Activism

May 15, 2013

May Let’s make some noise on hunger at Big IF Belfast event when G8 comes to town!

15
2013
Posted by: Christine McCartney

Oxfam has always been about campaigning for change, because we tackle the root causes of poverty to really change things for the world’s poorest people.

Often, we have to live with the fact that change can take a long time! But then, once in a generation, once in a lifetime, circumstances come together to create a moment where all our campaigning can have a really big impact. That moment is now.

Add your voice to the IF campaign!

World leaders have been preparing and planning for the G8 summit which will be held in Fermanagh in just five weeks’ time and we know that they are already talking about what they can do to tackle the causes of hunger. 

Top: Oxfam Ireland Campaigns and Advocacy Officer Christine McCartney (left), Jim Wells MLA (centre) and (right) Oxfam Ireland Chief Executive Jim Clarken at the recent Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign’s ‘Road to the G8’ event in Parliament Buildings in Stormont. Northern Irish politicians were briefed on the IF campaign which is pressing for world leaders to act on hunger at next month’s G8 summit in Fermanagh. Photo: Neil Harrison / Oxfam. Middle: Rita Ora, One Direction, Orlando Boom and Erin O'Connor are showing their support by wearing the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign wristband. You pick one up in any Oxfam shop across the island of Ireland. Bottom: Pictured at the launch of the 'Big IF Belfast' event at Botanic Gardens today (14 May) are members of the Ulster Orchestra members Steve Irvine (tuba), Neil Gallie (trombone) and Richard Guthrie (viola) join the chorus calling for action on hunger at the launch of the Big IF Belfast event which will take place on Saturday June 15th. Photo: Neil Harrison / Oxfam.

We need to make sure they hear loud and clear that we, their citizens, want and expect them to do more than talk – we need them to act. 

Plans are being unveiled today for a very special event to get that message across. The BIG IF Belfast on Saturday 15 June will include a fantastic two-hour stage show, with top music and famous names calling for action on hunger, plus the BIG IF art installation, interactive activities and the chance to send your message to G8 leaders. It’s organised by Oxfam Ireland and our partners in the Enough Food For Everyone IF campaign. 

This is the moment. We can get the attention of world leaders and get them to act on hunger – IF we come together on the eve of the G8 and make some noise.  

So let’s grasp this chance to make sure hunger is on the table when leaders meet in Fermanagh next month.

Get tickets for the Big IF Belfast event

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Apr 23, 2013

Apr World’s biggest chocolate companies melt under consumer pressure

23
2013
Posted by: Sorcha Nic Mhathúna

More sweet news today for chocolate lovers: the biggest chocolate maker in the world, Mondelez International, has agreed to take steps to address inequality facing women in their cocoa supply chains — thanks to pressure from consumers like you.

More than 100,000 people around the world joined our Behind the Brands campaign, signing petitions and taking action to urge Mondelez (which owns Cadbury’s) and its competitors to tackle the hunger, poverty and unequal pay facing many women cocoa farmers and workers. You also made your voices heard by sending messages to the companies on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Today’s announcement by Mondelez follows commitments last month by Mars and Nestlé to address these issues. Together, Mars, Mondelez and Nestlé buy more than 30 per cent of the world’s cocoa — so changes in their policies could have huge effects for cocoa farmers and their families. 

Although they don’t employ or control them directly, they rely on farmers like Etchi Avla (43) in the Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer. She wants to be paid a fair price. “We do our best to do it well, but the price of cocoa is really low. And that makes it hard for us to take good care of our children and it is tiring.” 

 

Clockwise from top:  Etchi Avla on her cocoa farm in Botende, Ivory Coast. “As a woman I know that there are other women in other countries who would like to support us. As a woman when you see another woman is suffering you want to help.”  Portrait of Etchi Avla. The pulp is separated from cocoa. Photos: Peter DiCampo/Oxfam.
 
“Empowering women cocoa farmers has the potential to improve the lives of millions of people, some of whom are earning less than $2 a day,” said Oxfam Ireland’s Chief Executive Jim Clarken. “We hope that the steps taken by Mars, Mondelez and Nestle offer an example to the rest of the food and beverage industry that consumers are paying attention to how companies impact the communities they work in.”
 
