oxfam

Sábado 16 de enero

Hoy volvimos al campo de golf. Antes era un sitio reservado a los ricos de
Puerto Príncipe, pero ahora es el hogar de 10.000 a 15.000 personas
durante el día y 50.000 en la noche. Nuestra misión del día es distribuir agua.

Las personas que viven en los campamentos se han organizado en comités para
administrar el emplazamiento. Pero hay demasiados comités y no logran ponerse

• Cambio Climático
• Bangladesh
• climate
• COP15
• Copenhagen
• Enviroment
• floods
• Maldives
• oxfam
• Sea levels
• UN Climate Change Conference
• Oxfam Great Britain

And it’s getting hectic.  Emails are flying, to-dos are getting ticked off and equipment is being unpacked, as my colleagues and I finalise our plans and begin arriving in Copenhagen, just ahead of the start of the UN Climate Conference.

Why are we here?

Just to show it's not over 'til it's over - and underline the power of targeted advocacy - the final communiqué on food security from the G8 leaders caught everyone by surprise by boosting the pledge for support to agriculture to US$20 billion.

It may not have been our critique that moved the leaders to set a more ambitious goal but our strong message to governments - and through the media to their citizens - can't have hurt in moving the bar.

As photo ops go, it doesn’t get much better. A beautiful Rome morning. The ruins of Nero’s palace on the horizon. A backdrop of leaping flames augmented by fire breathers. And the heads of the G8 countries cavorting about in togas, fiddling while Africa burns.

With a stroke of a hammer the climate change talks were over – two weeks of intense negotiations for… for what actually?

So I'm sitting down to write today's blog, with my socks on the radiator and my free UN mittens on my icy feet, when I get the call. "Al Gore's giving a speech at 1.15!".  I had been about to describe in great detail the new Oxfam ice sculpture that was carved this morning at the entrance to the UN Climate Talks here in Poznan - in two massive blocks of ice - the cold, hard truth - "Delay Kills".

Let's bury the idea that discussions on Climate Change are the preserve of scientists. Sure enough, debates on the issue are dominated by projections as to the speed of global warming, the levels of greenhouse gas emissions and so on, but at the heart of these discussions are people.

Donors and aid recipient’s countries are not the only group interested in development aid. Again and again, civil society organizations from all over the world have been demanding a right to a say in the aid industry.
“Governments from developing countries are shamefully more accountable to donors than to citizens that have queued in poll stations to cast their votes to elect their leaders” – described some of the groups I met with during the civil society for better aid event in Accra.

"We are one people; we are one nation; we have one destiny," sang a group of musicians at the opening of the Civil Society Forum on Aid Effectiveness taking in place in Accra, Ghana from August 31 through September 1st.