Search

This report contains learning from a pilot implementation of the Locally Led Emergency Response Fund (LL-ERF) Project in three countries. The LL-ERF is a funding innovation that provides flexible, quick humanitarian funding to local actors in order to save lives during emergencies, advocate for the rights of people affected, and advance the shifting of power to local actors in the humanitarian sector. In the pilot, the LL-ERF was designed and managed by a consortium of local actors in each of the three pilot sites. Feedback from communities showed that this funding facility helped reduce suffering caused by low-attention disasters. This learning report identifies good practices and challenges and documents the experience of local actors in managing funds and designing response options., The learning in this report presents opportunities to explore how best to increase and direct funding to local actors. At the same time, it identifies barriers encountered during the LL-ERF Project that stakeholders in this sector must continue to overcome together.

This report – derived from work implemented by Oxfam Intermón and the University Institute for Studies on Migration (IUEM) of Comillas University in the EU SafeHabitus project – is based on a review of academic and non-academic literature from the past five years. It assesses research on working, living, health and transport conditions for migrants working in the agri-food sector in Europe, and cross-cutting gender issues.

This discussion paper contributes to the broader discourse on the nexus between Water, Energy and Food (WEF) in parts of Syria where Oxfam works. It explores the main causes behind the deterioration of the WEF sectors and the impact they have on households across Syria. The paper also focuses on aspects that directly impact and limit Oxfam's work inside Syria, in the delivery and implementation of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene; Livelihoods; Food Security and Protection interventions. Addressing the WEF Nexus in Syria is key in delivering more effective and sustainable interventions; and helping Syrians restore their lives.

This discussion paper focuses on the commitments that Dutch, German and UK supermarkets made as part of the Behind the Barcodes campaign to conduct human rights impact assessments (HRIAs). To understand whether supermarkets are meaningfully implementing those commitments and to support learning, this paper analyses the HRIAs that supermarkets have published in the past four years and identifies best practice efforts and points of improvement. Oxfam also outlines key recommendations for supermarkets and other food companies to improve HRIA processes to ensure that the rights of people making our food are better protected and respected.

This research documents the results of the piloting of an innovative technology with a limited-water fortification parboiling method developed by the University of Arkansas with eleven women rice parboiling cooperatives in Burkina Faso. The technology is easily adaptable to the parboiling method currently used in Burkina Faso (with some modifications), reduces water use and cost of fortificants contributing to food and nutritional security—particularly for women and children—and promotes economic empowerment of women in Burkina Faso. The paper also synthesizes two research papers on consumer preferences and willingness to pay for fortified rice products in Burkina Faso., The results suggest that it is technically feasible to produce fortified rice using the limited-water method and brown rice as a feedstock, particularly for iron and zinc, for which the concentration levels were close to the recommended dietary allowance (RDA). From the sensory analysis, although there is nothing particularly wrong with fortified rice, urban and rural consumers preferred conventional and modified parboiled rice; and of all three rice products, consumers were more likely to buy the two rice alternatives rather than fortified rice., The results from the experimental auctions show that most consumers were willing to pay the same price for fortified rice as for the conventional parboiled rice currently available on the market. Results showed that creating awareness on the benefits of fortified rice had a positive impact on consumers’ willingness to pay for it, and this was seen across all income levels. These results highlight the importance of designing an appropriate marketing campaign/awareness-raising to promote the nutritional benefits of fortified rice to increase the consumers’ willingness to pay for it., This study is unique in that, to our knowledge, fortified rice is not available in Burkina Faso, and therefore there is no information about its technical and market feasibility. The results can be used by the government and private and public sector actors to develop strategies for the adoption of fortified rice as another potentially relevant tool to fight malnutrition in Burkina Faso.

This paper reviews and synthesizes three research papers that look at gender-responsive budgeting in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania, with the aim of drawing out common themes and lessons learned on what it takes to ensure well-functioning gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) and how it can benefit women small-scale farmers. While Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania are not countries that systematically and efficiently practice GRB, the in-depth look at the challenges and successes of GRB in each of these countries provides some helpful insights. After a brief background section summarizing the history of GRB in each country, this paper outlines the lessons learned in five categories: Setting up government practices, systems, and structures for gender-responsive budgeting; Designing a more gender-responsive budgeting process; Engaging citizens in the budgeting process; Envisioning gender-responsive budgeting outcomes; and Identifying best practices in GRB advocacy by NGOs.

Small-scale farmers produce many globally important products such as rice, cocoa, cotton and vanilla. Poverty is widespread among these farmers, and there is an urgent need to increase their incomes., A living income – what a household needs to afford a decent standard of living for all its members – is a human right. It is increasingly recognized that paying a living income is the responsibility of businesses. Pricing is a vital part part of this, but raising the prices paid to farmers can be complicated, and many companies still treat it with scepticism., This paper presents lessons learned from the piloting of a novel price premium mechanism in Pakistan. The goal of the price intervention, which targeted basmati rice farmers in Punjab province, was to make a meaningful contribution to the incomes of the most vulnerable small-scale farmers, while at the same time identifying appropriate mechanisms to minimize costs to retailers and/or consumers. The pilot indicates that price, in combination with other complementary measures, can effectively contribute to closing the income gap for even the most vulnerable small-scale farmers, but that any mechanism to raise prices must be designed carefully., The intervention was part of the wider GRAISEA programme, which supports farmers and food producers in South-East Asia.