Mars, Mondelez and Nestlé are now taking the first steps to commit to the empowerment of women and to find out how women are being treated in their supply chains. They have committed to work towards signing on to the UN Global Compact’s Women’s Empowerment Principles. And they have agreed to publish the data from first-stage impact assessments in one year’s time and to publish concrete action plans to address the issues. 
 
We’re looking forward to working with Mondelez, Mars and Nestle to ensure they stick to their promises to women. So we can all watch and make sure they stay on track, we have produced a Road Map to highlight all the promises they have made and the dates they have committed to.  
 
You can also stay informed through Oxfam’s Behind the Brands scorecard to see how the giant companies that make your favourite brands (chocolate and otherwise) measure up.
 

See how your favourite brands score

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Mar 26, 2013

Mar You Spoke. Mars and Nestle listened.

26
2013
Posted by: David Moriarty

Here’s an Easter treat for chocolate lovers: proof that no brand is so big it can ignore its customers.

A month ago we launched Behind the Brands with a call to change the way the food companies that make your favourite brands do business.  Today, two of the big chocolate companies we targeted have shown they’re listening.

In just a few weeks, thousands of tweets were sent to the companies, including a huge response on International Women's Day and many thousands of Facebook shares and comments. More than 60,000 people have taken action to ask the ‘Big 3’ chocolate companies - Mars, Mondelez and Nestle - to do right by the women who grow their cocoa.

Today, Mars and Nestle have agreed to do more to ‘know and show’ how women are being treated in their cocoa supply chain, to commit to a plan of action, to work to sign on to the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles and to work with industry organisations to address gender issues.

These moves are happening because of the pressure you applied. 

Go Behind The Brands now

We're encouraged by their commitments and the effects this could eventually have on women cocoa farmers around the world.

Deisi, a cocoa farmer in Brazil and a young leader there, has always believed that companies can help. “We should seek partnerships with companies that could help us increase and improve our production and also help us in transporting and selling our cocoa.”

In this billion dollar industry, women working in cocoa production often earn less than $2 a day and face uphill battles on accessing support and training. Mars, Mondelez and Nestle have the power to change this and to help women to succeed and overcome the poverty that they and their communities face.

“Women cocoa farmers and consumers around the globe have made their voices heard,” said Jim Clarken, Oxfam Ireland Chief Executive. “Mars and Nestle have taken important steps to show the farmers they rely on, their customers and the rest of the food industry that they care about the conditions women face in their supply chains including low pay, discrimination and unequal opportunity."

Oxfam is looking forward to working with Mars and Nestle to ensure they keep their promises to women and now looks to Mondelez, which owns Cadbury’s, to follow suit with similar commitments. Mondelez International, which controls 15% of the global chocolate market, has yet to act. So the question is – Mondelez, will you listen to your customers and act?

Keep the pressure on Mondelez International

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Mar 6, 2013

Mar Voice of female farmers loud and clear this International Women’s Day

6
2013
Posted by: Jody Clarke

TV talent show The Voice is attracting a huge audience here at home but none quite so big as our Female Food Heroes competition, as Voice judge and Oxfam ambassador Sharon Corr discovered on her recent trip to Tanzania. 

Using reality TV, radio, newspapers and text voting, the initiative has reached 25 million people – more than half of Tanzania’s population – and plays a vital role in strengthening the status of female farmers.

The 2012 competition – which Sharon Corr helped to launch – partnered with popular show Maisha Plus and saw 14 finalists selected from thousands of entries.

Clockwise from top:  Previous winner Ester Jerome Mtegule and Oxfam Ireland’s Mwanahamis Salimu present our ambassador Sharon Corr with a traditional African headscarf at the launch of last year’s Female Food Heroes competition in Tanzania. Barry McCall/Oxfam. The Female Food Hero 2012 competition tours a village in the Lushoto Mountains region in northeastern Tanzania. Thousands of female farmers entered. Oxfam/MaishaPlus. 2012 winner Sister Martha Waziri transformed unwanted wasteland into a successful farm that feeds her local community, including 12 orphaned children. Oxfam/MaishaPlus.

Selected by public vote for the ways they’ve helped their communities, the finalists moved into a reality TV village and shared  their skills with young people from urban areas on the show, which also helps to highlight the struggle women can face surrounding the ownership of land.

