Oxfam America Blog

Cotton famers load a truck in Sibirila, Mali. Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/Oxfam America

The first time I went to Mali, about five years ago, I met with a group of cotton farmers just a few hours east of Bamako. It was near the harvest time, and you could see the white dots on the scrubby little plants all over the countryside, but there was not much optimism among the farmers in the cooperative I visited that day. Most of them reported that they work all year, sell their cotton to the government agency that exports all the cotton grown in Mali, and after they pay back their loans they don’t usually walk away with enough to make it worth the effort. Some years they would get just about $100. A relatively good year was $200 or $400.
Farmers in Mali told me they only grow cotton because they know their government will buy it from them for cash, which they need for health care, school fees, and other expenses. They can also get fertilizer from the government on credit — if they use it to grow cotton.
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In the year following Hurricane Katrina, Cleo and Martin Sylvester lived in a FEMA trailer while they put together the financing they needed to rebuild their own home. Photo by Steve Thackston/Oxfam America

On the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina , Andrew Blejwas, one of our colleagues who has been working with many of the communities on the US Gulf Coast, looks back on the long years that have passed since that storm turned so many lives upside down and revealed so much about injustices in our country. Here are a few of his thoughts:

Four years after Katrina, a lot has changed. Many homes are rebuilt, there are far fewer trailers than there were just a year ago, and communities are beginning to get back on their feet. But not much has changed either. There should not be more homes to rebuild, there should not be any families still living in trailers, and communities should have more support getting back on their feet.

Though Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were one-time events, the issues they helped unmask in the region are pervasive and long-standing. It’s going to take more than just a few years worth of work to reverse the poverty and social injustice that are pervasive on the Gulf Coast of the US. Oxfam is making a commitment to address the long-term issues that affect the region and will continue to work with dedicated partners there who are already working tirelessly to do just that.

Pounding fufu (boiled cassava, a staple food) in a small village in central Ghana. Most of the people in this area grow cocoa and make a decent living, but in other parts of the country a large percentage of the population live on less than $1 a day. Photo by Chris Hufstader/Oxfam America.

Barack Obama made his first trip to Africa as President of the United States, and his speech last week in Accra was the talk of Africa and much of the world. When we looked at it here in the office, a colleague said to me, “It’s almost as if Obama works for Oxfam.” He worked through a number of Africa’s challenges and many of his recommendations were aligned with those Oxfam makes on the same issues.

But the speech was also interesting for another reason: It’s always hard for someone from the US to confront Africans about problems on their continent. Read the rest of this entry »

Families in the Honduran community of Copan used to survive on two or three small meals a day, but with support from Oxfam and a local partner organization, they now grow a wide variety of nutritious vegetables. Photo: Gilvan Barreto / Oxfam

Gawain Kripke is Oxfam America’s policy director focusing on hunger and food issues. At the G8 summit he’s lobbying government officials and talking to journalists to keep the pressure for action.

Newsflash: G8 and other countries commit to $20 billion over three years for agriculture development.  This is $5 billion more than expected and came from “arm twisting” in the last few hours.

We still don’t have details, but this probably means more money – new money – for agriculture development.

This is a victory for President Obama who said, in his press conference today, “There’s no reason Africa can’t feed itself.  They have lots of arable land.”

Although this is still a fraction of the annual additional $25 billion to $40 billion needed, it’s a down payment on the goal of ending hunger.

Gawain Kripke is Oxfam America’s policy director focusing on hunger and food issues. At the G8 summit he’s lobbying government officials and talking to journalists to keep the pressure on for action.

Intrigue is building on what, exactly, will be promised on hunger at the G8 summit.  For weeks the rumors have floated that President Obama wanted to make a major announcement at the G8 on the issue of hunger.  His staff said that he wanted to focus on aid to small farmers to help them grow their way out of poverty and feed themselves.  It’s exciting and very welcome coming on the news that the world faces a sad milestone in 2009: This year more than 1 billion people will face hunger. That’s more hungry people than ever in human history.  Read the rest of this entry »

Miss Betty Jane Adams of Chauvin, LA. Photo: Grazioso Pictures

This June was one of the weirdest months I’ve ever seen in New England. Instead of warm days, we had endless cool and rainy weather. The Boston skyline vanished behind a perpetual cloud bank. Lately, I’ve taken to leaving my sunglasses at home and hauling my umbrella around instead.

Of course, besides giving Bostonians a chance to complain (something we love dearly), the unseasonal weather hasn’t really disrupted our lives. I haven’t put in my air conditioner yet, and some of my neighbors have held off on planting their summer gardens. But overall, we can live with it.

A thousand or so miles south of us, though, the weather is changing in a way that’s much more lasting and profound. Last week I watched some stunning footage filmed in the bayous of Louisiana, part of a series of forthcoming short films by Oxfam about building people’s resilience to climate change. The story centers on a local organization building elevated “lift houses” to protect Gulf Coast residents from increasingly severe floods and storms. 

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It’s a drum we bang a lot at Oxfam: Addressing poverty at home and abroad will create a better, safer world for all of us.

Well, this morning, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton started her first day on the job echoing the same sentiment.

According to today’s Washington Post, Clinton, who also oversees the US Agency for International Development, told her staff: “there are ‘three legs to the stool of national security — defense, diplomacy and development. We are responsible for two of three legs…. Robust diplomacy and effective development are the best long term tools for securing America’s future.’”

I hope the coming four years bring with them a more nuanced view of US policies, one that no longer contributes to poverty — but actually helps reduce it.

To read the full article, click here.