Oxfam and its Global Campaign on Trade

Abstract

Oxfam is typical of present-day NGOs for whom advocacy is a key element in their approach. For most of its early history the organization focused on emergency relief and development assistance projects. It began in Britain in 1942 as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, campaigning for food supplies to be sent through an allied naval blockade to starving women and children in enemy-occupied Greece during the Second World War. In the years after the war, it grew to become a major NGO in the fields of emergency relief in disaster situations, and long-term development in poor communities around the world. Other similar organizations associated with the British organization grew up in other Northern countries (e.g. Oxfam Canada), and in 1995, these came together to form the Oxfam International confederation. Today the 13 affiliated organizations of this confederation work in over 100 countries, with more than 3,000 local organizations who strive to help people living in poverty to exercise their human rights, assert their dignity as full citizens and take control of their lives. Oxfam’s efforts are focused on three areas: long-term development programmes aimed at reducing poverty and combating injustice, assistance to people affected by natural disasters or conflict, and advocacy and campaigning to raise awareness of the causes of poverty and press decision makers to change policies and practices that reinforce poverty and injustice.