Oxfam

Oxfam Logo

Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organisations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world.^[1] In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives. Oxfam works directly with communities and seeks to influence the powerful to ensure that poor people can improve their lives and livelihoods and have a say in decisions that affect them. Each organization (Affiliate) works together internationally to achieve a greater impact through collective efforts.

Oxfam was originally founded in Oxford, UK, in 1942 as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief by a group of Quakers, social activists, and Oxford academics; this is now Oxfam Great Britain, still based in Oxford, UK. It was one of several local committees formed in support of the National Famine Relief Committee. Their mission was to persuade the British government to allow food relief through the Allied blockade for the starving citizens of Axis-occupied Greece. The first overseas Oxfam was founded in Canada in 1963. The organisation changed its name to its telegraph address, OXFAM, in 1965.

History and beginnings

Plaque commemorating first meeting of Oxfam in the Old Library, the University Church, Oxford.

The original Oxford Committee for Famine Relief was a group of concerned citizens such as Canon Theodore Richard Milford (1896–1987), Professor Gilbert Murray and his wife Lady Mary, Cecil Jackson-Cole and Sir Alan Pim. The Committee met in the Old Library of University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, for the first time in 1942, and its aim was to relieve famine in Greece caused by Allied naval blockades. By 1960, it was a major international non-governmental aid organisation.

The name “Oxfam” comes from the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, founded in Britain in 1942 and registered in accordance with UK law in 1943. Oxfam was formed in 1995 by a group of independent non-governmental organizations. Their aim was to work together for greater impact on the international stage to reduce poverty and injustice. Stichting Oxfam International registered as a not-for-profit foundation at the Hague, The Netherlands.

Oxfam Affiliates

Countries with Oxfam members in green and countries with Oxfam observer members in purple.

Oxfam GB (Great Britain)

Oxfam GB, with 5,955 employees worldwide^[2] in 2008, and with a total income of £299.7 million. Oxfam GB's head office is located in Cowley, Oxford and has offices and programmes in over 70 countries in 8 regions.^[2]

From 2007 to 2009, Oxfam GB has been recognised as one of Britain's Top Employers^[3] by CRF.^[4]

Oxfam Ireland

Oxfam Ireland works with local partner organisations in developing countries to develop effective solutions to poverty and injustice. It is a registered charity in Ireland and Northern Ireland, with headquarters in Dublin and Belfast.

Funds Our funds are raised via three different sources:

• Shops: we have 48 shops throughout Ireland selling goods donated by the public as well as four shops dedicated to selling Fair Trade crafts and food products.
• Government: the Irish Government allocated over €3.7m to our work in 2008-2009.
• Private donors, Corporate and Institutional funding: we have a database of committed supporters who donate regurarly via direct debit or to our special appeals.

Structure Oxfam Ireland is the public title of the two, separate, legal bodies registered in the respective jurisdictions as Oxfam Northern Ireland and Oxfam Republic of Ireland. Oxfam Ireland operates coherently on an all-island basis by means of a single management structure and shared membership of associations and councils.

Oxfam Canada

Main article: Oxfam Canada

Oxfam Canada traces its history to 1963, when the British-based Oxford Committee for Famine Relief sought to establish a Canadian branch. Oxfam Canada was independently incorporated in 1966; the first Board of Directors included 21 distinguished Canadians. In 1967, Oxfam Canada became a key organiser of the successful Miles for Millions fundraising walks across the country. In that year, Lester Pearson (then Canadian Prime Minister) led Oxfam's first Miles for Millions March. With its revenues, Oxfam began to provide educational materials to schools and undertake advocacy work in public policy development.