This report analyzes existing strategies and interventions implemented by cocoa and chocolate companies operating in Ghana to raise the income of cocoa farmers in their supply chains. It has two main aims: first, to complement companies’ learning efforts by pulling together and distilling lessons and insights from across the sector; and second, to strengthen transparency and accountability around living incomes by bringing greater visibility to companies’ efforts and their impact on raising the incomes of farmers in their supply chains to date., The report covers three main areas: Mapping of companies’ living income strategies; Assessment of farmer income conditions; Analysis of the effectiveness and impact of companies’ living income strategies., The findings might not necessarily be new for individual companies that have been implementing sustainability programs in Ghana for many years. However, the lessons that companies have learned have rarely been shared with a wider audience. This research aims to make these lessons more visible across the sector and create a joint foundation of knowledge upon which to build future living income strategies.

This study was undertaken by Oxfam in three South Sudanese counties as part of the SIDA-funded project 'Building Resilience through Gender and Conflict-Sensitive Approaches to Education, Skills Development, and Sustainable Livelihoods'. Its purpose was to shed light on why so many girls drop out of school., The research revealed that women and girls often lack decision-making power over their lives. Early or forced marriage, the abduction of girls, perceptions that education delays marriage – and that educated girls risk not finding husbands – all contribute to dropout rates. Additional challenges include a lack of adequate hygiene and sanitation facilities in schools, the distances learners need to travel, insecurity caused by communal violence, floods, food insecurity, and a heavy household work burden. The Government of South Sudan has in place laws and policies to address these issues, but they remain largely on paper and enforcement mechanisms are weak., The report analyses each of these factors in turn and presents recommendations for how the SIDA project can begin to address them in its future programming.

The Economic Justice and Resilience Pillar of the Oxfam Bangladesh Country Strategy 2016–19 was an ambitious and far-reaching portfolio of initiatives conducted across widely varying contexts and with a large cast of partners. This integrated evaluation report is the result of a rich study process that captured this ambitious complexity through a careful sequencing of mixed-method data collection and multi-stakeholder sense making and analysis. Despite the ambitious scope and challenging context, this report confirms that the Pillar has been highly successful and effective across several of its flagship projects. It reveals compelling evidence of economic empowerment of women and youth, emerging enterprises and value chains that create more highly skilled and capital-intensive opportunities for women producers, strengthened community-level climate resilience, and partnership strengthening at different levels. Find out more by reading the full report now.

The Tuzamurane cooperative of organic pineapple growers, located in the Eastern Province of Rwanda, processes and exports organic-certified dried pineapple to European markets. It began working with Oxfam in 2010, five years after being established. In 2015 the cooperative became one of four enterprises supported by the Oxfam’s Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) in Rwanda. The core objectives of EDP are to build sustainable agricultural enterprises, provide them with grants and loans, improve the lives of smallholder farmers, support women’s empowerment, seek wider systemic change and involve supporters in governance of the programme, through an investment committee and board. This Effectiveness Review evaluates the impact of EDP’s support to Tuzamurane on household income of cooperative members and suppliers (collectively known as ‘contractors’). A quasi-experimental impact evaluation design was used to understand the impact that can be attributed to EDP’s support between 2016 and 2019. Find out more by reading the full report now.

The 2022 Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index is the first detailed analysis published looking at governments’ policies and actions to fight inequality during the first two years of the pandemic. This fourth edition of the CRI Index reviews the spending, tax and labour policies and actions of 161 governments during 2020–2022., COVID-19 has increased inequality worldwide, as the poorest people were hit hardest by both the disease and its profound economic impacts. Yet the CRI 2022 Index shows clearly that most of the world’s governments failed to mitigate this dangerous rise in inequality. Despite the biggest global health emergency in a century, half of low-and lower-middle-income countries saw the share of health spending fall during the pandemic, half of the countries tracked by the CRI Index cut the share of social protection spending, 70% cut the share of education spending, while two-thirds of countries failed to increase their minimum wage in line with gross domestic product (GDP). Ninety-five percent of countries failed to increase taxation of the richest people and corporations. At the same time, a small group of governments from across the world bucked this trend, taking clear actions to combat inequality, putting the rest of the world to shame., See also the CRI Index website: www.inequalityindex.orgThe Index has been audited by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. Read more here., L’indice de l’engagement à la réduction des inégalités (ERI) 2022 est la première analyse détaillée publiée portant sur les politiques et les actions des gouvernements pour lutter contre les inégalités au cours des deux premières années de la pandémie. Cette analyse passe en revue les politiques et actions de 161 gouvernements en matière de dépenses, de fiscalité et de travail sur la période 2020-2022., La COVID-19 a creusé les inégalités dans le monde entier, les plus pauvres étant les plus durement touché·es par la maladie et ses profondes répercussions économiques. Pourtant, l’indice ERI 2022 montre clairement que la plupart des gouvernements du monde n’ont pas réussi à atténuer cette dangereuse augmentation des inégalités. Alors qu’il s’agit de la pire urgence sanitaire que le monde ait connue depuis un siècle, la moitié des pays à revenu faible et intermédiaire de la tranche inférieure ont vu la part des dépenses de santé diminuer pendant la pandémie. La moitié des pays suivis par l’indice ERI ont réduit la part des dépenses de protection sociale, 70 % ont revu à la baisse la part des dépenses d’éducation, tandis que deux tiers des pays n’ont pas augmenté leur salaire minimum en fonction du produit intérieur brut (PIB). 95 % des pays n’ont pas augmenté l’imposition des personnes et des sociétés les plus riches. Dans le même temps, quelques gouvernements dans différentes parties du monde se sont démarqués de cette tendance en prenant des mesures claires pour lutter contre les inégalités, couvrant de honte le reste du monde.

