So as the usual economic statistics tell us that we're entering a stage of 'recovery', we need to think about what it is we want to recover. What is important to salvage from the car crash that was the financial crisis? The answer to that question might be in the Oxfam Humankind Index, the new measure of Scotland's prosperity, launched today by Oxfam Scotland. This is not another top-down measure of the country's... Read more

Sometimes, it's helpful to take a step back from the chatter of the moment, all the better - hopefully - to observe a fuller picture. Clearly, a budget that allocates billions of pounds and affects, in one way or another, every single person in the UK is more than just chatter. Nonetheless, for all the dramatic headlines of the moment - change is news; stability goes unremarked - the story today is one of continuity, not of radical... Read more

Oxfam recognises that the issue of poverty is one of distribution, and has increasingly begun to explore how this plays out in a rich country context.  In Scotland, this has encompassed taking a long, hard and critical look at the waves of regeneration and economic development policies, action plans and strategies that have been rolled out over many decades. We have been examining the different priorities and have noted a growing... Read more