Welcome!

Welcome to another issue of Oxfam Policy & Practice News. This month you'll find features on gender equality and emergencies, From Poverty to Power Second Edition, and Oxfam's new approach to programme evaluation. There's also the latest from our blogs and a list of new publications.

As always, if you are interested in more frequent updates on development research and publications from Oxfam don't forget to follow us on twitter or subscribe to our RSS feeds.

Gender equality in emergencies - new case studies

To mark International Day for Disaster Reduction on 13th October Oxfam produced a new set of case studies bringing together experiences, lessons and good practice from our work on gender and emergencies. 

The collection includes: Protection of women and girls in DRC; Restoring livelihoods after floods in Pakistan; Post earthquake response in Indonesia; Flood preparedness in Vietnam; and Cash transfers in Nairobi.

Read the case studies on our IDDR page

From Poverty to Power new edition out now!

"A tour de force…At once shocking, realistic and radical, this book takes us further on the road to understanding the challenges of development and what needs to be done." Robert Chambers, Institute of Development Studies. 

The second edition of Duncan Green's book From Poverty to Power: How active citizens and effective states can change the world is available to purchase from Practical Action Publishing in paperback and eBook formats.

More about From Poverty to Power

Tackling the evaluation challenge – how do we know if we're effective?

As part of our ongoing commitment to accountability Oxfam has produced a new series of evaluation reports - Oxfam Project Effectiveness Reviews. Twenty six mature projects were selected and rigorously evaluated for impact. A set of reviews have been published online with our methodology and a summary of lessons learned.

More about the Effectiveness Reviews

What's up (or down) with global hunger?

Richard King, our Policy Researcher reflects on the latest estimates of global hunger in the new FAO State of Food Insecurity report.

Read more

Oxfam responds to The Human Security Report 2012

Ed Cairn's Oxfam's Senior Policy Adviser on humanitarian advocacy research responds to The Human Security Report 2012 from Canada's Simon Fraser University.

Read more

Six steps to good private investment in agriculture

Private investment can be a potent tool in the fight against poverty, but it needs to be done in the right way. Erinch Sahan outlines what's needed to make private sector investment work for poor farmers.

Read more

New Publications

How Can a Post-2015 Agreement Drive Real Change? The political economy of global commitments
Duncan Green, Stephen Hale, and Matthew Lockwood
What are the lessons of the Millennium Development Goals process? What has been their impact on aid and on decision making? This discussion paper seeks to inform the post-2015 debate.

This paper is a draft version and the authors are inviting comments and feedback on the paper via Duncan Green's blog.

Salt, Sugar, and Malaria Pills: How the Affordable Medicine Facility–malaria endangers public health
Mohga Kamal-Yanni
The Affordable Medicine Facility for malaria has shown no evidence that it has saved the lives of the most vulnerable. This briefing paper lays out the case for public-public partnership between community health workers and primary health care facilities.

‘Our Land, Our Lives’: Time out on the global land rush
Kate Geary
Land eight times the size of the UK was sold off globally in the last decade. The unprecedented rush for land has not been adequately regulated or policed to prevent land grabs. This paper calls for a freeze on investment in land grabs by the World Bank.

First Line of Defence: Assessing the potential of local food reserves in the Sahel
Gabriel Pons Cortès and Itziar Gómez Carrasco
Food reserves have the potential to be a first line of defence against food insecurity, but there is a lack of analysis focusing specifically on how food reserves can be used. This research report aims to fill that gap by analysing recent experiences in the Sahel region.

Growing a Better Future in Viet Nam: Expanding Rights, Voices and Choices for Small-scale Farmers
Le Nguyet Minh and Bert Maerten
It was farmers’ industriousness and productivity that turned Viet Nam from a food deficit country into a major exporter of agricultural commodities. This paper highlights three challenges facing Viet Nam now: sustainable production, equity, and resilience.

Planting Now (2nd Edition): Revitalizing agriculture for reconstruction and development in Haiti
Tonny Joseph
Agriculture in Haiti has suffered three decades of crisis and institutional neglect. Nevertheless, almost 60 percent of Haitians rely on farming for their livelihoods. This  paper explains why agriculture must play a central role in post-earthquake reconstruction.

Busan in a Nutshell: What next for the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation?
Farida Bena
The Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, established in Busan, South Korea in 2011, set the international standard on the principles of effective aid and good development. This paper looks at what factors will allow it to succeed.