The early 1970s was a critical period of growth as Oxfam began its own programming overseas in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and established a network of staff and volunteers across Canada to support its work.The original idea was born with Oxfam shops, Luk Moltten Professor at the University of Oxford,. During this same period, Oxfam Canada began to analyse its role in the development process, moving from a traditional model of charity (one-time grants) towards long-term development programming (working with communities to effect lasting positive change.) Deeply involved in the international movement against apartheid in South Africa and Central American solidarity through the 1970s and '80s, Oxfam Canada sought to address the fundamental, underlying causes of poverty. This in turn led to Oxfam's role as a major advocacy organisation in the 1990s, to mobilise public support for changing the policies that perpetuate poverty.

Oxfam Canada is a founding member of Oxfam, the federation of Oxfams worldwide. Today, Oxfam Canada works with over 100 partner organisations in developing countries, tackling the root causes of poverty and inequity and helping people to create self-reliant and sustainable communities. In Canada, Oxfam is active in education, policy advocacy and building a constituency of support for its work.

Oxfam America

In 1970, Oxfam America became an independent non-profit organisation and an Oxfam affiliate in response to the humanitarian crisis created by the fight for independence in Bangladesh. Oxfam America's headquarters are located in Boston, Massachusetts with a policy & campaigns office in Washington, D.C. and seven regional offices around the world. A registered 501(c)3 organisation, Oxfam America campaigns for climate change adaptation, food security, aid reform, access to medicines, and fair trade.

Oxfam-Québec

In 1973, Oxfam-Québec became an independent member of the international Oxfam movement. Carried by the popularity of Yvon Deschamps, Oxfam-Québec has become a cherished organisation among the Québécois. Its mission is to get the francophone population involved in the situation of developing countries.

Oxfam Australia

Oxfam Australia is an Australian, independent, not-for-profit, secular, community-based aid and development organisation, and an affiliate of Oxfam International. Oxfam Australia's work includes long-term development projects, responding to emergencies and campaigning to improve the lives of disadvantaged people around the world. They aim to give disadvantaged people improved access to social services, an effective voice in decisions, equal rights and status, and safety from conflict and disaster.

Oxfam Australia's activities are mainly funded by community donation. Oxfam’s development and advocacy programs use 73% of donated funds, 16% is used for fundraising and promotion, and the remaining 11% for administration.[1] In the case of emergency appeals, 85% of funds are used directly for emergency response purposes.[2][3]

In 2009, Oxfam Australia's work reached 4.64 million people in 28 countries. This was made possible by the support of more than 310,000 donors and campaigners.[4]^[5]

Oxfam Novib (Netherlands)

Oxfam Novib is the Dutch affiliate of the international Oxfam organization. It is an association dedicated to establishing a fair world with no poverty in it. The organization is based in The Hague.

Oxfam Novib was founded under the name Novib in 1956. Novib is an abbreviation that stands for "Nederlandse Organisatie Voor Internationale Bijstand" (Dutch organization for international aid) which was later changed to "Nederlandse Organisatie voor Internationale Ontwikkelingssamenwerking" (Dutch organization for international development cooperation) due to a change in approach of development work.

In 1994, then called, Novib became an affiliate of Oxfam and for this reason the organization changed its name as of March 18th 2006 to Oxfam Novib.

Mid 2008 the organisation changed its voluntary policy towards a network based approach. They set up a so called participation network or tribe named Doeners.net. Aim was to create a campaigning movement for a just world without poverty.

Oxfam Novib's current National Director is Farah Karimi.^[6]

Oxfam-in-Belgium

Oxfam in Belgium is a co-ordinating body of the Belgian components of the Oxfam movement, namely, Oxfam Solidarity, Magasins du Monde Oxfam and Oxfam Wereldwinkels.

Oxfam Solidarity incorporates the activities of Oxfam Belgium (founded in 1964) and those of Oxfam Projects (created in 1976).

Oxfam Solidarity supports approximately 200 projects and programmes in the South totalling around 10 million Euro, thanks to co-financing by the Belgian government and the European Union. The income of the organisation comes from recycling activities, from the support of donors and as a result of campaigns.

