and projects?, The LEAP Final Evaluation research was carried out in Brazil, France, Haiti, India, Mexico, Spain, South Africa, the United States and in Pan African (AU) and European (EU) institutions., The Management Response to LEAP Evaluation paper offers specific feedback on the Global LEAP project (as of February 2015) from the LEAP Project Director and from Oxfam America’s Vice-President of Policy and Campaigns., For a full list of LEAP Evaluation files and translations, scroll down below this record and click on the file.