In 2013, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) launched Appui à la Valorisation du Potentiel Agricole du Nord, pour la Sécurité Économique et Environnementale—Aid to Realize the Agricultural Potential of the North, for Economic and Environmental Security, or AVANSE—in northern Haiti. This $87 million project, also known as Feed the Future North, runs through the end of 2019., Oxfam examined AVANSE utilizing an aid effectiveness lens. The research found that the project is generally well-aligned with Haiti’s national agricultural plans. However, USAID did not engage either the Haitian government or the beneficiary farmers in project design. Consequently, AVANSE has not adequately addressed local concerns about access to water, despite periodic severe droughts. Nor has the project targeted key local food crops, such as yams, or livestock, despite the desires of participating farmers., AVANSE has provided resources to women farmers. However, Oxfam found that the project has tended to engage women in rather traditional activities, such as soil and water conservation and marketing, and has not sought to transform gender relations in rural northern Haiti., Like Oxfam’s previous assessment of Feed the Future West in Haiti, the study determined that AVANSE lacks well-developed plans to maintain gains in farmer income and productivity beyond the life of the project. The study recommends systematic stakeholder engagement to ensure such sustainability.

The PROACT project uses Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) to enable rural financial inclusion. The VSLA approach is targeted at combating increased poverty and improving the resilience of poor rural farming households in Kebbi and Adamawa States, Nigeria. The three case studies presented here reflect the new, transformative realities of increased income, access to loans, safe spaces for women, improved rural enterprise and the empowerment of women engaged in the VSLAs.

Since April 2016, The European Union and the Oxfam Pro-Resilience Action Project in Kebbi and Adamawa States, Nigeria, have supported poor smallholder rural farmers to improve their agricultural productivity. The project has a specific focus on increasing crop yields per hectare for better land usage, as well as ensuring farmers possess the skills they need to maintain good agricultural practices, such as inputs utilization and climate mitigation strategies, as well as an information-sharing system on weather and market prices. The project uses a Farmer Field School model that continues to serve as a viable platform for rural farmers to access hands-on skills and basic modern farming knowledge and techniques. The case studies presented here demonstrate a significant increase in farmers’ productivity, income and resilience. This approach should be emulated by governments and private sector players to achieve impact at scale in Nigeria’s agricultural sector, which is the country’s top non-oil revenue stream.

This research was conducted to analyse the distinct gender needs and protection concerns of women, girls, men and boys in order to inform the implementation by Oxfam and its partners of the Sida-funded project, ‘Building resilience through gender- and conflict-sensitive approaches to education, skills development, and sustainable livelihoods in South Sudan’. It explores the gendered power relations between women, girls, men and boys, with a focus on the differences in their roles and responsibilities, decision-making power and access to and control over resources. It draws attention to the limited decision-making power held by women and girls, their specific needs, and the rights denials they face pertaining to education and livelihoods in Juba, Rumbek and Pibor. It provides practical recommendations to meaningfully address gender inequalities during project implementation, but is also intended to be used by the broader humanitarian community working in South Sudan to better inform humanitarian design, programming and response.

Salvaging resources from waste containers and landfills, waste pickers are the main suppliers to the recycling sector in Jordan, yet they often live in poverty and are exposed to multiple risks. The Jordanian government seeks to integrate waste pickers into formal waste management processes, but progress has been slow. Based on interviews with formal and informal actors in the waste sector, this study provides an overview of waste pickers’ socioeconomic conditions and operations and explores pathways for their integration that could support the recycling sector’s potential to create jobs, alleviate poverty and protect the environment.

