How Oxfam is changing

Since Oxfam first started in 1942 we have challenged the underlying causes of poverty, while supporting people to cope when disaster strikes. These principles are just as relevant today, but global challenges like the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate emergency need us to keep evolving to reflect the threats and opportunities of today’s world.

Our new strategy sets out how Oxfam GB believe we can best make a difference to the biggest challenges the world is facing in our efforts to beat poverty for good:

• Focusing on where we can make the most radical difference: tackling extreme vulnerability in the toughest places on earth, and challenging the inequalities that drive poverty.
• Working more in partnership with communities and organisations around the world who are driving change, supporting them with the resources they need.
• Growing a global network that actively shifts spending and decision-making power to the global South.
• Bringing together people and groups who feel part of an international community, to help raise vital funds and to shape how they take action.

And how we work will be as important as what we do as we continue to transform to become safe, feminist and anti-racist.

Oxfam GB is one of 20 independent affiliates that make up the Oxfam confederation. The Oxfam GB Strategy shows how Oxfam GB will contribute to realising the vision of the Oxfam International Global Strategic Framework

Tackling extreme vulnerability

It’s predicted that 80% of people facing extreme poverty will live in the most fragile places on earth by 2030.

We’ll urgently focus our work in these unstable and insecure places - where the threat of conflict and violence is high, and there's no basic support for people living in poverty (clean water, healthcare, social protection), despite their incredible resilience and drive for change. We’ll offer support and resources to enable people to survive and thrive, and ultimately to challenge the underlying cause of the injustices they face.

There are many inequalities that cause poverty the world over. To have the biggest impact, we’ll focus on those where we believe we can make the biggest difference. Right now, it's...

Global Inequalities: Covid-19

Coronavirus is impacting lives and livelihoods around the world, deepening the inequalities that keep people in poverty and many more teetering on the edge. We’ll push for solutions that prioritise people facing poverty – supporting communities to withstand the threat to their livelihoods, campaigning for debt relief of the poorest countries, and lobbying the governments of those countries to protect people’s health and livelihoods.

Global Inequalities: climate emergency

Climate change is destroying homes and wrecking lives. And it’s hitting the world’s poorest communities the hardest – the people who have done the least to cause it. To fight this injustice and reduce poverty, we’ll support people to find ways to thrive despite extreme weather. And we’ll push governments and corporations for solutions that enable us all to urgently tackle the climate crisis head-on.

Global Inequalities: discrimination against women

Women are more likely to carry unpaid care responsibilities that are routinely undervalued. These unfair expectations and discrimination exclude women from safe and secure fairly-paid work. We'll push for women's work - including unpaid care work, like looking after children or the elderly - to be fairly valued and shared, standing up for women's equal right to a life without poverty.

Speaking out

We’ll always challenge the underlying causes of poverty – from social attitudes to government policies. Time and again, we’ve seen what we can achieve when we stand together with others and speak out against the injustices that cause poverty.

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Standing together

• We’ll work in partnership with communities and organisations around the world
• We’ll bring together people and groups in the UK who share a sense of international solidarity
• We’ll connect people and organisations together worldwide, actively shifting power – money, decision-making, influence – to the global South

And we will...

• Do everything we can to ensure no one is left behind, power is shared fairly, and we are held to account
• In particular, we’ll continue on our journey towards being safe, feminist and anti-racist