The Mission, Role, and Impact of Oxfam as an International NGO - Term Paper Example

Oxfam Oxfam as an organization is tasked with the man to fight poverty and injustice in slightly over 90 countries around the continent. It is a consortium of 17 established organizations. The mode of operation and management apart from its major aim objective which is to ensure poor people are well taken care of by empowering them economically or any other way possible to improve their lives, has its organizational structure in a well-established format that is characterized by efficacy and proper leadership in filling the operational gap in relation to their strategic objective from every department in the organization (Rugendyeke 112). This paper will seek to explore the mission, role, and impact of Oxfam as an international NGO while also providing an overall critique of the organization. Oxfam Background Oxfam as an organization was founded in 1942 in Britain. The organization was originally named as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief at its inception. At its beginning, the group tasked itself with campaigns to send food supplies to starving children and women through an allied naval blockade in enemy occupied Greece during the 2nd world war (Brand 32). In 1995, the organization underwent a transformation to become known as Oxfam International. Oxfam International represented a group of independent NGO’s that came together to work for a greater impact on the global stage to reduce injustice and poverty. Presently, there are 17 member organizations that form the Oxfam international confederation. These member organizations are based in the United States, Belgium, Australia, France, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Mexico, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, Ireland, India, Spain, New Zealand and Quebec. The organization’s secretariat is based in Oxford, United Kingdom (Oxfam). The organization also runs advocacy offices in Washington DC, New York, Brasilia, Geneva, and Brussels. The mission of Oxfam International is to work with many various local partner organizations as well as people living in poverty who strive towards exercising their human rights, asserting their dignity as full citizens and taking control of their lives. The organization’s work centers around poverty eradication, policy research, advocacy, and disaster relief. The organization works to assist people directly by instituting developmental structures for those who face the realities of injustice and poverty (Sabine 45). In carrying out its activities through its member organizations and other partners, the organization upholds a rights-based approach in its framework. The organization believes that powerlessness and poverty are avoidable and can be eradicated through political will and human action. Oxfam places high values on the following human rights; right to a sustainable livelihood, right to life and security, right to basic social services, right to be heard, and the right to an identity. Oxfam Operational Structure Oxfam operational structure consists of governance, administration, and departmental operational programs. Oxfam International represents an international confederation of 17 independent member affiliates. The governing body of the confederation is referred to as the Oxfam international board. The board is made up of a voting trustee and a non-voting trustee appointed from the board of each member affiliate. The international board of the confederation meets at least once a year and is tasked with setting the organization’s vision and strategy. The board is also responsible for formulating the program of common activities and policies for the organization (Brand 78). The decisions of the board are reached via consensus. When that is impossible, a vote is taken where each voting trustee has one vote. The council of executive directors is the executive body of Oxfam international. The council is made up of executive directors from each of the member affiliates of the confederation. The council of executive directors is further headed by an executive director who represents the entire Oxfam international organization. The executive director is responsible for commissioning committees to deal with various tasks and projects of the organizations operations. The administration of Oxfam International revolves around the work that the organization conducts. The Oxfam international secretariat- OIS, is charges with coordinating the operation of programs and activities carried out by the member affiliates in the various countries they are based in (Oxfam). all of the confederation’s affiliates bear similar resemblance in their administration structure. They all have finance, administration, human resource, customer service, and ICT departments based on the focus of their work. The structure of the departments is dependent on the strategic planning of each of the affiliates and the type of activities that each affiliate is conducting. Oxfam’s work/activities The 17 member affiliates that form Oxfam International work together to offer lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. The initial concern of the organization was to provide food so as to relieve famine. The organization has undergone transformation over the years to develop strategies that assist in combating the causes of famine. The organization focuses its efforts on the following areas in its bid to avert poverty and injustice; development, policy research, advocacy, emergencies, and campaigning. The organization works with communities and partners to eradicate poverty and injustice (Rugendyke 67). The organization also focuses on delivering immediate life-saving assistance to individuals affected by conflict or natural disasters, and helping them to build their