Learning Our Way Forward: The Story of Oxfam’s Transformation

Oxfam began as a humanitarian organization. Its purpose was simple — to save lives and respond to human suffering in times of conflict and disaster. That was where the story started.

Over time, Oxfam began to see that suffering from conflict, hunger, and disaster was not random. It was connected to poverty — and poverty had deeper causes. Oxfam’s work expanded. The development mandate was added to the humanitarian one, recognising that relief alone could not end the conditions that made people vulnerable in the first place.

As the work deepened, Oxfam learned that poverty itself was rooted in injustice and inequality — problems built into social, political, and economic systems. These systems could not be changed through charity or service delivery alone. They had to be challenged. And because these systems were global, the response had to be global too. Yet again, Oxfam’s role grew — adding policy advocacy and campaigning at national, regional, and international levels.

As we engaged with communities, partners and other actors, we further understood that, most often, injustice and inequality have a woman’s face. Across many contexts, women carry the heaviest burdens of poverty, exclusion, and violence. Driven by this, Oxfam placed gender justice central to everything it did — adopting feminist principles and approaches as a stand-alone priority and as something to be integrated across all areas of work.

Throughout its evolution, Oxfam combined an analysis and understanding of external conditions with internal scrutiny. It recognised that as an international NGO (INGO), its own structures and ways of working were shaped by unequal power relations — patterns that reflected colonial histories and hierarchies. Country offices had often been treated as implementers of strategies decided elsewhere, rather than as equal actors and leaders in shaping the organization’s direction. This understanding marked the beginning of another major shift — the ongoing journey to redistribute power across the global confederation of Oxfam.

This reflection has pushed Oxfam to confront a wider truth: in a world of rising inequality, climate crisis, shrinking civic space, and declining development finance, INGOs must evolve to remain relevant. For Oxfam, this is not simply about improving internal systems. It is, first and foremost, about reimagining our role and purpose, ensuring that our structures, leadership, and ways of working genuinely support the social justice mission we claim. It requires us to walk the talk, addressing internal imbalances in decision-making, representation, and resources as part of the same transformation we seek externally.

That process continues today. It is not quick or simple, but it is part of the same long learning journey that has always defined Oxfam — a journey of seeing the world more clearly and acting with greater honesty and courage.

Looking back helps us understand where we are now. Decolonisation and feminism are not new layers added on top of Oxfam’s history; they are the next steps in the same story. They grow from the same insight that has always guided Oxfam: that to end poverty and injustice, we must constantly question the systems — including ourselves — and keep reshaping how we work.

As we look ahead, Oxfam is increasingly recognising that the extent and depth of transformation that we want cannot be partial nor superficial. It requires shifting power, making space for movements and partners to lead, and ensuring that our internal culture reflects the justice we advocate externally. This means becoming lighter, more flexible, and more rooted in shared leadership — a confederation grounded in networked solidarity rather than hierarchy. It means investing in and enabling local leadership, redistributing resources, and reducing the organizational weight that can slow down impact and dilute political courage.

Oxfam’s evolution has always been about learning and acting differently. Each chapter came from seeing a deeper truth about the causes of suffering and daring to change.  That is what brought Oxfam to where it is now, and it will shape what Oxfam becomes next.

The journey continues, and the invitation is clear: to be bold, to shift power with intention, and to build an Oxfam that strengthens movements, amplifies collective voice, and places justice at the centre of everything we do.