Oxfam Wereldwinkels (founded in 1971) and Magasins du Monde-Oxfam (founded in 1975) remain autonomous organisations, focusing on fair trade. With more than 220 outlets, as many groups and 7000 volunteers, they form a movement which, guided by the principles of fair trade, pursues objectives similar to those of Oxfam Solidarity.

Visit the Oxfam in Belgium website at www.oxfam.be

Oxfam France

Oxfam Germany

Oxfam Hong Kong

Oxfam Hong Kong began in 1976, when volunteers came together, opened a second-hand shop, and raised funds for anti-poverty projects around the world. Some of the first actions in the 1970s and 80s were to advocate for justice in the Vietnamese Boat People/Refugee crisis in Hong Kong, and to help save lives in Ethiopia during the 1984 famine. To date, Oxfam Hong Kong has assisted poor people in more than 70 countries/states around the world.

Oxfam Hong Kong is an independent international development and humanitarian organisation working against poverty and related injustice. We recognise that much poverty is caused by injustice and that poverty alleviation requires economic, social and structural change. We work with people facing poverty and with partner organisations on development, humanitarian, policy advocacy and public education programmes.

Oxfam Hong Kong’s work builds on our local understanding and identity and focuses on Southeast Asia and China, including Hong Kong. We also support poverty alleviation and humanitarian activities in other parts of Asia and Africa, and wherever we feel we can make the most valuable difference. Oxfam Hong Kong works with other members of the international confederation Oxfam on international campaigns and programmes supporting people’s right to development.

Oxfam Hong Kong envisions a world free of poverty where women and men enjoy well-being and rights.

Oxfam India

Oxfam's involvement in India began when money was granted in 1951 to fight famine in Bihar. Bihar at the time was one of the poorest and most populated states in India. Bihar and famine would bring Oxfam back to India in 1965 to address drought due to bad monsoons. Bihar held a population of 53 million, of which 40 million relied on subsistence farming to live.^[7] This would compound for India in the future; production of food had not been parallel to its exploding population. It is estimated that, over the course of the droughts and famines, 2,400 tons of milk was bought by Oxfam and at the height of this was feeding over 400,000 starving children and mothers.^[8]

In 1968 Oxfam's first Field Director in India, Jim Howard, created the Oxfam Gramdan Action Programme, or OGAP.^[9] This would be the first joint rural development program in Oxfam history and the first step to a new 'operational' Oxfam.

Oxfam India in 2011 was inducted into the Oxfam International Confederation. This was marked by Oxfam's 60th year in India.^[10]

Oxfam Observer Members

Oxfam Japan

Oxfam Japan started activities in December 2003. We are working from Japan to bring the reality of poverty and injustice around the world to the Japanese by raising awareness of global issues and supporting Oxfam activities around the world.

Sharing Oxfam's experiences around the world

Working with other organizations involved in poverty issues, we strongly believe that Japan can play an important role in reducing poverty. An important part of our mission is to share Oxfam’s experience around the world with Japan. To accomplish this, we publish reports based on Oxfam’s experiences and interviews in the different regions where we work, and we share methods learned through the many years of Oxfam’s history.

Japan is one of the G8 countries. The Japanese have a strong impact on global issues, including poverty. We believe that the Japanese people and the Japanese government raising can become a force in reducing poverty around the world. Therefore, we use different methods to raise Japanese awareness of the issues so that they will raise their voice and make it heard around the world. We also work to influence the Japanese government to get involved in poverty reduction efforts around the world, and make it a priority in the international agenda.

Oxfam Italy

Oxfam International

Oxfam International logo

The Oxfam International Secretariat (OIS) leads, facilitates, and supports collaboration between the Oxfam affiliates to increase Oxfam's impact on poverty and injustice through advocacy campaigns, development programmes and emergency response.

The OIS Board comprises the Executive Director, Chair of each Affiliate, and the OI Chair. The Affiliates’ Chairs are voting members and are non-remunerated. The Executive Directors and the OI Chair are all non voting-members. The Board also elects the Deputy Chair and Treasurer from among its voting members.

