News & Media

For the first time in more than a decade, the United Nations reported a sharp increase in hunger around the world. Reacting to the news, Oxfam International’s executive director Winnie Byanyima said:

“This is a disgraceful failure of our international leaders and institutions. The ground we’ve painstakingly gained throughout the years can easily be lost; today is proof of that. This is the ugly truth of inequality: hundreds of millions going hungry, while a handful of multi-billionaires gorge more wealth than all combined.”

The UN report largely attributes the increase on “the proliferation of violent conflicts and climate-related shocks,” and points to the role they played in the famine in South Sudan, as well as the high risk of famine in Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen.

“Hunger is not about a lack of food; we grow more than enough to feed the world. We must find real, lasting solutions to the root problems. This means pushing for peaceful resolutions to violent conflicts; it means curbing carbon emissions and helping communities adapt to the changing climate now; it means investing in women, who are at higher risk of falling into hunger than men.”

“These are not new ideas. For years, the people we work with—small-scale farmers, community leaders, refugees, and others—warned us that this ‘perfect storm’ of climate change, conflict, hunger, and poverty was brewing. Now that it’s here, let’s deal with it. We must not be the generation that admitted defeat against hunger,” said Byanyima.

Notes to editors: 

The United Nations report says 815 million people were hungry in 2016, 38 million more than the previous year.

The full report can be found here.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Oxfam and its Caribbean partner organisations are helping the most vulnerable people who have lost their homes and livelihoods to recover from the disaster, including ensuring access to clean water and basic sanitation. Irma’s severe flooding and strong winds caused considerable damage to people’s homes, infrastructure and agricultural production.

In Cuba, ten people were reported killed and two million have had to evacuate their homes. Oxfam is still evaluating the extent of the damage on the eastern part of the island, and coordinating our response with partners and Cuban authorities. Large parts of Havana remain flooded and many other towns are without electricity or water.

In the Dominican Republic, Irma left more than 24,000 people displaced, destroyed more than 100 houses, and obliterated over 2,000 hectares of crops. Oxfam is working in the northern coastal provinces of Montecristi and María Trinidad Sanchez, where people’s livelihoods were severely affected. Oxfam is calling on the government to provide humanitarian assistance to the most affected people.

In Haiti, Oxfam will concentrate on hygiene and sanitation work in the Nord-Est and Artibonite departments. Our primary goal is to prevent the spread of cholera and other diseases due to damage to water infrastructure. Oxfam will provide safe water in four villages with handwashing points and chlorine tablets. Oxfam is also coordinating a public health and hygiene campaign with government and aid agencies.

Oxfam New Zealand’s Executive Director, Rachael Le Mesurier, said: “As usual, the hurricane has mostly affected poor people who have precarious housing conditions and insecure livelihoods. They are most vulnerable to climate shocks and do not have the resources to recover. Women particularly bear the brunt of the impact and are central to Oxfam’s efforts of recovery.

“Oxfam calls on governments to tackle the causes behind extreme poverty as part of their national strategies for disaster risk reduction, and invest more in building people’s resilience so they can recover more quickly.”

Donations to Oxfam’s Hurricane Irma appeal can be made online at oxfam.org.nz/irma or by calling 0800 600 700.

The people of eastern Cuba face devastation from Hurricane Irma, the first category 5 hurricane to hit Cuban territory since 1932.

Oxfam is actively engaging with Cuban authorities and local partner organisations to support a possible response, having previously worked together to develop one of the most effective disaster prevention and response systems in the Caribbean.

In the provinces at risk from Irma, ranging from Guantanamo, at the eastern end of the island, to the capital, Havana in the west, families have been guaranteed basic access to food and evacuation centres.

In Baracoa, a city hit by Matthew less than a year ago, there were intense rains and the coastline was eroded by the sea. Impacts on agriculture are significant and are currently being assessed. Las Tunas was hit by strong winds and persistent, intense rains.