Between May 2016 and March 2018, Oxfam in Iraq, together with the Iraqi Al Amal Association (IAA), collaborated on the ‘Safe access to resilient livelihoods opportunities for vulnerable conflict-affected women in Kirkuk’ project. Funded by UN Women, the project marked the first collaboration between Oxfam and IAA (a women’s rights organization working in Kirkuk). The core themes of the project were women’s rights and economic justice. It aimed to reach women who had been displaced, were returnees at the time, or members of the communities to which displaced people had moved (host communities)., This Effectiveness Review focuses on investigating the impact of support to income-generating activities on the women who received this support. The evaluation used a mixed methods design. Acknowledging that different women face different barriers and may have therefore benefitted differently from the project, an initial vulnerability assessment was carried out to bring an intersectional lens to the review. Configurational analysis was used to explore the project's impact, alongside different types of qualitative analysis and descriptive statistics. Find out more by reading the full report now.

This report analyses the first round of Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD) data from European Union (EU) Institutions., The EU is a key stakeholder in the development of TOSSD, as Co-Chair of the International TOSSD Task Force, and in the promotion of this as an essential metric in the implementation of Agenda 2030. It is our hope that this paper’s detailed examination of the scope of what has been reported by the EU Institutions identifies trends and issues arising from the first reporting round for TOSSD, which can be addressed going forward., It is timely to acknowledge the level of transparency in the proceedings of the TOSSD Task Force, which has been open to comments and suggestions since its inception, and has recently seated CSO representatives as observers. This transparency has put into practical effect the notion that data validation can, to some extent, be entrusted to third parties provided that the relevant information is available to all interested stakeholders on a timely basis., Good norms, such as good reporting instructions, can help steer the development agenda in the right direction for the benefit of the communities of the Global South.

This paper reports on a focused human rights impact assessment (HRIA) of Coop Sweden’s Moroccan citrus supply chains. The HRIA aimed to assess the actual and potential human rights impacts at the production stage of the value chain in Morocco, to identify their root causes, and to provide recommendations to relevant stakeholders concerning their mitigation and/or remediation., The assessment took just over a year and consisted of five phases of analysis using a methodology aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The field phase took place between January and April 2021., The HRIA was commissioned by Coop Sweden, who wanted a better picture of working conditions in the citrus sector and of the experiences of workers in seasonal production.

Since 2019 the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture has offered extension advice on conservation agriculture (CA). However, agricultural policy focuses mainly on intensive tillage whereas CA calls for zero or minimum tillage. Policy seems to favour productivity over sustainability, with CA adoption remaining low. Supply-side constraints include lack of access to high-quality inputs, credit, and machinery. Demand-side constraints include risk aversion and competition for crop residues needed for mulching from requirements for fuel and feed. Women farmers like CA because it does not require draft animals. However, some women in male-headed households report a shift of labour responsibilities to women.

This is the inspiring story of the Farmer-to-Farmer Agroecology Movement (MACAC) in Cuba. The movement has spread across Cuba and inspired over 200,000 farmers to take up agro-ecological farming practices. The story shows that it possible for a social movement to take sustainable agroecological farming systems to scale. Their experience counters the logic of conventional top-down approaches of agricultural extension and shows that locally specific solutions developed and disseminated by farmers themselves can provide significant and sustainable benefits for food production, rural livelihoods and environmental restoration. The experience provides valuable insights about how agroecology can help improve farmers’ well-being while simultaneously restoring the ecological health of the environment on which people’s livelihoods depend, increasing climate resilience and reducing carbon emissions from agriculture.

This case study shows how fair trade and other mission-led enterprises can be economically viable while simultaneously generating important social and environmental benefits. In contrast to conventional business models which prioritize short-term financial returns to shareholders, mission-led businesses put social and environmental goals on a par with economic ones, thereby overcoming a key structural driver of inequality and environmental damage. The case study focuses on Ghana but shows how the WFTO, a global umbrella organization, is enabling many small mission-led businesses to spread horizontally and bring the fair trade model to scale while staying rooted in their local community. The case study suggests that scaling could be accelerated with supportive government policy.

Bolsa Verde – or the Green Grant – is one of the few government social protection schemes that simultaneously improved the lives of many thousands of rural people living in poverty and reduced deforestation. The programme encouraged the preservation and sustainable use of forest resources by providing extremely low-income Brazilians living in the Amazon Forest with cash payments and livelihoods training. The Amazon is a vital global, national and local resource and the value of the carbon reduction benefits alone was estimated to be about three times the cost of the programme. The case study highlights the intrinsic links between poverty and the environment and the importance of supporting local populations to be forest guardians.

Across large areas of the Sahel region of West Africa, one of the poorest and most environmentally precarious areas of Africa, a decades-long revolution in agroecology has produced remarkable results in improving food security and reversing environmental degradation. It has been lauded for having been led and spread by numerous local farmers, although the story of success has not been as simple as that. This case study examines the interacting factors that have led to success. It highlights the fundamental connections between human, environmental and climatic impoverishment and warns that the progress made is fragile and in danger of being reversed by conflict, competition for land and the climate crisis. At the same time, in the light of the global alarm about human vulnerability to, and interlinkages between, the climate, environmental and health crises, there may never be a better opportunity to learn from what has been achieved, take its lessons forward and take this agroecological revolution to another level of scale.