The Board is responsible for ensuring that Oxfam International is accountable, transparent, and fit for purpose. The constitution and Strategic Plan are also approved at Board level. The Board takes recommendations from Executive Directors and ensures that the Confederation is working to its agreed aims. The Board also agrees membership of the Confederation, selects the Honorary President, the Honorary Advisor, the Board Officers and the OI Executive Director. A number of subcommittees with expert members are also mandated by the Board to assist with specific issues.

Languages: Official: English; working: English, French and Spanish. Staff: approx. 77 in 2009-2010 (including secondment placements and temporary staff e.g. for maternity cover) Finance: Contributions from affiliate organizations. Operating budget: US$8.7m

Oxfam's Mission & Values

Mission: Oxfam’s programs address the structural causes of poverty and related injustice and work primarily through local accountable organizations, seeking to enhance their effectiveness. We aim to help people directly where local capacity is insufficient or inappropriate for Oxfam’s purposes, and to assist in the development of structures which directly benefit people facing the realities of poverty and injustice.

Values: In November 2000, Oxfam adopted the rights-based approach as the framework for all the work of the Confederation and its partners. Oxfam recognizes the universality and indivisibility of human rights and has adopted these overarching aims to express these rights in practical terms:

• the right to a sustainable livelihood
• the right to basic social services
• the right to life and security
• the right to be heard
• the right to an identity

Oxfam believes that poverty and powerlessness are avoidable and can be eliminated by human action and political will. The right to a sustainable livelihood, and the right and capacity to participate in societies and make positive changes to people's lives are basic human needs and rights which can be met. Oxfam believes that peace and substantial arms reduction are essential conditions for development and that inequalities can be significantly reduced both between rich and poor nations and within nations.

Oxfam's work

Oxfam clothing and shoe bank

Though Oxfam's initial concern was the provision of food to relieve famine, over the years the organisation has developed strategies to combat the causes of famine. In addition to food and medicine, Oxfam also provides tools to enable people to become self-supporting and opens markets of international trade where crafts and produce from poorer regions of the world can be sold at a fair price to benefit the producer.

Oxfam's programme has three main points of focus: development work, which tries to lift communities out of poverty with long-term, sustainable solutions based on their needs; humanitarian work, assisting those immediately affected by conflict and natural disasters (which often leads in to longer-term development work), especially in the field of water and sanitation; and lobbyist, advocacy and popular campaigning, trying to affect policy decisions on the causes of conflict at local, national, and international levels.

Oxfam works on trade justice, fair trade, education, debt and aid, livelihoods, health, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, conflict (campaigning for an international arms trade treaty) and natural disasters, democracy and human rights, and climate change.

Oxfam is providing humanitarian aid to those affected by the 2011 Horn of Africa famine, in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Oxfam's new Campaign

GROW: FOOD. LIFE. PLANET

GROW is Oxfam’s new campaign for better ways to grow, share, and live together. A campaign for the billions of us who eat food and over a billion men and women who grow it, to share solutions for a more hopeful future in which everyone always has enough to eat.

Oxfam’s GROW Camping is also fighting land grabs: Secretive land deals are forcing poor farmers from their homes and leaving families hungry. From Uganda to Honduras and Indonesia to South Sudan, unscrupulous investors are acquiring land that’s sold as ‘unused’ or ‘underdeveloped’, but which is actually being used by small-scale farmers to grow food. Those farmers and their families are then evicted from the land – often violently – and left with no way of growing food and no way to earn a living.

The recent rise in land acquisitions can be explained by the 2007–08 food prices crisis, which led investors and governments to turn their attention towards agriculture after decades of neglect. But this interest in land is not something that will pass; it is a trend with strong drivers. The land deals are very often intended to produce for foreign food and biofuel markets. They can often rightly be called ‘land grabs’.

