Reacting to discussions on the Ebola response at the World Health Assembly, Oxfam’s senior health policy advisor Mohga Kamal-Yanni said: “Broken health systems need fixing and it takes more than words to make this happen. Now is the time for world leaders to take action if they hope to prevent another health crisis from devastating people’s lives."

Responding to early reports of G7 leaders agreeing a 'Carbis Bay Declaration' to end future pandemics faster, Oxfam's Health Policy Manager Anna Marriott said: "It's welcome that G7 leaders are planning measures to end future pandemics faster, but the lack of urgent action to end the current crisis is unforgiveable."

The coronavirus crisis has exposed our collective frailty and the inability of our deeply unequal economy to work for all. Yet it has also shown us the vital importance of government action to protect our health and livelihoods, and to create a more equal and sustainable world. 

As 2020 draws to a close, the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic shows no sign of abating. Our analysis shows that none of the social protection support to those who are unemployed, elderly people, children and families provided in low- and middle-income countries has been adequate to meet basic needs.

New Oxfam research shows that over a third of the world’s population has had no public money to cope with the effects of the pandemic. A new report “Shelter from the Storm” reviewed government programs used to inject additional money to help people and found none of them were adequate to meet everyone’s needs.

The coronavirus pandemic has swept across a world that was already profoundly unequal.The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2020 shows that no country in the world was doing enough to tackle inequality prior to the pandemic. This is helping to fuel the crisis and has increased the vulnerability of people living in poverty, especially women.

The coronavirus pandemic has swept across a world unprepared to fight it. Only one in six countries assessed for the CRI Index 2020 were spending enough on health, and in more than 100 countries at least one in three workers had no labour protection such as sick pay.

New research by Oxfam and partners reveals that while COVID-19 and the related containment efforts have caused increases in women’s – and men’s – unpaid care workloads, women are still doing the bulk of this work. Care work is essential to the healthy functioning of our societies and economies. It must be at the heart of a feminist COVID-19 recovery.

This study takes stock of inequalities in Tunisia, especially those sustained by an unjust fiscal system. Oxfam puts forth concrete recommendation to turn the page on austerity policies and advocates for fiscal justice and wider redistributive policies in Tunisia.

“We needed the World Health Assembly to unite behind a People’s Vaccine, not a Trump Administration seeking scapegoats for a pandemic it has mis-handled from the start", said Anna Marriott, Health Policy Manager at Oxfam, commenting at the closure of the World Health Assembly today.