With International Women’s Day taking place this week and lots of our amazing supporters getting ready to host Get Together events to celebrate, we’d like to introduce  the eventual winner, Sister Martha Waziri (45) from Dodoma.

As a 17-year-old she found some barren unused land that none of the local men wanted. But when she asked the local authorities if she could use it, they laughed at her. “I became an object of ridicule,” she recalls. 

Eventually, she fought and got her way. She has since turned 18 acres of unwanted wasteland into a thriving farm, growing sugarcane, sweet potatoes, bananas and more. 

In doing so she has become a beacon of change for other local women, many of whom have now followed her example. The profits from her farm have allowed Sister Martha to support 12 local orphaned children, providing them with food and shelter. 

Thanks to your support, we can help incredible women like Sister Waziri to overcome the challenges they face and continue to feed their families and their communities.

Clockwise from top left: As 2011 finalist Mwandiwe Makame won a solar panel which she shares with other women in her community; 2011 winner Ester Jerome Mtegule shows others how to replicate her innovative farming techniques and (top left) 2011 finalist Anna Oloshiro is a fellow trailblazer for women’s rights: “I believe that providing women with access to information will empower them more, make them aware of their rights and, in the process, they will change or improve their lives.” All photos by Barry McCall/Oxfam

Last year’s winner was Esther Jerome Mtegule from Iyenge in central Tanzania. She was one of the inspirational women who our Ending Poverty Starts with Women campaign ambassador Sharon Corr met in Tanzania.

Ester had managed to increase the yield of one of her crops from five to 75 bags a year by growing a drought-resistant variety instead of using the traditional one favoured by most farmers. This helped feed her whole village.

Her achievement received mass-media coverage and led to her travelling internationally to talk about the vital role of small-scale women farmers.

"I will do everything to support women food producers. They bring peace and harmony in their families and a nation at large," Ester explains. "And they bring freedom. I assure you that a food insecure family is not a free family."

Your support is helping women to empower themselves and become decision-makers in their communities. Thank you.

Host a Get Together

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Feb 26, 2013

Feb What’s Behind the Brands?

26
2013
Posted by: David Moriarty

Oxfam’s on a mission.  A mission to change the way companies that make your favourite brands do business.

We’ve been working behind-the-scenes for 18 months, digging in to how the food firms say they do business. Using the results, we’ve created a simple scorecard to compare their policies and commitments, as a way of judging companies’ performance. And, across the board, we discovered that they need to do more – a whole lot more – to support poor farmers, their families and the planet. 

No brand is so big it can ignore its customers, and that’s where you come in.  These companies may have a lot of power – but you have more – and we want you to use yours to change the way they do business.

We know you already think hard about what you buy, so we’re not asking you to feel guilty about it. Instead, push for change. Use Facebook and Twitter to nudge your favourite brands. Contact the CEO personally and tell them what needs to change. We’ll be constantly updating the scorecard so you can see the impact you’re having.

Our first big action is to encourage big chocolate companies to make equality for women cocoa farmers a priority. Companies often put women front and center in their advertising, but not in their supply chains. You can change that.

CAPTION: Left: Jumoke Popoole, a female cocoa farmer, stands outside her house in Oke AgbedeOke. Top-right: Cocoa beans dried on the ground in the village of Oke Agbede Isale near the Osun state town of Ilesa, Westen Nigeria. Bottom-right: Sade Rafiu, a female cocoa farmer and a local cocoa dealer, checks dried cocoa beans waiting to be sold in her store house in the village of Oke Agbede Isale near the Osun state town of Ilesa, Westen Nigeria. Many women farmers in southwest Nigeria cultivate cocoa beans used by major global food and beverage companies. Photos: George Osodi/Panos

It’s not only the food companies. There are others too.  Like the traders who supply them.  And the governments who have a big role to play to smash hunger rates, poverty levels and inequality. The Big 10 food companies have the power to push them to do better. But first, they have to fix the way they themselves do business, which often makes these things worse – leaving one in eight of us going to bed hungry every night.

If you think you can’t change the food system, you really need to think again. You’re more powerful than any of the Big 10. Without you, they won’t stay big for long.

Go Behind the Brands now

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