This term refers to land acquisitions which do one or more of the following:

• Violate human rights, and particularly the equal rights of women;

• Flout the principle of free, prior, and informed consent of the affected land users, particularly indigenous peoples;

• Ignore the impacts on social, economic, and gender relations, and on the environment;

• Avoid transparent contracts with clear and binding commitments on employment and benefit sharing;

• Eschew democratic planning, independent oversight, and meaningful participation

Oxfam's Activities

During 2007 – 2012 Oxfam shall focus its resources on four Change Goals:

1. Economic Justice

• Make agriculture work for farmers and agricultural labourers living in poverty and vulnerable circumstances. Reaching the majority of people living in poverty will mean transforming agriculture so that they get a decent reward for their labour

• Achieve fairer trade rules for poor countries. People living in poverty must get a fair share of the wealth and opportunities generated by world trade

• Reduce the impact of climate change and energy shocks by supporting vulnerable people and communities, particularly in agriculture, to adapt to climate change. We will tackle the injustice of climate change by promoting energy equity for developing countries

2. Essential Services

• Demand that national governments fulfil their responsibilities for equitable delivery of good quality health, education, water and sanitation, especially for women and excluded groups

• Support civil society organizations and alliances to hold governments accountable for the delivery of these services

• Ensure better policies and more funding from rich countries and international institutions, as well as make sure they honour already existing commitments on aid and debt reduction

3. Rights in Crisis

• Improve our ability to deliver better protection and greater assistance, through improving our competencies and capacities, and becoming more accountable to the people we are assisting

• We will also increase work with and through local organizations, and particularly strengthen the role of women

• Change policies and practices of the international humanitarian system to deliver better protection and greater assistance. This will mean lifting the standards of disaster response by international agencies, implementing commitments by governments on the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ and pursuing an Arms Trade Treaty.

• Work within the framework of human security, with a greater focus on preventing conflict, peace-building, reconciliation and longer-term development

4. Gender Justice

• Support women’s leadership at all levels to achieve greater power in decision-making and greater control over their lives

• Work to end gender-based violence by changing ideas, attitudes and beliefs of men and women that permit violence against women.

• Strengthen Oxfam’s own learning and capacities on gender to ensure that gender justice is achieved in all our work

Oxfam's Shops

Oxfam shop in Cirencester, England

See also: Oxfam bookshops

Oxfam has numerous shops all over the world, which sell many fair-trade and donated items. They opened their first charity shop in 1948.^[11] The proceeds from these usually get paid to different charities or are used to further Oxfam's relief efforts around the globe.

Much of their stock still comes from public donations but they currently also sell fair trade products from developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America, including handcrafts, books, music CDs and instruments, clothing, toys, food and ethnic creations. These objects are brought to the public through fair trade to help boost the quality of life of their producers and surrounding communities.^[12]

Oxfam has near to 15,000 shops worldwide.^{[citation needed]}. Some of them are in the UK with around 750 Oxfam GB shops including specialist shops such as books, music, furniture and bridal wear. Oxfam Germany has 34 shops including specialist book shops; Oxfam France shops sell books and fair trade products and Oxfam Hong Kong has 2 shops selling donated goods and fair trade prdoucts. Oxfam Novib, Oxfam Australia (with over 20 fair trade shops), Oxfam Ireland and Oxfam in Belgium also raise funds from shops.

Of the 750 Oxfam charity shops around the UK, around 100 are specialist bookshops or book and music shops. Oxfam is the largest retailer of second-hand books in Europe, selling around 12 million per year.

In 2008, Oxfam GB worked with over 20,000 volunteers in shops across the UK, raising £17.1 million for Oxfam's programme work.^[2]

Fundraising

Oxfam has a number of successful fundraising channels in addition to its shops. Over half a million people in the UK make a regular financial contribution towards its work, and vital funds are received from gifts left to the organisation in people's wills. Many London Marathon^[13] competitors run to raise money for Oxfam, and Oxfam also receives funds in return for providing and organising volunteer stewards at festivals such as Glastonbury. In conjunction with the Gurkha Welfare Trust, Oxfam also runs several Trailwalker events in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Christopher McCandless, the subject of the book and film Into the Wild, donated his life savings to Oxfam before leaving society for the Alaskan wilderness.

