Oxfam International
United for a more equitable world
Presented by Sara Henneberger,
Deputy Director of Advocacy and
Communications at Oxfam America
October 10, 2006
What is Oxfam?
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Oxfam International is an NGO
comprised of 12 Oxfam affiliates working
with over 3,200 partners in 100
countries to reduce poverty and social
injustice.
The 12 Oxfam organizations are based
in: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Quebec,
Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong,
Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand,
Spain, and the U.S. Oxfam Int’l is based
in Oxford, England, with branch offices
in Washington, D.C., New York, Brussels,
and Geneva.
History of Oxfam
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Oxfam Int’l was founded in 1995 by a
group of NGOs who wanted to reduce
poverty worldwide.
The name “Oxfam” comes from the
Oxford Committee for Famine Relief,
founded in Great Britain during WWII.
This group campaigned to have grain
ships sent through the allied naval
blockade to provide relief for women
and children in Greece.
Oxfam’s Mission Statement
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Oxfam works toward a world where
people can live with dignity, have their
basic needs met, be respected, and
have the ability to control their own
lives. Oxfam is committed to long-term
development, emergency, research, and
campaign work in order to create a
more equitable world.
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Economic and social justice are crucial to
sustainable development.
Equity should have the same priority as
economic growth.
Oxfam’s Four Areas of Work
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Development Programs
Oxfam works on long-term development programs
to eradicate poverty. These programs focus largely
on education, gender, HIV/AIDS, and human rights.
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Emergency Work
Oxfam works in humanitarian disaster or emergency
situations and is internationally recognized for its
expertise in water and sanitation.
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Research and Lobbying
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Campaigning
Oxfam focuses on campaigns for fair trade, arms
control, and universal health care and education.
Rights-Based Approach
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Oxfam takes a rights-based
approach to its work. It believes
that people living in poverty should
have the right to:
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Sustainable livelihood
Basic social services
Life and security
Be heard
An identity
Where Oxfam Works
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Oxfam works in 11 regions of the
world: Central America, Mexico, and
the Caribbean; South America;
Central and East Africa; Horn of
Africa; Southern Africa; West Africa;
East Asia; South Asia; Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet
Union; Middle East; Pacific Islands.
Where Oxfam Works
Source: Oxfam International
Governance
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Oxfam International is governed by
a Board comprised of the 12 Chairs
and 12 Directors that lead each
Oxfam affiliate.
Six of the Chairs and three of the
Directors are women.
At Oxfam America, Janet McKinley
serves as the Chair, and Raymond
Offenheiser as the Director.
Funding
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Oxfam is entirely dependent upon
donations.
In 2004-2005, its program
expenditures totaled $528 million,
with over 62% ($328.81) going to
programs in Africa and Asia.
Funding
Program expenditures by region, 2004-2005
Region
$ Total
% Total
Africa
$202.05M 38.26%
Asia
$126.76M 24.01%
Central America, Mexico,
and Caribbean
$47.48M
8.99%
South America
$42.35M
7.81%
Middle East
$20.59M
3.90%
Eastern Europe and former
Soviet Union
$17.62M
3.34%
Pacific Islands
$2.18M
0.41%
$70.10M (13.28%) went to Global North and domestic programs.
Strategic Aims
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Oxfam develops and funds
programs based upon its five
strategic aims, which coincide with
the five rights it believes all people
living in poverty should have. Many
of these aims have specific gender
components.
Strategic Aim 1
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The right to a sustainable livelihood
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Food and income security
Control over natural resources
Access to secure paid employment
Safe working conditions
Labor rights
Ability to participate in and benefit
from markets
Gender in Strategic Aim 1
The right to a sustainable livelihood
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Increasing women’s participation in
the labor force is a major focus of
this strategic aim. Oxfam programs
work to eliminate barriers to
women’s employment and to
challenge beliefs about men and
women’s household roles.
Strategic Aim 2
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The right to basic social services
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Health care, including reproductive
health and vaccinations
Clean water
Education and job training
Oxfam campaigns for public
financing of these services and for
debt relief.
Gender in Strategic Aim 2
The right to basic social services
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Education for girls and women is a
major component of this strategic
aim. Oxfam views female access to
education and literacy as a high
priority. It promotes investment in
educational infrastructure, teacher
quality, parental participation and
curricula development.
Strategic Aim 3
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The right to life and security
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Access to food, medical supplies, and
security during times of armed conflict
or natural disasters
A reduction in the number of people
who suffer personal or community
violence, forced displacement, or
armed conflict
Gender in Strategic Aim 3
The right to life and security
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The protection of women and
children during conflict situations is
a major focus of work for Oxfam. It
strives to put poor women into
leadership roles as mediators,
peace builders, and humanitarian
responders.
Strategic Aim 4
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The right to be heard and have
social and political citizenship
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Civil and political rights as a way to
reduce poverty
Empowerment of poor and excluded
people
Protection under international
agreements relating to economic,
social, civil, and political rights
Gender in Strategic Aim 4
The right to be heard
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As part of this strategic aim, Oxfam
helps create and/or bolster citizen’s
advocacy groups, including women’s
organizations. It is a primary goal of
Oxfam to strengthen the capacities
of groups who are excluded on the
basis of identity, including women,
indigenous groups, and disabled
people.
Strategic Aim 5
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The right to an identity: gender and
diversity
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Equal rights and status regardless of
gender, ethnic, or cultural status
Protection under CEDAW
Reduction of domestic violence
Legal ramifications for violence against
women
Gender in Strategic Aim 5
The right to an identity
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This aim requires Oxfam to take gender and
diversity into account within each of its other
aims, and as separate strategies.
