Figures released by the OECD today show that Europe has made widespread cuts to overseas aid in the last year. Indeed, development aid from most EU-15 countries has been slashed, leaving Europe even further off-track to meet its promise to give 0.7 per cent of national income by 2015 to the poorest. In practice these [...]

European Finance Ministers are meeting in Copenhagen today and tomorrow to discuss the possibility of introducing a tax on financial transactions. Some journalists appear to be insisting that the prospects for such a tax are fading or even doomed, but this is not the case. Hopes for a financial transaction tax (FTT) are not dead. [...]

Over 70 organisations have urged the Danish EU Presidency to speed up negotiations on a financial transaction tax (FTT) in a letter sent ahead of tomorrow’s EU Finance Ministers meeting, where an EU FTT will be up for discussion. Signatories want to see EU finance ministers take concrete steps towards a decision on the FTT  [...]

For the EU, piracy is the most visible symptom of instability in Somalia. But for over two million Somali people who are in need of urgent humanitarian aid, instability means a daily struggle to provide food, water and safety to their families. As it stands, 2.4 million people remain in need of urgent aid while [...]

Denmark has an excellent track record of commitment and expertise when it comes to helping the world’s poorest. Onlookers have good reason to hope that Denmark will make sure that the EU remains ambitious in its development and humanitarian goals and keeps its promise to place poverty eradication at the heart of EU external action. [...]

As support grows for a European Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) so do the number of negative myths being put forward by its opponents. The key criticisms are: An EU FTT will cause business to relocate An EU FTT will negatively impact on growth and jobs An EU will hit savings, pensions or small businesses An [...]

The forecasts are in for the New Year, and they aren’t looking good. The terrible drought that has gripped the Horn of Africa since mid July 2011 and put the lives of 13 million people in crisis is set to carry on well into 2012.  The good news is that if we play our cards [...]

Delivering quality aid is not just about giving the right amount – it’s about giving it in the right way Today more than 2,000 negotiators including Ban Ki-moon, Hilary Clinton and the European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs will meet in Busan for a crucial summit to decide how to make overseas aid work better, [...]

Last week representatives from the EU, the G20 and Least Developed Countries, the World Bank and industry came together at a high level panel event organised by Oxfam in collaboration with the Mission of Norway to the EU to discuss how to raise the $100 billion pledged by rich countries at Copenhagen to help poor [...]

Oxfam has launched a major new report highlighting the growing pace of land deals that are being brokered around the world, often to the peril of poor communities who lose their homes and livelihoods – sometimes violently – with no prior consultation, compensation or means of appeal. Preliminary research shows that as many as 227 [...]

“Independence in South Sudan has come as the result of a long struggle. The country is now free, but destroyed. War has devastated the south, and nothing has been developed – everything must be built from scratch.” A strong message delivered by Dr. Francis G. Nazario, Head of the Government of South Sudan Mission in [...]

Originally publishd in Euro EE Está claro que lo que sucede en el Cuerno de África se podría haber evitado. Europa tiene mucho que decir y hacer. La fuerte sequía que azota la región es el detonante de la tragedia, aunque en el fondo, la raíz del problema no es solamente climática. La hambruna que [...]

Before a packed room of ambassadors from developing countries, diplomats, European Commission officials and NGO representatives, an interesting high level panel on the benefits and pitfalls of budget support aid took place in Brussels on 13 July. The event, organised by Oxfam and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), took place at an opportune time when [...]

The United Nations has just officially declared two parts of Somalia to be in famine, amid the worst drought in east Africa for 60 years. Malnutrition rates in the Dolo Ado camps for Somali refugees in Ethiopia have been recorded more than four times the level considered an emergency, and in some areas between 60-90 [...]

“A politician, an academic, and a Eurocrat sat in a room talking about tax – it sounds like the start of a funny joke but in fact it is for a considerably important matter,” remarked CIDSE’s Jean Saldanha at the start of a conference in Brussels last week asking “A financial transactions tax: viable solution [...]