In August 2009, it was announced that Arctic Monkeys would release a 7-inch vinyl version of their new single "Crying Lightning" exclusively through Oxfam shops, with proceeds going to the charity. Recently Oxfam India is emerging as a successful fundraising unit, it is mainly with the help of always motivated team and the Resource Mobilization Heads.

Publications

Annual Report; Strategic Plan; Research and Policy papers http://www.oxfam.org/en/about/annual-reports

Policy & Research page with publications that can be filtered by subject and/or by date https://www.oxfam.org/en/policy

Criticism

Conflict with Starbucks on Ethiopian coffee

On 26 October 2006, Oxfam accused Starbucks of asking the National Coffee Association (NCA) to block a U.S. trademark application from Ethiopia for three of the country's coffee beans, Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe.^[14] They claimed this could result in denying Ethiopian coffee farmers potential annual earnings of up to £47m.

Robert Nelson, the head of the NCA, added that his organisation initiated the opposition for economic reasons, "For the U.S. industry to exist, we must have an economically stable coffee industry in the producing world... This particular scheme is going to hurt the Ethiopian coffee farmers economically". The NCA claims the Ethiopian government was being badly advised and this move could price them out of the market.^[14]

Facing more than 90,000 letters of concern, Starbucks placed pamphlets in its stores accusing Oxfam of "misleading behavior" and insisting that its "campaign need[s] to stop". On 7 November, The Economist derided Oxfam's "simplistic" stance and Ethiopia's "economically illiterate" government, arguing that Starbucks' (and Illy's) standards-based approach would ultimately benefit farmers more.^[15]

Nonetheless, on 20 June 2007, representatives of the Government of Ethiopia and senior leaders from Starbucks Coffee Company announced that they had concluded an agreement regarding distribution, marketing and licensing that recognises the importance and integrity of Ethiopia's speciality coffee designations.^[16]

Political neutrality

Oxfam Great Britain was strongly criticised by other NGOs for becoming too close to Tony Blair's New Labour government in the UK.^[17]

In October, 2011, Oxfam's campaign for a financial transaction tax resulted in it seeking court action to ban a pensioner from one of its shops, asking him to pay a £10,000 legal bill after he complained about a poster which highlighted Oxfam’s call for a 'Robin Hood' tax of banks and financial institutions.^[18]

Pensioner Barry Nowlan, 63, of Taunton, said he has a legitimate complaint about Oxfam’s political campaigning.

Oxfam banned the retired bank clerk and Lloyds shareholder from its shop at The Bridge in Taunton. The charity accuses Mr Nowlan of causing: "great distress" and "harassing volunteers". He denies the claims but admits entering the building since Oxfam banned him by letter.

Mr Nowlan said, "Oxfam claims its Robin Hood Tax will come from bank profits and bankers’ bonuses, not from the ordinary people. But banks are owned by shareholders. They are pension funds and ordinary people like me. I retired at 49 through ill-health. My pensions are small but I had the benefit of dividends (mainly from my Lloyds Bank shares) until the last few years. As you know, Lloyds' share value fell from a peak of £11 to barely 30p. now. The dividends represented about one-third of my income. So I was not best pleased to see Oxfam's window display deceiving people. I have continued to go into the shop to show I am not cowed. I am not causing a problem, and have bought one or two books. All this has racked up a legal bill of nearly £10,000 which I am expected to pay."

A spokeswoman for the charity said, "Oxfam has made the decision to apply for an injunction against a member of the public who we feel has been harassing the manager and volunteers at our Oxfam shop in Taunton. The nature of the visits to the shop from this member of the public are far beyond what any staff have a right to expect while working for Oxfam. The decision to apply for the injunction is very much a last resort."