Oxfam is committed to helping integrate
gender equity into public policy in all of its
partner countries and organizations, and to
countering gender violence.
It is also focused on helping nations establish
and enforce labor and occupational health
standards for women and minorities,
decriminalize prostitution, and prosecute
human traffickers.
Funding of Strategic Aims
Program expenditure by strategic aim
Strategic Aim
U.S.$
% Total
Life and
security
$188.84M
35.76%
Livelihoods
$144.83M
27.43%
Right to be
heard
$82.23M
15.57%
Social services $73.28M
13.88%
Identity
$27.50M
5.21%
Non-aligned
$11.34M
2.15%
Oxfam’s Policy on Gender Equality
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Gender mainstreaming is one of Oxfam’s
corporate policies. Both women and men are
consulted and their different needs
considered in the design and implementation
of all programs to ensure that they benefit
equally. Programs are designed to promote a
fairer balance of power between women and
men at the household, local, national, and
international levels.
Oxfam has a written gender equality policy
that is distributed to its staff and volunteers,
who are expected to help promote it.
Oxfam’s Policy on Gender Equality
Principles and Goals
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Gender equality is key to overcoming
poverty and suffering.
Oxfam will work with both women and
men to address the beliefs that create
gender-related poverty.
Women and girls will be empowered
through all aspects of Oxfam programs.
Programs that raise the status of women
will be given priority.
Oxfam’s internal practices will reflect its
commitment to gender equality.
Oxfam’s Policy on Gender Equality
Ongoing Strategies
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Oxfam tries to ensure full participation by
women in all of its programs.
It promotes women’s rights as human
rights.
It works with women and men separately
and together to have a more lasting
impact on gender-related beliefs and
behavior.
All partnerships and alliances with NGOs
and countries are assessed on the basis
of their commitment to gender equality.
Oxfam’s Policy on Gender Equality
Strategies
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Gender awareness and understanding are
used as criterion for recruitment of Oxfam
staff and volunteers.
Managers encourage all Oxfam staff to
share best practices on gender equality.
Gender training is made available to staff
and volunteers.
Managers of all divisions report on
measurable objectives and actions
relating to gender equality.
Within Oxfam, family friendly work
policies are encouraged.
Promoting equality in Uganda
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Oxfam began working northern Uganda in 1986,
when an internal conflict between the government
and a rebel group had just begun.
In 2002, the situation deteriorated badly and over
95% of the rural population of the Kitgum District
(250,000 people) moved into 18 under-served
camps.
Since then, much of Oxfam’s work has involved
installing water tanks, digging latrines, and
building shelters. The program has employed
unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled laborers,
masons, mechanics, etc.
Promoting equality in Uganda
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Great care was taken by Oxfam to ensure that it
did not exclusively hire men. Through its own
affirmative action policy, 30% of all jobs have
been filled by women. In 2004, Oxfam mandated
that the private construction companies with
which is work must also ensure that 30% of their
laborers are women.
Follow-up visits by Oxfam to construction sites
verified that women were being paid the same as
men and were being given the opportunity to
work on and learn all the various construction
tasks. Several sites provided space and shade for
the women’s children.
Promoting job equality in Uganda
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Safety in the camps is crucial, and Oxfam set new
standards with its policy of recruiting and training
women to be security guards and drivers. Since
2004, four other agencies in Kitgum followed its
example.
By training women to be fully qualified drivers,
Oxfam is increasing women’s earning potential
once they are no longer living in the camps. This
policy has also helped challenge local beliefs
about what jobs are appropriate for women.
Education in Egypt
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Oxfam works with an in-country partner on an
education program for women in the Minia area of
Upper Egypt. More than 3.5 million people live in
the region. Fifty percent of the women are
illiterate; 67% in rural areas. Cultural and
economic restraints prevent many families from
sending their daughters to school.
With it’s partner agency, Oxfam developed a
three-year action plan focused on improving
women’s economic and social position, with
literacy as a means to achieving that goal.
Education in Egypt
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Since 2005, Oxfam has started 40 literacy classes
in 12 communities. Eight hundred women are
enrolled in classes of 20 students ages 14 to 50.
It has provided books, furniture, blackboards, and
other educational materials. It has set up libraries
at three sites.
Class coordinators from the community are
selected and trained. They help with the classes
and with monthly meetings where women talk
about how to integrate what they are learning
into real life.
Education in Egypt
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Once women complete the nine-month
course, they are eligible for a
government-issued literacy certificate,
which can improve their employment
options.
As part of the literacy program, women
are taught about their rights and how to
obtain their birth certificates and ID
cards, both of which are necessary for
opening a bank account and registering to
vote.
Oxfam’s Gender Strategy at Work
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Many of Oxfam’s projects, whether
development or emergency focused,
utilize an empowerment approach that
trains women with marketable skills.
There is a clear mandate to include a
significant number of women at all levels
of operations for Oxfam projects, and to
establish programs exclusively for
women. Oxfam regularly sets and
enforces gender equality standards for its
partner agencies and volunteers.
Challenges
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Oxfam Int’l is committed to increasing the number of
Oxfam affiliates in the Global South. One way it is
working on this goal is by giving nations “observer”
status until they are ready to be full members. One
current observer member is Mexico.
Oxfam recognizes that their programs sometimes
benefit the strongest women, while overlooking the
poorest. It has also found that older women tend to
participate more in Oxfam projects and to benefit more
than young women.
Oxfam has received some backlash from communities
for its “favoritism” of women and its enforced
affirmative action programs within local agencies and
businesses. Men are sometimes hostile toward Oxfam
projects because they feel left out