Oxfam - The African Mirror

Sep

2021

South Africa, Oxfam call for fairer trade rules in response to pandemic

SOUTH Africa's president and the head of Oxfam heaped pressure on World Trade Organization members and manufacturers to allow fairer access to COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday, including through a waiver on intellectual property rights. At a WTO public event on trade and COVID-19 also attended by German vaccine maker BioNTech, Cyril Ramaphosa said a waiver on patents was needed to save millions of lives during the pandemic. "This is not the time just to be uni-dimensionally focused on profit. This is the time to save lives," Ramaphosa said. The WTO began discussions on a waiver to intellectual property rules for…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Women lost $800 billion in income

COVID-19

SOPHIA SUN THE COVID-19 crisis cost women around the world $800 billion in lost income in 2020, Oxfam said, as it demanded steps to tackle gender inequality. Women, overrepresented in low-paid, precarious sectors like retail, tourism and food services, lost more than 64 million jobs last year, said the charity, a 5% total loss, compared to a 3.9% loss for men. The pandemic has "dealt a striking blow" to recent gains for women in the workforce, said Oxfam Executive Director Gabriela Bucher, in a written statement. The $800 billion figure, based on International Labor Organisation data, likely underestimates the total…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

India’s ‘invisible’ women hope for recognition at farmers protests

WORLD

ROLI SRIVASTAVA LEGIONS of women have trekked to India's capital to join massive protests against agricultural reforms, hoping not only to protect their livelihoods but also win visibility as farmers. About 75% of rural women in India who work full-time are farmers, Oxfam says, with numbers rising as men migrate to work in factories and construction sites. Yet farming is still widely seen as men's work and only 13% of women own the land they till. "Women are never counted as farmers ... we are always counted as housewives, but not workers," said Sunita Rani, 39, who owns a farm…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Third of world’s people get no state aid during pandemic – Oxfam

WORLD

MATTHEW LAVIETES MORE than a third of the world's population - some 2.7 billion people - has not received government aid during the coronavirus pandemic with gaping differences between rich and poor countries, Oxfam has revealed. An analysis of World Bank data conducted by the Nairobi-based charity found that while $9.8 trillion of aid was spent by 36 wealthy nations, 59 low-income countries spent only $42 billion to cope with the economic fallout of the pandemic. It also found that rich countries have spent at the rate of $695 per person, whereas low-income and emerging countries have spent at a…