Research

Caring Under COVID-19: How the Pandemic Is and Is Not Changing Unpaid Care and Domestic Work Responsibilities in the United States

Written by Brian Heilman, María Rosario Castro Bernardini, and Kimberly Pfeifer. Caring Under COVID-19: How the Pandemic Is and Is Not Changing Unpaid Care and Domestic Work Responsibilities in the United States, a new report by Oxfam and Promundo as part of MenCare: A Global Fatherhood Campaign, reveals findings from a rapid poll exploring the gendered and racial impacts of COVID-19 on care work. The report demonstrates how COVID-19 has brought an unprecedented crisis of care in the United States, with a particular workload being taken on by women as a group, and Black, Latinx, and Asian individuals.

This report provides six new insights on the unfolding crisis of care, along with PL+US highlighting the need for paid leave, policy changes that are intersectional and that account for and remedy existing inequalities, and better inclusion in decision-making of those individuals with a clear view of inequalities. This report is the first in a series of similar polls in the #HowICare Project, the Oxfam International report is also published and focused on these four other countries: UK, Canada, Philippines, and Kenya.

Mozambique experiences from the First National Congress of Resettled and Affected Communities by the extractive industry

This case study summarizes the experiences of advocacy and mobilization surrounding the First National Congress for Resettled and Affected Communities by Extractive Industries

Through the Lens of the Citizen Scientists: Protecting Maritime Ecosystems

This case study documents the power of citizen engagement for generating knowledge and action on environmental protection.

Zero Hunger, Zero Emissions: Land-based climate change mitigation, food security, and equity

This report seeks to identify the threats to equity posed by certain land-based climate change mitigation strategies and the potential impacts of these threats on food security and other human rights, in order to sound the alarm on current and potential future inequalities. At the same time, this report highlights opportunities to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations while enhancing multidimensional equity, and thus safeguarding food security and other human rights, by keeping equity at the core of land-based climate change mitigation actions. Making informed and comprehensive policy and programming decisions requires assessing both the biophysical and social impacts of climate change mitigation strategies. The results of this report highlight both opportunities and potential trade-offs, showing how Oxfam, its partners, and the broader community of climate change and development actors can proactively achieve reductions in GHG concentrations while ensuring food security and other human rights.

Can Haiti's Peanut Value Chain Survive US Generosity? Political economy analysis

Research by PAPDA (the Haitian Advocacy Platform for Alternative Development) and Oxfam found that peanut value chain actors in Haiti face a number of serious constraints, including nonexistence of state support; weak organization; use of traditional production methods; and lack of access to irrigation and inputs, including herbicides to control aflatoxin, all in a context of poverty and vulnerable livelihoods. Most of those interviewed have peanut-related earnings insufficient to cover living expenses. However, most expressed satisfaction with their value chain activities. Women in particular reported achieving a measure of economic empowerment, despite limited earnings. With the right policies and agricultural programs, Haiti has the potential to achieve self-sufficiency and pursue export opportunities.

The US peanut value chain, in contrast, features highly subsidized production, precision technologies, and politically well-organized farmers who engage in unabashed rent seeking. This leads to overproduction and pressures to develop foreign markets and use peanuts in food aid, such as the 2016 donation of 500 metric tons of dry roasted peanuts to Haiti. But such surplus dumping is incoherent with longstanding US agricultural aid aimed at boosting Haitian peanut productivity and overcoming severe aflatoxin issues.

The paper recommends that the Haitian government provide significant support to the peanut value chain. It encourages the United States and other donors to continue providing aid to Haitian peanut production, while avoiding agricultural trade policies that undermine such assistance.

Anchored in Local Reality: Case Studies on Local Humanitarian Action from Haiti, Colombia, and Iraq

Critiques of international humanitarian aid have long suggested that it needs to be more inclusive of actors from crisis-affected countries. Increased attention to this issue over the past decade or so has coalesced into a set of agendas often referred to as the “localization” of humanitarian assistance, “local humanitarian leadership” (LHL), and “local humanitarian action” (LHA). However, there is little consensus about key definitions and concepts related to these terms. What does “local” actually mean? Who qualifies as a “local humanitarian actor”? What are the goals of these agendas? In general, these conversations have been led by and focused on the experiences of international humanitarian actors, which in turn has shaped the discourse about both the status quo and necessary reforms. Recently, there have been increased efforts to re-center the voices of local humanitarian actors in these conversations. This paper offers deep insight into fundamental questions of this discussion in three different contexts: a region of Haiti recovering from a hurricane, displacement and political crisis in Iraqi Kurdistan, and the overlapping pressures of migration, conflict, and climate change in Colombia.

Also included here are versions of this work that focus on Haiti and Colombia which are translated into Haitian Creole and Spanish respectively.