Camaguey was also affected – in particular the municipality of Nuevitas. Many banana and plantain plantations were reportedly destroyed. People in Havana experienced flooding, strong winds and loss of power.

According to UN figures, more than 1,130,000 people – 10 per cent of the Cuban population – are seeking refuge in shelters, homes of neighbours and relatives, and even in caves, where officials are taking steps to ensure safety. This figure may increase in the coming hours.

Oxfam has worked in Cuba for the past 25 years and responded to hurricanes Sandy and Matthew in 2012. Oxfam’s ongoing work in this Caribbean nation allows the agency, together with local partners and governments, includes the support of long-term recovery efforts and disaster risk reduction. Oxfam’s main activities on the island are in Eastern Cuba, a region vulnerable to strong hurricanes that is experiencing one of the worst droughts in the last 115 years.

Oxfam is on the ground preparing to respond. Donations to Oxfam’s Hurricane Irma appeal can be made online or by calling 0800 600 700.

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Notes to Editors:

• Oxfam’s country director in Cuba, Jerome Faure, is available for interviews
• Oxfam has been able to maximise its support to the affected communities thanks to the support of organizations such as the Cuban Civil Defence, the Red Cross, the Federation of Cuban Women and local governments. Several donors have also assisted in this effort: European cooperation and countries such as Switzerland, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain.
• In terms of material damage, hurricanes Sandy (2012) and Matthew (2016) are considered – after Ike (2008) – the most devastating cyclones of the last 11 years in Cuba.
• Since the passage of hurricanes Sandy and Matthew, Oxfam’s humanitarian response in Cuba has allowed more than 5,000 people to benefit from totally and partially rehabilitated roofs with a management and risk reduction approach. More than 8000 basic kits (hygiene, cooking) and more than 7,000 water tanks have been distributed.
• Oxfam in Cuba has also contributed to the civil defence system by installing 31 risk management and reduction centres and 97 early warning points. Additionally, the organisation has contributed to five seismological stations, nine agro-meteorological stations and nine accelerographs within the system of early warning.

Hurricane Irma caused widespread damage overnight. Oxfam teams will immediately assess the needs of the most vulnerable people in the heaviest-hit areas, mainly in the north of both countries.

Overnight, Oxfam’s Tania Escamilla – who weathered the storm in Haiti’s second city, Cap Haitien – said, “We believe the worst of the hurricane has passed, and people here hope to have fortunately escaped the worst.”

Thousands of houses have been damaged in the Dominican Republic and people displaced. In Haiti, Oxfam teams reported heavy rain and flooding in Ouanaminthe district and in Fort Liberte city at the Dominican Republic border, and a broken bridge at the Massacre River linking the two countries.

“Our main concern remains how much damage Irma’s rains and flooding caused to sanitation and water infrastructure,” Escamilla said. “We’ve heard that flooding up to a metre high in poor neighborhoods here in Haiti.”

“Many people didn’t evacuate their homes here, so there is still a risk from the rain. We are seeing a lot of trash and waste out in the flooded streets in Cap Haitien which is exactly the type of condition that heightens the risk of cholera and other diseases.”

Oxfam teams in Cap Haitien, Ouanaminthe and Gonaive, in the northern part of the country, have the necessary stock for cholera prevention.

Irma is moving north and will severely impact Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas. Oxfam is continuing to monitor the progress of Hurricane Jose following behind, which threatens more damage including to islands already wrecked by Irma. A third hurricane – Katia – is forming to threaten Veracruz in Mexico. Oxfam is prepared to assess and respond with essential supplies.

Latin America and the Caribbean are highly vulnerable to multiple recurrent hazards, aggravated by climate change, and where people are more vulnerable because of poverty and inequality.

Oxfam is on the ground preparing to respond. Donations to Oxfam’s Hurricane Irma appeal can be made online at oxfam.org.nz/irma or by calling 0800 600 700.