"The intention of this guide is to provide practical guidance on how Oxfam undertakes political economy analysis (PEA) in order to inform operations and programming. It is based on the experience of working with Oxfam Myanmar (and heavily features this experience), initially looking at how PEA could be used to address two areas: 1) ‘How can citizens/civil society get engaged with local planning and budgeting processes?’ and 2) ‘How will the economic opening up of Myanmar affect small-scale farmers?’"
This paper examines how the government of the United States is contravening its commitment to the World Trade Organisation's Doha Declaration (to prioritize public health over private patent rights and to promote access to medicines) by using technical assistance, bilateral and regional trade agreements, and the threat of trade sanctions to ratchet up patent protection in developing countries. This policy benefits the influential US pharmaceutical industry while pushing medicines further out of the reach of poor people
This briefing paper describes the humanitarian impact of the Israeli government's policy of closure and restriction in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Closure policies have undermined or even broken links to markets, services and jobs, leaving rural communities facing impoverishment and unemployment, lack of access to services, a weakened agricultural sector, and increased vulnerability to Israeli settler violence. The recommendations in this paper focus particularly on the social and economic impact of closure on those living in Palestinian villages across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The most urgent of these call for an immediate end to the Government of Israel's policy of closure of Palestinian civilian areas
This report addresses pharmaceutical companies' corporate social responsibility in relation to the ongoing public debate over access to appropriate medicines in the developing world. It argues that the pharmaceutical industry should do more in their core business activities to actively contribute to meeting the needs of children and adults in developing countries. The report sets out benchmarks in five areas of corporate policy : pricing, patents, joint public private partnerships and appropriate use of medicines. These benchmarks provide investors, as well as NGO and the public sector, with a framework for assessing the pharmaceutical industry's contribution to the health needs of the developing world