resilience to future possible disasters. The organization prides itself as part of the global movement for change as it raises public awareness on the courses of poverty and encourage ordinary people to take action for a fairer globe. The organization presses policy makers to change practices and policies that contribute to poverty and injustice. Together with its partners in developing countries, the organization also undertakes research and analysis that help to cement their advocacy and campaign programs. The strategic organization platform entails three major forms which is based on humanitarian work, advocacy, and campaigning to ensure that long term sustainable solutions are provided to the communities in poverty and natural calamities such as droughts and famines (Brand 32). Oxfam has been influential in rebuilding schools and offering economic solutions to boost the affected parties in poverty throughout the globe an example being in Sri Lanka and a number of African countries. Campaign Oxfam works through its partners and with communities to find long-term sustainable solutions to issues relating to poverty and injustice. Through the organization’s trade campaigns, it intends to empower individuals and communities by working with them to find sustainable solutions that address their pressing needs. An example of a campaign undertaken by the organization is the organization’s fair trade initiative in its member affiliate locations. The main aim of the initiative is to raise awareness about the injustices that reveal themselves in world trade. Through the initiative, Oxfam seeks to influence traders, consumers, and governments to alter their trade conditions to benefit poor producers. Raw materials produced by developing countries is normally purchased and processed by developed nations at a cheap price. The processed products are later resold to the developing countries at exorbitant prices, which lock out the poor majority in these countries from accessing the very products that they sold as raw material. The poor thus face trade injustices that leave them in poverty without a chance to ever reverse their fortunes. This makes for a rise in unsustainable communities in developing countries (Aaronson & Zimmerman 18). Oxfam thus concentrates its development work on such communities by trying to carry advocacy and development work by finding better markets for their raw material and creating a fairer trade environment for such communities. Oxfam’s call for economic justice centers on the idea that unfair trade rules undermine the interests and rights of the poor. The organization undertakes an intensive global campaign that seeks to make trade fair for the poor in developing countries. Impact on the global stage Oxfam has served to take a key role in the present day global arena. By offering to provide lasting sustainable solutions to poverty and injustice, the organization receives critical attention from its partners, communities, financial institutions, and governments. By undertaking development work, campaigns, advocacy, policy and research, the work of Oxfam touches on a considerable number of people across the globe (ECBP 36). Through its development work, the organization has served to avert poverty in communities within developing countries by offering sustainable solutions that assist these communities to find avenues of income generation that help to support them financially. For example, through its ‘saving for change’ program, the organization has made it possible for people and communities to receive loans, which they could not have received from formal financial institutions. Such programs help communities to become self-sufficient as they can start businesses. Through its advocacy and campaigns, Oxfam acts to stimulate policy makers such as governments and international financial institutions across the globe to undertake policy formulations that help to fight off poverty and injustice across the globe. The organization actively campaigns on platforms such as trade justice, debt, fair trade, livelihoods, education, gender equality, HIV/AIDS, conflict, climate change, democracy, natural disasters and human rights (Sabine 102). These platforms provide the organization with a wide outreach and through their advocacy and campaigns; they get to have an influence on key global issues. They are able to play a role as stakeholders in various policy formulating decisions. The organization enjoys a reputable regard and is always at the forefront of various world summits that discuss on issues affecting humanity in the 21st century. Partners Oxfam’s work in fighting poverty and injustice serves to provide with a multitude of partners. The organization works in close collaboration with the various governments of countries where it has bases and undertaking their activities. The organization also works in close collaboration with other international and local NGO’s in carrying out its mandate (Leather 92). The major partners of the organization, however, are people. The organization closely works with individuals and communities to help in ending poverty and injustice globally. Oxfam holds communities and people struggling with the realities of poverty and injustice central to its mandate. The organization works in close collaboration with such communities and individuals in developing sustainable solutions that help them to become empowered. Funding To undertake its activities and work across the globe, Oxfam has established a number of successful fundraising channels. The organization has numerous shops worldwide that sell donated and fair trade items. The organization sells fair trade items and products such as handcrafts, instruments, food, ethnic creations, clothing, toys, music CD’s, and books, which originate from developing nations in Africa, Asia, and