Entre 2015 et 2020, le programme ACCES Innovation d’Oxfam-Québec a fourni un renforcement de capacités sur la filière moringa à cinq partenaires d’Oxfam du département de l’Artibonite, en Haïti. Ces partenaires — des organisations de femmes et des coopératives composées principalement de femmes — ont pu se positionner sur les principaux segments de la filière (production de feuilles, transformation en poudre et commercialisation), en plus d’explorer d’autres débouchés, comme la transformation de la matière en produits cosmétiques. Cette étude de cas aborde l’originalité, l’efficacité et la portée de l’intervention, en mettant l’accent sur les résultats et les facteurs de succès tels que la capacité de production des ateliers de transformation, le réseautage des partenaires, la valorisation des propriétés nutritionnelles du moringa et l’autonomisation économique et le leadership des femmes., Between 2015 and 2020 Oxfam-Québec’s ACCES Innovation Program provided five partners with capacity building to develop the moringa value chain in the Artibonite region of Haiti. These women’s organizations and women-dominated cooperatives positioned themselves at different stages of the value chain (leaf production, powder transformation and marketing). They also explored other avenues such as moringa use in cosmetic products. This case study looks at the intervention’s originality, efficiency and scope, detailing the results and success factors such as the workshop’s productive capacity, networking between partners, validation of moringa’s nutritive properties and women’s economic empowerment and leadership., The case study is part of a series conducted in the final phase of Oxfam-Québec’s Volunteer Cooperation Program, Program ACCES Innovation, which took place in ten countries from 2015 to 2020.

This 14-month pilot project was born from a call for innovative approaches to tackle systemic issues facing women and youth in rural Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). It provided participants with a range of training and inputs on an innovative method of sustainable permaculture farming. The project helped to address key risks and challenges identified by the communities involved – including unemployment, land confiscation and water scarcity., The case study is part of a series conducted in the final phase of Oxfam-Québec’s Volunteer Cooperation Program, Program ACCES Innovation, which took place in ten countries from 2015 to 2020.

Cette étude de cas porte sur une démarche de coopération Sud-Sud réalisée autour de la visite du centre de formation Songhaï au Bénin. Elle fait ressortir les résultats en matière d’acquisition de nouvelles connaissances portant sur tout le cycle de production agroalimentaire et leur application subséquente par les personnes participantes, tout en identifiant les facteurs de succès et les leçons apprises. L’étude souligne toutefois qu’une plus grande place faite aux échanges entre les pairs durant la visite aurait permis de renforcer les liens et les collaborations entre les partenaires., This case study explores a cooperation initiative that brought together 10 organizations working on food production for a visit to the Songhai Training Center in Benin. It shows effective learning covering all steps of food production and processing and its subsequent application by participating members in their home countries., The case study is part of a series conducted in the final phase of Oxfam-Québec’s Volunteer Cooperation Program, Program ACCES Innovation, which took place in ten countries from 2015 to 2020.

The Supermarket Scorecard assesses supermarkets’ policies and practices on human rights in their supply chains. We analysed whether supermarkets are transparent and accountable in the ways they ensure that workers’ rights are respected, small-scale farmers are prosperous and the women who produce our food are treated fairly. These are the four pillars of the Scorecard. Each pillar is scored separately, and there is also a total score for each supermarket., This page contains Scorecard data for the years 2018-2022 of the Behind the Barcodes campaign.

This is the 2022 update to the Supermarket Scorecard, part of the Behind the Barcodes campaign that Oxfam launched in 2018 to expose the economic exploitation faced by millions of small-scale farmers and workers in food supply chains, and mobilize the power of people around the world to help end it., The Supermarket Scorecard assesses supermarkets’ policies and practices on human rights in their supply chains. We analysed whether supermarkets are transparent and accountable in the ways they ensure that workers’ rights are respected, small-scale farmers are prosperous and the women who produce our food are treated fairly. These are the four pillars of the Scorecard. Each pillar is scored separately, and there is also a total score for each supermarket., Here you can download the following: Supermarket Scorecard 2022 data [Excel] Global Supermarket Scorecard 2022 infographic UK Supermarket Scorecard 2022 infographic How UK Supermarkets Progressed 2018 to 2022 (Total Scores) infographic How UK Supermarkets Progressed 2018 to 2022 (Transparency and Accountability) infographic How UK Supermarkets Progressed 2018 to 2022 (Workers) infographic How UK Supermarkets Progressed 2018 to 2022 (Farmers) infographic How UK Supermarkets Progressed 2018 to 2022 (Women) infographic

In 2013, leading chocolate companies Mars, Mondelēz, and Nestlé made global commitments to reduce gender inequalities across their cocoa supply chain. This report follows up on these commitments and presents findings on the gender equality programs Mars, Mondelēz, and Nestlé – and their agribusiness suppliers – are implementing in the cocoa supply chain of Ghana, a key sourcing country. Specifically, the report examines the extent to which each of the companies has (1) conducted and published impact assessments on women in their cocoa supply chains in order to understand and show how this population is faring in Ghana; (2) developed a specific action plan to address issues raised by the assessments that could lead to improved conditions for women; (3) signed on to the United Nations’ Women’s Empowerment Principles, a set of seven principles for businesses offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace, and community; and (4) engaged with other powerful actors

Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB), also known as gender budgeting, is an approach to budgeting that takes into account the various needs of a diverse population by using an intersectional gender lens to respond to the different experiences of women, men, and gender-diverse groups. In addition to promoting more equitable budgeting outcomes, GRB requires that the budgeting process itself be inclusive and accessible to all. This study focuses on GRB in Ghana and how it does and could impact women small-scale farmers. The research was conducted by Oxfam, Ghana Trade and Livelihood Coalition (GTLC) and SEND Ghana, and included a literature review, interviews, and focus group discussions. The five areas addressed in this paper are: (1) the gender responsiveness of the budget process in Ghana; (2) systems and structures for GRB implementation; (3) best practices in GRB advocacy, particularly regarding agriculture budgets; (4) women’s engagement in the budget process; and (5) the budget’s responsiveness to the needs of women smallholder farmers. The aim is for these findings to contribute directly to GRB advocacy by NGOs in Ghana, as well as to provide useful insights for relevant government officials in Ghana and other GRB practitioners and advocates in other countries. Thus, this paper concludes with recommendations for the Government of Ghana as well as NGOs and civil society members in Ghana.

The gender division of labor in Ethiopia hinders women smallholders’ efforts to improve productivity to close the gap with men’s farms. There is substantial evidence that where women have access to the same inputs and training as men, they can close that gap., The government’s national development plan identifies agriculture as the main driver of rapid and inclusive growth. The plan seeks to increase women’s participation in agriculture to 50 percent of all participants. But this can only happen with proper implementation of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB)., Ethiopia has ratified a number of international conventions and agreements on women’s rights that have guided development of national laws and policies. Nonetheless, the national budgetary process is not yet gender responsive, and the country faces other challenges. Low awareness of gender issues, limited technical skill in mainstreaming gender issues and GRB, lack of adequate resources, and poor enforcement mechanisms are major constraints., A majority of women do not participate in decision-making or express their needs during public meetings because of sociocultural barriers that elevate the role of males. Women are usually not invited to meetings and discussions that concern them, under the assumption that men can convey any relevant messages. But information does not consistently get passed to women farmers owing to the erroneous perception that “women do not farm.” Women’s low levels of literacy and limited exposure to information and support by development practitioners also contribute to the problem. As a result, women are often unable to exercise their rights during program design and implementation., If agriculture is to lead inclusive development, gender and rural development policies need updating. In addition, achieving high-quality agricultural public spending will require a conducive policy environment and a budget process that promotes the participation and well-being of women and girls as well as men and boys.

The Constitution and laws of the United Republic of Tanzania require the use of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) to promote gender-balanced and integrated national economic plans. It is at the village level where community budget needs are identified, though women’s needs are often marginalized. Although women are best at articulating their needs, their voices are seldom raised owing to limited representation. Government budgets typically sideline the needs of small-scale female farmers for access to land, markets, credit, and extension services, especially compared with male farmers. Instead, budgets designed to address general farmers’ needs, such as markets and loans for inputs and storage for surplus harvests, are directed primarily to farmers who grow strategic crops, who are mainly men., Tanzania provides for a separate budget facility for women and youth, and although most interviewees from the grassroots and the government consider this as evidence of a gender budget, it reflects a limited knowledge of GRB. Some projects supported by nongovernmental organizations and civil society organizations reflect women’s and men’s diverse needs, a feature that government budgeting should emulate., Communities need to be empowered to challenge constraints to their participation in decision making on budgets related to their priority needs. Citizens must be involved in all phases of the budget process and cycle. Government officials and institutions must be provided with adequate GRB knowledge and skills so they can use available democratic systems and structures to empower communities to engage in GRB.

The Enhancing Livelihoods Fund (ELF), a joint initiative between Oxfam, Unilever and the Ford Foundation, supported a project in India that developed and rolled out a video-based training manual to more than 10,000 smallholder farmers in the gherkin value chain. This document describes lessons learned from the project. As the coronavirus pandemic makes it necessary for companies and NGOs to find new ways of reaching out to smallholder farmers at scale, the experiences of the project may be of particular relevance in this new context.

Economic empowerment for women is a key component of Oxfam’s Economic Justice programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel (OPTI). The snake cucumber (faqous) value chain provides a good example of an intervention that focuses on women’s economic empowerment (WEE). This value chain is unique in its nature and scope as it is led by women. This case study examines the factors that have contributed to increasing women’s access to and control over economic opportunities and identifies learning and best practice to be used as a model for future interventions.

