Back from my (semi) blog break just in time to say thanks and goodbye to the guest bloggers (what did you think of them? Do you want more guest posts in the future?) and sign off for Christmas/New Year with a few youtubes – please add your own favourites Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy [h/t Chris Blattman] ‘That is the

Max Lawson is Head of Development Finance and Public Services for Oxfam GB When I lived in Malawi in 2002, the outlook was bleak. The received wisdom was that Malawi had a structural food deficit and for the foreseeable future would face periodic famines and chronic food insecurity. Our humanitarian department was thinking of setting up a permanent office. But

Maya Mailer, Humanitarian and Conflict Policy Advisor Across central Africa, men, women and children live in fear of the Lord’s Resistance Army. This predatory group attacks women as they perform their daily tasks – fetching water or tending to their fields – and children returning from school. It abducts, mutilates, rapes and kills, using extreme violence against the most vulnerable.

Stephen Hale is Oxfam International Deputy Advocacy and Campaigns Director. It’s just two weeks until the New Year, and the onslaught of articles looking back at 2010. Journalists everywhere will be filing these pieces now so that they can escape for Christmas. So I thought I’d beat the rush and provide something for them to cut and paste. What kind

Kirsty Hughes is Head of Oxfam GB Advocacy and Policy Team In a week when US efforts to promote peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians have collapsed, an optimistic way ahead to a political deal looks hard to see. But visiting the Occupied Palestinian Territories in November, including two days in Gaza, underlined for me that everything here is political.