South America (ECBP 82). The organization has an approximated 1200 shops globally. Oxfam shops are the basic funding structures that are situated all over the world. The organization also receives donations in form of gifts and money from people around the globe. Oxfam funding has been instituted through various designated points in Europe such as shops and banks accounts that collect funds and any other donations of any capacity (Oxfam). The organization has established channels through which people make their financial contributions. The organization works in close collaboration with celebrities and world-renowned leaders who help to popularize its functions around the globe. The organization hosts events such as festivals, sporting events, and trail walker events that help it to generate funds. The organization also enlists the services of voluntary work from individuals across the globe that helps it to save on its funds. The organization asks for volunteers across the globe that work for minimal pay and thus assist the organization to manage on its pool of funds (Hajnal 46). The board members of Oxfam are based on voluntary platform so as to minimize on the funds available to carry out its strategic objectives in dealing with its mandate of empowering the less fortunate human lives however the board members still receive a form of compensation to cover for their involvement that is provided for by the organizations by-laws. Critique of Oxfam Oxfam has enjoyed proper leadership advantage that has seen it develop strategic plans to aid in carrying out its mandate over the years. Since the organization’s activities cover a wide array of focus, Oxfam also faces criticism and close critique from those it interacts with. The organization ranks highly among international NGO’s on the issue of its transparency dimension. However, the organization has also faced criticism in regard to its information disclosure policy. The organization has been accused of making vague commitments to transparency in Towards Global equity: strategic plan 2001-2004 (OWT 1). The organization’s commitment does not meet the good practice principles of transparency. The organization fails to undertake training for its staff in regard to public disclosure of information and neither does it widely share its commitment to transparency to external stakeholders. The organization receives praise for its well-developed participation capabilities. The organization engages actively with external stakeholders, although there is room for improvement. The organization clearly documents in its organizational documents its commitment in engaging external stakeholders on decisions relevant to them (OWT 3). The organization, however, does not specify on how engagement will occur with specific external stakeholder groups nor does it have a specific policy that is applicable to engagement with all external stakeholders. The organization enjoys proper leadership advantages that aid in its excellent day-day running. The organization offers equitable control among members in its decision making process. Oxfam’s constitution guarantees members equal control of its governing body as all its affiliates have representation on the international board and are able to add items to the agenda of meetings. Oxfam as a nonprofit organization has a director’s board consisting of 12 directors that are carefully and strategically chosen from the various affiliate states that the independent organizations that are part of Oxfam lie (Ronalds 113). The organization’s constitution also ensures that a minority of members get to dominate decision making within the organization through equitable member control at the executive body level. Conclusion Oxfam international is committed towards ending poverty and injustice across the globe through its work that focuses on development, advocacy, campaigns, policy research and emergencies. The organization has spread across the globe and is represented by 17 member affiliates that help it to carry out its mandate. Oxfam deals with a wide array of issues touching on challenges facing the globe in the 21st century that have helped to reinforce the organization’s firm position in playing a vital role in policy formulation across the globe. The organization’s commitment to ending poverty and injustice has been significant in assisting communities and individual facing these realities in developing nations. Its position and activities on the international stage ensures that the organization enjoys support through partnerships with various other organizations and institutions that help it to achieve its plans. Works Cited Brand, Nicole. Operations Strategy and Management within Oxfam. New York: GRIN Verlag, 2007. Hajnal, Peter I. International Information: Documents, Publications, and Electronic Information of International Governmental Organizations, Volume 2. New York: Libraries Unlimited, 2001. Lang, Sabine. NGOs, Civil Society, and the Public Sphere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Leather, Chris. Bridging the Divide: The reform of global food security governance. London: Oxfam, 2009. Oxfam. Oxfam international. 27 May 2014. 27 May 2014 . Project, Emergency Capacity Building. Building Trust in Diverse Teams: The Toolkit for Emergency Response. London: Oxfam, 2007. Ronalds, Paul. The Change Imperative: Creating the Next Generation NGO. New York: Kumarian Press, 2010. Rugendyke, Barbara. NGOs as Advocates for Development in a Globalising World. New York: Routledge, 2007. Susan Ariel Aaronson, Jamie Zimmerman. "Fair Trade?How Oxfam Presented a Systemic Approach to Poverty, Development, Human Rights, and Trade." Tulane/ University of Nottingham Seminar on Globalization (2013): 1-32. Trust, One World. "Oxfam International." OWT Charity NO.210180 (2007): 1-4. Read More