On 25 October 2011, the dispute was settled amicably in Taunton County Court.^[19] Afterwards Mr Nowlan said: “The matter has been settled between Oxfam and myself on a mutually satisfactory basis.” Oxfam declined to comment on the court case, saying simply: “It is a private matter.”

Internal structures and political role

Omaar and de Waal in Food and Power in Sudan ^[20] comment that "the 1990s have seen growing pressure for humanitarian institutions to become more accountable. There has been a succession of reviews of major operations, growing in independence and criticism." They quote an OECD report, The Joint Evaluation of Emergency Operations in Rwanda, which stated that its team "came across examples of Agencies telling, if not falsehoods, then certainly half-truths" and noted "a remarkable lack of attempts by agencies to seek the views of beneficiaries on the assistance being provided".^[21] In this climate, Oxfam has faced a number of criticisms, some specific to the organisation itself, others relating to problems said to be endemic to NGO aid agencies.

In 2005, the magazine New Internationalist described Oxfam as a "Big International Non-Government Organisation (BINGO)", having a corporate-style, undemocratic internal structure, and addressing the symptoms rather than the causes of international poverty – especially by acquiescing to neoliberal economics and even taking over roles conventionally filled by national governments.^[22]

Similar criticisms have been voiced by Red Pepper magazine ^[23] and Katherine Quarmby in the New Statesman.^[24]

Bookshops

Oxfam has been criticized ^[25][26] for aggressively expanding its specialist bookshops, using tactics more often associated with multi-national corporations. The charity has been criticized as some claim this expansion has come at the expense of independent secondhand book sellers and other charity shops in many areas of the UK.

Fair trade coffee

On 28 April 2007, two academics in Melbourne, Australia, representing a think tank lodged a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission accusing Oxfam of misleading or deceptive conduct under the Trade Practices Act in its promotion of Fairtrade coffee.^[27] The academics claimed that high certification costs and low wages for workers undermine claims that Fairtrade helps to lift producers out of poverty. These claims were subsequently dismissed by the Commission.^[28]

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

In 2003, Oxfam Belgium produced a poster with a picture of an orange drenched in blood. The poster read, "Israel's fruits have a bitter taste...reject the occupation of Palestine, don't buy Israeli fruits and vegetables".^[29] Oxfam was widely criticised because of the poster's allegedly anti-Israel political message. Following publicity and pressure from the pro-Israel organisation NGO Monitor, Oxfam removed the poster from their web site and Ian Anderson, the chairman of Oxfam International, issued a letter of apology; however, Oxfam has maintained its support of a boycott of Israeli settlement products.^[30] Oxfam was criticised for its policy of what has been termed "selective morality" by NGO Monitor.

In October 2009, Oxfam was accused by Israeli NGO Regavim of aiding Palestinians in illegal activities in Kiryat Arba, including water theft. Oxfam has denied its participation.^[31]

Confrontation with the Population Matters

In December 2009 Duncan Green, head of research at Oxfam, attempted to discredit the PopOffsets initiative of Population Matters, (formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust), under which individuals can offset their carbon emissions by funding family planning services in the developing world. Green wrote in an op-ed in the New Statesman that assumptions such as those in the OPT report equating population growth and environmental degradation are a "gross oversimplification".^[32]

In response, OPT described the response of parts of the development lobby to the initiative as "frankly disgraceful", adding: "The world badly needs a grown-up, rational discussion of the population issue…without blame, abuse and hysteria."^[33]

See also

• Disasters Emergency Committee
• Make Trade Fair
• Oxfam International Youth Partnership
• Oxfam Australia
• Oxfam-in-Belgium (French)
• Oxfam France (French)
• Oxfam Hong Kong
• Oxfam Italia (Italian)
• Oxfam Novib
• Seoul Peace Prize
• Ox-Tales

