GJS Themes

Food Security and Climate Change

How is it that the poorest communities those that contribute the least emissions are those that are affected the greatest by global climate change? Climate change has resulted in a dramatic increase in draughts, flooding, the spread of disease and hunger it is this extreme poverty that creates and sustains heightened vulnerability and the lack of ability to adapt quickly, especially for women in poor communities in the global South.

Climate Change is more than an environmental issue. It is about poverty and human rights. More than this, it is about the rights of women. It's also deepening the food crisis more crop failures means women food producers work harder and feed families less.

At Oxfam, we believe that the world needs to take a stance and contribute to the adaptation costs these communities are faced with, as the rich world is most at fault for climate change. It is our belief that, with increased emissions coming from Canada, the US, Japan, Australia and the EU, these economies should bear most of the cost of adaptation.

Maternal Health

What do community engagement, effective health systems with skilled and motivated health workers and accountability have in common? They are all elements of a working health system, able to handle the often complex issues that arise in the first couple of days following childbirth. Women and children face the greatest risk of death within the first few hours and days following birth, due to complications and unsafe abortions. Yearly, there are 4.5 million lives lost, 1.5 million of which are from stillbirths.

While maternal health is focused primarily on ensuring that the newborn child and mother live past the first few days, there is also the threat that following this period, there is widespread, chronic malnutrition in children who are between 12 and 23 months of age. If this is going to change and it must change donor countries need to step up. This is going to require strategic, reliable, and long-term aid. It will mean repairing and strengthening health systems. It will mean investing in more health workers, especially midwives and obstetricians. It will mean making health services free and accessible. It will mean tackling the systemic inequalities that force women to put their health care last. And it will mean making health services work for all.

Women's Rights in Humanitarian Response

Typically, in a humanitarian response, support is offered in three phases: emergency relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction. In natural disasters or crises that arise from conflict, immediate relief is primarily the delivery of basic food, water and shelter. Rehabilitation can include the delivery of basic services, psycho-social support and educational services. Once reconstruction begins, homes are rebuilt and livelihoods restored. In many cases, supports to resolve conflict is offered as people begin resettling.

However, at local, national and international levels, women are rarely brought into discussions about how the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction happen. As a result, women do not have full, equal and effective participation in the efforts undertaken. This lack of participation can lead to humanitarian programs and policies that do not respond to the needs of the people they are attempting to help, and worse, may actually increase the risk of violence towards women during crises.

Oxfam Canada is working to ensure that humanitarian responses better support and engage women. As a long-term goal, we envision a humanitarian system that recognizes, understands, values and supports women's leadership and gender-specific needs, promoting gender equality.

The Culture of Gender-Based Violence

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) encompasses all physical, sexual and psychological violence that is based on or rooted in gender roles or identities and includes social rules and expectations. Any person male or female can be vulnerable to GBV. However, more women and girls face GBV as compared to men and boys, because of the unequal power relationships that exist between women and men as a result of the social norms, values, practices and beliefs that underpin most contemporary societies.

Gender-based violence rips apart families and communities and is a leading contributor to other social problems like the spread of HIV/AIDS. It inhibits women and girls from accessing education and health-care and limits their abilities to earn a livelihood for themselves and their families.

In order to address and reduce the incidences of GBV, Oxfam Canada recognizes that it is necessary to transform unequal power relationships between and among women and men. Oxfam Canada therefore supports a range of work being undertaken to change perceptions, policies and practices that perpetuate GBV all over the world.