They aim to give disadvantaged people improved access to social services, an effective voice in decisions, equal rights and status, and safety and security from conflict and disaster.
In 2020-2021 Oxfam Australia’s development and advocacy programs use 73% of donated funds, 19% is used for fundraising and promotion, and the remaining 8% for administration costs.
[5][6] In 2020-2021 the global Oxfam Confederation delivered life-saving aid, advocacy support and transformational development programs to 25.7 million people around the world.
[7] Oxfam Australia can be traced back to the work of Father Gerard Kennedy Tucker in the 1950s, who was concerned about poverty in Asia following the Second World War.
Oxfam Australia tsunami response saw it working in the following countries: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Somalia, Maldives and Myanmar.
Oxfam Australia works with a range of partners across the areas of land rights, climate justice, justice reinvestment and holds the biannual flagship political program Straight Talk, which brings Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to Canberra to meet politicians, learn about Australia’s political system, and leverage/wield/use those learnings to make change happen in their communities.
[11] Oxfam Australia has worked in the Pacific region since the 1960s, supporting projects in areas such as primary education, youth community theatre, independent media, human rights training and business skills for women.
Areas of work include: providing clean water, emergency relief, ensuring communities have sufficient food, conflict reconciliation, gender issues, preventing HIV and AIDS, and debt forgiveness.
In East Asia, Oxfam Australia currently works in seven countries, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.
[14] The vast majority of workers who make sports gear are young women who have migrated from rural to urban areas in their own country, to earn money to support themselves and their families.
Oxfam Australia also seeks to promote solutions by researching labour rights issues and making recommendations to major brands.
[15] Oxfam Australia’s campaign focuses on several of the largest sports brands (including adidas and Nike) who collectively, through their suppliers, employ hundreds of thousands of workers throughout Asia.
Major campaign issues include the need for sportswear companies to respect the right of workers to form and join unions (known as freedom of association) and the right to collective bargaining, ensure the payment of living wages, an end to workplace harassment and discrimination, and an end to unsafe or exploitative working conditions (often referred to as “sweatshops”).
Oxfam Australia called for an Australian Federal Police investigation in 2007 after uncovering reports of bribery and human rights abuses.
[18] Oxfam Australia believes that poor communities in developing countries will be the ones worst affected by climate change and the least able to adapt.
Over time, Oxfam Trailwalker became one of the largest fundraising sports events in Hong Kong and now also has massive success annually in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Belgium.
But their concern does not match the facts - patents are not the major barriers preventing access to vital medicines" and that the organization "may need to decide how serious they are about fixing this problem, and perhaps consider a reconciliation with private enterprise.