Working together to end poverty and injustice

Livelihoods

Livelihoods are the ways that people make a living – it’s about reliable and permanent sources of food, income and employment. Secure livelihoods mean a secure future for people and their families, and the chance to live with hope, rather than fear for the future.

Over two thirds of the three billion people who live in poverty currently rely on small-scale agriculture for their food and wages. Millions of others depend on wages for their income. To make ends meet, families living in poverty often have to rely on seasonal agricultural labouring, domestic work, or remittances from family members migrating for work.

Oxfam’s livelihoods programme seeks to help people in poverty have a sustainable livelihood, including making a decent living, living in a safe environment, with adequate housing, clean water, and sufficient food.

Where we work

• Samoa: creating jobs and revitalising the agricultural sector
• Papua New Guinea: giving people opportunities to make money and improve their quality of life in Tari
• East Timor: building economic independence and increasing returns from agriculture
• Papua: improving incomes and markets for small-scale farming and fisher communities
• Indonesia: supporting small businesses, growers, traders and entrepreneurs
• Vanuatu: Teaching new skills: Rural training centres
• Tonga: supporting rural communities through coconut oil production

Building sustainable livelihoods in the Pacific

Oxfam is at the heart of Pacific livelihoods, helping ensure people have enough food to eat and have the opportunity to earn a steady income to meet the daily needs of their family.

• Download our brochure: Building sustainable livelihoods in the Pacific

GROW a better future

Around 500,000 small-scale farms around the world help put food on the plates of two billion people – that's one in three people on earth. Oxfam is supporting small-scale farmers in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, demonstrating how productivity can increase with investment and through sustainable techniques such as organic fertilisers.

But for change on a bigger scale, investment in developing country agriculture needs to grow. We need effective, ambitious government support, and the right investment from companies. For our world to grow together, we need to change the way the world thinks about farming.

• Join GROW – our campaign for a future where everyone on the planet has enough to eat, always

Trade in the Pacific

World trade can be a powerful force to reduce poverty and support economic growth, but that potential is being lost because international trade rules are stacked in favour of rich countries. Millions of the world's poorest people are being left behind and the inequalities between rich and poor are widening.

Pacific governments are under pressure to open up their markets to goods and services from overseas, yet history shows that opening up national markets too quickly or in the wrong way can increase hardship and poverty.

If New Zealand is to be a good neighbour, it must use aid and trade policies to fight poverty in the Pacific.

• Find out more on our Make Trade Fair campaign

Oxfam Unwrapped

By buying a gift from Oxfam Unwrapped you can help support our livelihoods work in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Take a look at Oxfam Unwrapped's gifts with a difference and help lift people out of poverty, for good.