Why Europe’s climate offer won’t work. Your money or your life? She Changes Lives. And Kenya’s urban timebomb. Time for your round-up of Oxfam news from the past week.

Europe’s climate offer would rob hospitals and schools

In its paper on climate financing published on Friday (10 September), the European Commission proposes that rich countries should take money from existing promises to increase overseas aid spending to 0.7% of national incomes. This would take money planned for hospitals and schools in developing countries to pay for them to tackle climate change.

Oxfam is calling for EU Member States to come up with a stronger proposal at the European Summit on 17 September - a sensible climate deal that does not come at the price of the future development of poorer countries. Look out for an Oxfam report out this Wednesday (16 September) which shows how millions of people are likely to die, be pulled out of school or denied HIV treatment if adaptation funding is not in addition to existing aid commitments. 

Your money or your life?

Half a million pregnant women die each year because they do not have access to healthcare, and people are facing abuses such as being imprisoned in clinics because they cannot pay doctors fees, says new report Your Money or Your Life.

Next week (24 September), world leaders meeting at a UN General Assembly are expected to decide on extending free health services in at least seven countries: Burundi, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal and Sierra Leone. Ahead of the meeting, we are calling for a solid commitment to financial and technical support, to be extended universally to all poor countries.

Celebrities champion life-changers

 
Annie Lennox, Rachel Stevens and other high-profile women have joined Oxfam’s She Changes Lives campaign. Launched on Sunday (13 September), the campaign is highlighting the work of women who are making a massive difference to people’s lives.
 
Kenya threatened by new urban disaster

Kenya is facing a new urban timebomb, with millions of Nairobi residents suffering a daily struggle for food and water as the divide between rich and poor widens, warns new report ‘Urban Poverty and Vulnerability in Kenya’. A combination of falling household income, rising prices, and poor governance is making life a misery for the poor majority in Kenya’s capital.

Tags: 'For All' health and education campaign, climate change, Kenya

This entry was posted by Oxfam Media Unit on September 14th, 2009 at 4:46 pm and is filed under General, News Blog, You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.