Oxfam working with business

Oxfam works with businesses to influence them to adopt practices that help poor people, and to increase the benefits of private-sector investment for poor people. We do this in many ways including campaigning, lobbying, partnerships, and channelling corporate philanthropy. We prioritise changes that alter the policies and practices of individual businesses and whole sectors. The choices we make about how to get involved are driven by our evaluation of what will bring the maximum contribution to poverty reduction.

We work with businesses in a number of ways:

• joint projects that look at addressing key problems e.g. helping develop market access for producers in a specific area or looking at the impact of a particular business in a particular supply chain or location
• mobilising business to ensure effective public policy on poverty issues
• encouraging dialogue on specific issues e.g. current roundtables with the investment industry as part of the project ‘Better Returns in a Better World’
• capitalising on the expertise and skills offered by businesses,
• financial support or encouraging the donation of products and services that enable us to carry out our mandate more effectively
• ecouraging adoption of initiatives such as fair trade, which Oxfam champions and which directly benefit individuals or communities with whom Oxfam works.

Oxfam works in partnership with companies that show a commitment to developing policies, strategies, and practices that work in favour of poor people where we are convinced that this relationship will deliver real and lasting benefits. Oxfam's partnerships are not an endorsement of a company. They are based on mutual respect and transparency, and Oxfam's right to question and criticise.

Examples:

M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange
Co-operative Group

You can also get involved as a funding corporate partner