Oxfam

Oxfam Canada works with people to secure their basic human rights, combining support to long-term development and humanitarian responses with research, advocacy and campaigning against the root causes of poverty and injustice.

Aid is for people, not corporations

May 202013

Take action!

Tell your MP: Keep aid focused on poverty and rights.

from Oxfam

Big changes are under way in Canada's aid program. As part of budget Bill C-60, the federal government plans to merge the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT).

Let’s make sure that ending poverty and promoting human rights remain at the heart of Canada's international development efforts. Please reach out to your Member of Parliament.

Act right now. The House of Commons is due to vote on Bill C-60 very soon.

Visit the Oxfam website to view, modify and sign this letter:

Dear MP:

I am a constituent in your riding and I care about ending global poverty and promoting human rights.

I am concerned about the implications of folding the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) into the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Trade is important for development, but it cannot replace concerted efforts to eradicate poverty and promote human rights.

For the past 45 years, CIDA has supported the work of Canadian organizations to help poor communities gain access to schools and health care, to have enough to eat, and to ensure women and others can exercise their rights.

We have seen the results of this good work. And I want Canada to remain as engaged as I am.

I am asking you to keep poverty reduction and human rights promotion central in Canada’s aid program, and to allocate sufficient resources to fulfill that mandate.

I also would like you to ensure that the many Canadian organizations which have done such good work remain key partners of the federal government in its efforts to end global poverty.

I hope you share these concerns and I kindly ask you to raise these issues in caucus, with Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and in the House of Commons.

Thank you very much for your time and support. Please let me know how you follow up on this important issue.

Sincerely,

Visit Oxfam's website to send this letter electronically.

US trade policy hazardous to health, globally

Mar 052013

Canadian politics

Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement to exacerbate Vietnam’s access to medicines crisis.

from Oxfam

The United States is again pursuing an important free trade agreement that will lock in high drug prices out of poor people’s reach – this time across the Asia-Pacific region, warns international agency Oxfam.

Talks resume in Singapore this week for the ‘Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement’ (TPPA). The US is again insisting that countries must take on strict intellectual property protection and drug pricing rules when they sign the deal.

The ten largest food corporations’ socially harmful policies

Feb 282013

Features

Despite some progress, most companies fail at transparency, sustainability, and human rights.

from Oxfam

The social and environmental policies of the world’s ten biggest food and beverage giants are not fit for modern purpose and need a major shake-up, says international agency Oxfam.

The “Big 10” food and beverage companies – that together make $1 billion-a-day – are failing millions of people in developing countries who supply land, labor, water and commodities needed to make their products.

Send Coldplay a displaced image

Feb 242013

Take action!

New crowdsourced music video to spotlight unjust land grabs.

from Oxfam

Oxfam's GROW Campaign is asking Coldplay fans to take part in a groundbreaking global music project to highlight the global injustice of land grabs.

Land grabs target weakest countries

Feb 072013

World beat

Women in country after country face dire consequences of weak governments.

from Oxfam

Investors are targeting the world's weakest-governed countries to buy land, according to new analysis published on Oxfam's international day of action against land grabs Thursday. Oxfam's GROW campaign is calling on the World Bank to lead the fight against land grabs.

The costs of financial inequality

Jan 232013

Features

Wealth and income extremes hurt us all.

By Robert Fox, Oxfam Canada executive director

In a briefing note published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, Oxfam says it’s time for a commitment to reduce poverty and to curb income extremes when the $240 billion net income in 2012 of the richest 100 billionaires would be enough to make extreme poverty history four times over.

Too often we focus on the symptoms of extreme poverty without looking at the causes. We look at the poor as if they are a problem rather than the consequence of a problem: growing inequality and injustice.

Elites in the north and the south are amassing greater wealth at an astonishing rate while the yawning gap between their privilege and the bleak reality of someone earning $400 a year – which is how low you need to go before you officially qualify as “poor” on this planet – grows wider by the moment.

The political corrosion, ecological damage, economic inefficiency and social injustice of the accelerating concentration of wealth and power are toxic. Action can and must be taken to tackle extreme wealth and its devastating impact. We know what we need to do to reverse this trend. And the first step is to name the problem and begin to rally opposition to this injustice. Only then will governments find the political will to act.

World Bank backs land grabs in poor nations

Dec 062012

Take action!

Sustenance farms destroyed so corporations can grow corn for biofuels.

from Oxfam

Globally, an area more than double the size of British Columbia has been sold off in the rush for land. That's land that could feed nearly 900 million people — the number of people who go to bed hungry every night.