The study documents the incidence of domestic and workplace violence among Indian female agricultural workers, and the factors that put these women at risk of violence. Multiple years of nationally representative domestic violence data are analyzed, focusing on agricultural laborers. This analysis is supplemented by a literature review on working conditions for female tea plantation workers, who form the bulk of hired female agricultural labor in India, focusing on factors that enable workplace violence in this setting., Among the findings, we observe that women whose families have a history of domestic violence, and women whose partners drink frequently, are about 20 percent more likely to be survivors of domestic violence themselves. Importantly, women who are employed are more likely to be survivors of domestic violence, especially women who are employed in commercial plantations, which further confirms the need to look at domestic and workplace violence in connection with each other.

The ‘From Emergency Food Security to Durable Livelihoods: Building Resilience in the Occupied Palestinian Territories’ project was implemented in the West Bank, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, between November 2015 and January 2018 by Oxfam, together with two partners: the Land Research Centre (LRC) and the Palestinian Livestock Development Centre (PLDC). The project, funded by the Belgian Cooperation, through Oxfam Italy, focused on improving protection around three key areas at community level to build resilience: supporting animal health, rehabilitating protected rangelands and strengthening community-based legal protection mechanisms. The combination of these key areas is the focus of this Effectiveness Review: the evaluation assesses the impact of this cross-sectorial approach on the resilience capacities of male and female members of Bedouin communities in the West Bank, at risk of displacement. It combines a quantitative quasi-experimental design with a questionnaire with community leaders., Find out more by reading the full report now.

This paper reports on an illustrative human rights impact assessment (HRIA) of the Italian wine supply chains of Systembolaget, the Swedish monopoly alcohol retailer. The HRIA aimed to evaluate the actual and potential human rights impacts at the production stage of the value chain in Italy, to identify their root causes, and to provide recommendations to relevant stakeholders concerning their prevention, mitigation and/or remediation., The assessment took just over a year and consisted of five phases of analysis using a methodology aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). However, the onset of Italy’s severe first wave of coronavirus in 2020 meant that the assessment team was unable to conduct the field study phase with the full rigour required of an HRIA., The field phase started in September 2019, with an initial assessment phase based on a literature review and a round of stakeholder interviews from September 2019 to March 2020. Further, limited, worker interviews were conducted from October 2020 to January 2021. The result is an illustration of the human rights risks that are present in the areas of Italy from which Systembolaget sources its wine.

In 2018, the Oxfam Novib Right to Food Programme (R2F) team formulated an ambitious threefold learning goal around the integration of gender. First, it wanted to capture the diversity in the way the programme integrated gender. Secondly, it aimed to learn what is at the roots of this diversity. Lastly, it aimed to boost further integration of gender in the second phase of the programme via targeted actions in the various projects., This report relates to the first two goals, by presenting the various ways in which R2F has integrated gender and by investigating the factors that influenced the extent to which gender has been integrated. The programme addressed the third goal by providing dedicated budget for ‘gender in action activities, deepening the project teams’ understanding on how to improve the gender approach., The R2F programme is part of the Strategic Partnership (SP) ‘Towards a Worldwide Influencing Network’ between the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, SOMO and Oxfam Novib. The programme runs from 2016 to 2020 and focuses on changing public and private policies and practices that benefit small farmers, especially women and their communities in a way that protect and promote their prosperity and resilience. Gender integration is crucial to ensure long lasting impact on the Right to Food for everyone. Women farmers play a central role in overcoming poverty and food insecurity, and building resilience to climate change.

Situated in a complex region of the world, Puntland State in Somalia is dealing with a range of threats and instabilities such as droughts, floods, locusts, the movement of internally displaced people (IDPs), and armed actors. COVID-19 has added yet another strain on its tremendously fragile infrastructure. The impact of the pandemic has been far reaching, affecting livelihoods and hampering unpaid and underpaid care work and responsibilities. The multitude of crises and rates of inflation have left the majority of families food insecure and without income, halted education and health services, and exacerbated existing vulnerabilities and the incidence of violence., This gender analysis was conducted and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO), in partnership with Oxfam in Somalia and KAALO, to better help local government bodies, agencies, NGOs, and INGOs grasp the differentiated impact of the crises on women, men, boys, and girls, and host and IDP communities, during this time of intense loss and instability. The analysis provides an overview of the experiences of the affected communities, and gives recommendations on how to address immediate concerns and plan future programming.

Oxfam engages with multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) to discover how they can further move sectors towards social, economic and environmental sustainability. The main purpose of this report is to assess the current roles of MSIs on key social and human rights topics and to explore how they can improve their performance on these topics. In addition, this report provides reflections on what Oxfam could do to support MSIs to improve. It was commissioned by the Gender transformative and Responsible Agricultural Investments in South-East Asia programme (GRAISEA), funded by the Swedish government with some co-financing by private sector partners. The report does not represent Oxfam’s positioning on MSIs or the topics. It is written by Aidenvironment to provide Oxfam staff, its partners and MSIs with input to further reflect on whether and how MSIs could position themselves on these topics. The content of this report is based upon a literature review and 19 interviews with Oxfam staff, its partners and MSIs, and subsequently its first draft was commented upon by these stakeholders in writing as well as during a webinar on 1 December 2020., This report is divided into two parts. Part A focuses on how GRAISEA’s target MSIs are able to include and create benefits for small-scale producers. These influential GRAISEA target MSIs are: Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) (in Phase 1 only) Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) Asian Seafood Improvement Collaborative (ASIC)., Part B discusses the current and potential roles of MSIs in general, not only the four GRAISEA targets, on a number of key topics relevant to GRAISEA and Oxfam.

