Mali is the third largest producer of gold in Africa and yet one in five Malians still live in extreme poverty. More than 12 months of conflict, insecurity and human rights violations have further weakened communities. The north of the country is now facing its second food crisis in less than two years, with experts predicting an emergency situation in the coming months if nothing is done. This Oxfam briefing calls for action to meet these massive humanitarian and development needs, and a new development contract to be agreed between citizens and the Malian authorities so that the latter can be held accountable for the policies they implement. Development must be informed by the needs and interests of ordinary people, who need to be much more involved in decisions that will determine their future. Donors have an important role to play, given the magnitude of aid they provide, starting with a commitment to continue providing aid for at least the next 15 years. Aid can contribute to improving governance and transparency in Mali. Donors should evaluate the impact of their aid to Mali over the past two decades and set an example with transparent aid that does not fuel conflict but rather helps to build lasting peace. The Donor Conference in Brussels on 15 May 2013 is an opportunity to set in motion a new development contract for Mali.

The Post-Hyogo Framework, the successor to the Millennium Development Goals, and a new climate agreement are all expected in 2015. Thus, the next three years offer an outstanding opportunity to provide a crucial step change in disaster risk reduction (DRR) through the development of new international instruments. In this paper, Oxfam calls for equality and accountability to be enshrined as the primary drivers of DRR within the follow-up to the Hyogo Framework for Action, in order to provide an unambiguous direction for the negotiation of the agreement and its subsequent implementation at local, national, regional and international levels.

For too many Scots, the existing economic model is failing. Far from improving their lives, it traps them in a cycle of economic hardship. Yet it is possible to overcome poverty, both in Scotland and across the UK - many of the solutions already exist, hidden within the very communities hit hardest by an economic model that worships at the altar of ‘economic growth’. The extraordinary work of our partners in Scotland has helped frame this report, where we hope to show how allocating resources in a more effective and sustainable way can deliver lasting change. In this paper we argue that the Scottish economy must pursue policies which deliver for the people, and policy-makers must play a central and driving role as underwriters of community solutions. Some of our recommendations include: - Build on the National Performance Framework and the Oxfam Humankind Index to create a better way of measuring our collective prosperity. - Create a Poverty Commissioner to ensure spending decisions are poverty proofed and to support communities to challenge Government policies and private sector actions that do not contribute to socio-economic equality. - Employers in the public and private sectors should pay a living wage. - Tax havens, offshore earnings and loopholes which allow avoidance, should be pursued and closed. Business support, corporate social responsibility awards and government plaudits should be contingent on companies meeting their tax obligations. - A Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) to social protection should be pursued. This would recognise complex barriers to work, gender differences and caring responsibilities as well as rewarding individuals’ range of skills and contributions (including activities that deliver social benefit but are currently insufficiently valued by the market). - Funding is required to make it easier for deprived communities to own assets for local benefit. As part of a socio-economic duty, council staff should support deprived communities prepare for ownership, with upfront grants enabling communities to assess the merits of an opportunity.

This manual is meant for all Oxfam staff who may be involved in initiating a malaria control project in humanitarian situations specifically although much of the background information will be useful for longer term programmes. Knowledge of malaria control is important for Public Health Promoters, Water and Sanitation Engineers and Project Co-ordinators and Managers in order to facilitate decision-making and project formulations.

This practical guide is designed to help practitioners in choosing how and where to build programmes that address issues of governance. It explores how to render power visible – looking at the underlying power relations within a community in order to support people’s movements to demand accountability from the state. This includes looking at gender and women’s rights; finding spaces for dialogue; looking at the power of the individual; and strengthening and supporting groups within civil society. The guide contains case studies from Oxfam’s on-the-ground work around the world, and lists the best sources of further information. For more examples of how the rights-based approach has been put into practice in our programmes see: · Local Governance and Community Action Programme Insights with studies from Malawi, Tanzania, Viet Nam, Nepal and Kenya · Speaking Out: Case studies on how poor people influence decision-making with studies from Honduras, Malawi, Bangladesh, Georgia, Guatemala, Indonesia, the UK, Peru and India

This report informs mining company staff of the potential gender impacts of mining projects and introduces some tools and approaches that they can use to conduct a gender impact assessment of these projects. These tools should be of particular interest to community relations advisors as they are designed to help incorporate gender into community assessment and planning tools including social baseline studies, social impact assessments and risk analysis, community mapping exercises, and monitoring and evaluation plans.

Around one million Indonesians are affected by natural disasters every year. Despite significant government investment in early warning systems and disaster management, the impact of the 2009 earthquake in West Sumatra showed that much more needs to be done. Oxfam's post-earthquake advocacy work aimed to build understanding of how gender inequality shapes vulnerability and to promote women's participation in designing the emergency response.

Women’s collective action (WCA) has provided significant opportunities for women to increase their role in vegetable markets in Tanzania, and enhances the benefits which they derive from this sector. Women already perform much of the labour needed to grow vegetables, whether in their own households or as casual labourers. However, men own most of the fertile valley land on which vegetables are grown, and dominate the trade to Dar es Salaam and other urban centres within Tanzania and neighbouring countries. Men enjoy correspondingly greater control over incomes from vegetable marketing. Women, on the other hand, generally struggle to raise the funds to invest in land and irrigated vegetable production, and are often prevented from trading over long distances by their domestic responsibilities, and by attitudes which discourage women from sleeping away from home. Research carried out in Lushoto district, Tanzania, shows that involvement in collective action (CA) leads to significant economic benefits to women from vegetable production and marketing. Not only have women members’ incomes increased, but in some cases this has enabled them to invest more in the development of their households and the welfare and education of their children.