South Asia

Poverty is the greatest challenge facing South Asia, with 40 per cent of world’s poor people living in the region. More than 70 per cent of the population live in rural areas, out of which almost 35 per cent live below the poverty line.

Sustainable development is one of the most important challenges facing people in South Asian countries. Today, land degradation and water scarcity threaten food security and livelihoods in the rural areas.

Oxfam Hong Kong’s work in Bangladesh, India and Nepal focuses on poverty and livelihood, as well as disaster preparedness. The focus of current programmes include:

• reducing the poverty of the increasing number of people through a focus on livelihoods leading to sustainable food and income security
• reducing vulnerability and the loss of life and livelihood and promotion of risk management and mitigation at various levels
• gender mainstreaming, equity, rights and empowerment

Oxfam Hong Kong collaborates with local civil society organisations and also with other Oxfam affiliates working in the region.  Given the poverty in the region – which tends to increase further because of climate change, flood, drought and other forms of disasters – most of the programmes in the region address the issues of livelihoods, with integration of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.  Gender mainstreaming is one of the important elements of the programme and an important strategy for equity and empowerment.