The Village Agronomy Model (VAM) is a package of extension and agriculture input supply services devised and implemented by Oxfam to reach out to smallholder farmers in remote, underserved regions of rural Tajikistan. In a scenario where smallholder farmers mostly lack knowledge and skills on high-yielding agricultural technology and have weak access to reliable and quality input supply, VAMs have filled the critical gap by deepening the outreach of services, harnessing the power of markets and leveraging farmers’ institutions., Over the past five years, VAM has reached out to 2,065 farmers growing a variety of crops, including vegetables, such as tomato, onion, cucumber, and watermelon, and grains, such as rice, building a robust network of extension services and spawning new supply chains in remote rural areas of the Khatlon region in southern Tajikistan. This has paved the way for sustained improvement in productivity and income of smallholder farmers and development of the incipient agriculture market in rural areas. In the face of chronic unaddressed challenges of the market system in rural areas, VAMs offer a bridging solution that can be scaled up and leveraged for systemic transformation in market support systems across the agriculture sector.

Producer groups and commodity clusters provide vital underpinning to the smallholder farmer institutions supported by Oxfam in the Khatlon region of Tajikistan. Over the past five years, the two platforms have evolved and matured into robust farmers’ collectives, which have contributed to the integration of 1,496 smallholder farmers in productive and equitable value chains in selected agricultural commodities, increasing their income and enhancing their resilience.

Oxfam has launched an ambitious System for Crop Intensification (SCI) programme in Tajikistan with a view to transforming crop productivity and the food security landscape in the country. Within the broader framework of SCI, a field trial of System for Rice Intensification (SRI) was carried out in Khatlon region in the summer cropping season of 2018. Preliminary results from the limited trial show an increase in rice productivity of up to 60% using standard SRI methodology (compared with traditional methods). Furthermore, there was a dramatic reduction in the use of seeds, fertilizers and water, which led to a significant cutback in the cost of rice cultivation for farmers. For a food-deficient, ecologically fragile country like Tajikistan, with limited availability of land and water for crop cultivation, climate-smart practices in SCI offer the potential to support productivity gains and the restoration of agro-ecological systems in rural areas., Oxfam and its partners plan to conduct further field demonstrations and research on SCI across Tajikistan to further test the result and develop a standard package of practice. This will be followed up by a scaled-up programme on SCI across the country, leading to enhanced food security for poor people and improved productivity and income for smallholder farmers.

In June 2014, Oxfam convened a participatory youth-led project design workshop as part of its Mekong Regional Water Governance Program (MRWGP) in Cambodia. The MRWGP piloted a youth inclusion component for 18 months to contribute to its wider aim to 'support vulnerable communities in the Lower Mekong to enjoy sustainable livelihoods that contribute to ecosystem integrity and protection of biodiversity'.

This case study explores the new approach of ‘agripreneurship’ in Oxfam’s programmes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The approach aims to address the lack of interest in the agriculture sector of young women and men in Gaza – as it is viewed as ‘traditional and unattractive’ by young agronomists. The model was tested for the first time in the Gaza Strip, a coastal enclave in the grip of a protracted conflict and suffering from a staggering 70% youth unemployment rate. The agripreneurship programme provided space for youth to make business decisions, control assets and further their personal development.

Oxfam’s Economic Justice Programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is implementing several market system development projects focusing on the agricultural sector. Small-scale producers face several constraints including: high prices of agricultural inputs, limited extension services, weak post-harvest capacities and limited access to markets. This case study focuses on the role of the packing houses (preparing the produce for the market) and the contractual relationship between SSPs and vegetable and fruit packing houses. It will examine the management of the four packing houses in order to analyse the work implemented since 2017, document learning, and recommend key actions to scale up and sustain the interventions.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Oxfam’s Economic Justice Programme has been a pioneer in implementing market system development (MSD). In the OPT, The Palestinian Authority has very limited control over resources which seriously impedes its capacity to develop enabling policies to support MSD interventions. This case study focuses on the experience of one civil society organization as it changed from being a service provider to becoming a facilitator of market system development interventions.

There is a downward trend in the participation of young women and men in the agricultural sector in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. If this trend continues without being addressed, youth will potentially have limited opportunities to participate in this sector. Given that agriculture remains the main pillar of the economy, engaging young women and men in the sector and encouraging agribusiness is vital both for agriculture and economic growth as well as protecting and promoting Palestinian presence and control over their own land. This paper examines Oxfam’s work with young people in the OPT over the past two years as part of its Economic Justice Programme. The case study identifies several gaps or barriers to young people’s engagement in the agricultural sector.