References

1. ^ Statement from the Oxfam website.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Trustee's Report 07-08.
3. ^ Britain's Top Employer Profile 2009.
4. ^ http://crf.com/BritainsTopEmployers/BritainsTopEmployers2009/tabid/1368/Default.aspx
5. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxfam_Australia
6. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxfam_Novib
7. ^ Maggie Black, A Cause for Our Times: Oxfam the First 50 Years (Oxford: Oxfam, 1992). ISBN 0-85598-173-3
8. ^ Drops in the ocean: the work of Oxfam 1960-1970 (London, Macdonald & Co., 1970). ISBN 0-35603-568-9
9. ^ Drops in the ocean: the work of Oxfam 1960-1970 (London, Macdonald & Co., 1970). ISBN 0-35603-568-9
10. ^ http://www.oxfamindia.org/about
11. ^ Statement from the Oxfam website.
12. ^ [1]
13. ^ Oxfam London Marathon.
14. ^ ^{a b} "Starbucks in Ethiopia coffee row". BBC News. 26 October 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6086330.stm. Retrieved 2 November 2009. 
15. ^ "Oxfam versus Starbucks: And this time, Oxfam may be wrong". Economist.com. 7 November 2006. http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/businessview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8129387. Retrieved 2 November 2009.  (subscription required)
16. ^ Joint Statement: Starbucks and Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) Partner to Promote Ethiopia’s Coffee and Benefit the Country’s Coffee Farmers^{[dead link]}
17. ^ Quarmby, Katharine. "Why Oxfam Is Failing Africa," New Statesman (30 May 2005).
18. ^ "Oxfam ban Somerset's Robin Hood row banker". Western Daily Press. October 10, 2011. http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/Oxfam-ban-Robin-Hood-row-banker/story-13503963-detail/story.html. 
19. ^ "Oxfam settle Somerset ‘Robin Hood’ row in court". Western Daily Press. October 28, 2011. http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/Oxfam-settle-Somerset-8216-Robin-Hood-8217-row/story-13688646-detail/story.html. 
20. ^ Omaar and De Waal, Food and Power in the Sudan ; A Critique of Humanitarianism, African Rights, May 1997
21. ^ The Joint Evaluation of Emergency Operations in Rwanda, OECD, 1994
22. ^ The Big Charity Bonanza
23. ^ The New Scramble for Africa, Red Pepper, July 2005
24. ^ Katherine Quarmby, How Oxfam is Failing Africa, May 2005
25. ^ Indie booksellers concerned by latest Oxfam Bookshop | theBookseller.com
26. ^ Bullying is bullying - whoever does it | The Spectator
27. ^ Overington, Caroline (28 April 2007). "Oxfam coffee 'harms' poor farmers". The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/oxfam-coffee-harms-poor-farmers/story-e6frg6nf-1111113428712. Retrieved 2010-09-15. 
28. ^ Mario Xuereb (28 June 2007). "Not free, but fair: Oxfam cleared of coffee chicanery". The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/not-free-but-fair-oxfam-cleared-of-coffee-chicanery/2007/06/27/1182623991540.html. Retrieved 2 November 2009. 
29. ^ Oxfam Belgium produces political poster, NGO Monitor Digest, 2003-06-24.
30. ^ Oxfam's Apology, NGO Monitor, 2003-07-16.
31. ^ Lazaroff, Tovah; Lappin, Yaakov (31 October 2009). "'Oxfam aids illegal Palestinian deeds'". The Jerusalem Post. http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1256799054644&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull. Retrieved 2009-11-01. ^{[dead link]}
32. ^ New statesman. Blaming the victims.
33. ^ Development lobby "disgrace" on population.

Further reading

• Maggie Black, A Cause for Our Times: Oxfam the First 50 Years (Oxford: Oxfam, 1992). ISBN 0-85598-173-3
• Susan Blackburn, Practical Visionaries: A Study of Community Aid Abroad (Melbourne University Press, 1993). ISBN 0-522-84562-2

External links

• Oxfam International