The committee met in the Old Library of University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, for the first time in 1942, and its aim was to help starving citizens of occupied Greece, a famine caused by the Axis occupation of Greece and Allied naval blockades and to persuade the British government to allow food relief through the blockade.

The Make Trade Fair campaign organized by Oxfam International focuses on the elimination of trade practices, such as dumping, which occurs when highly subsidized, surplus commodities from developed countries such as rice, cotton, corn, and sugar are sold at low prices and farmers from poor countries have difficulty competing.

Much of their stock comes from public donations but as of 2012 they still sold fair trade products from developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America, including handcrafts, books, music CDs and instruments, clothing, toys, food, and ethnic creations.

These objects are brought to the public through fair trade to help boost the quality of life of their producers and surrounding communities.

A registered 501(c)3 organization, Oxfam America campaigns for climate change adaptation, food security, aid reform, access to medicines, and fair trade.

[50] Oxfam Denmark has its roots in the Danish department of World University Service and has been active since the 1966 (initially mainly against apartheid and similar situations in other southern African nations).

[74][better source needed] In October 2009, Oxfam was accused by pro-settler Israeli NGO Regavim of aiding Palestinians in illegal activities in Kiryat Arba, including water theft.

The project, Grow-Tatzmiach, included sending 25 people to an activist training programme to help fight global hunger.

[77] As of 2013, Oxfam endorsed the two-state solution and wants Israel to lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip and dismantle all of the Israeli settlement infrastructure.

[77] On 17 January 2014, Oxfam UK cancelled an exhibition, "Gaza: Through my Eyes", which had been due to take place at East London Mosque after Left Foot Forward presented information to the charity detailing homophobic and potentially anti-semitic comments by one of the organizers, Ibrahim Hewitt.

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was reported as welcoming the event's cancellation but expressed disappointment that the organization "did no proper checks on (Mr. Hewitt) before agreeing to his presence.

"[78] On 29 January 2014, actress Scarlett Johansson resigned as an international spokeswoman for Oxfam after appearing in a TV ad for SodaStream, a company with presence in the West Bank.

"[79] In February 2015, pro-settler Israeli NGO Regavim released a report stating that the European Union had illegally funded the construction of houses; Oxfam and other NGOs participated in the project.

In 2019, the Israeli intelligence services implicated Oxfam Belgium in funding the PFLP, which carried out a bomb attack the same year and killed the Jewish teenager Rina Sneirb.

[80] In March 2020, the ambassador of Israel in the United Kingdom, Mark Regev, protested that antisemitic books, notably the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, were being sold on Oxfam's website.

[81] In October 2020, NBC News reported that Oxfam was on the list of human rights organizations the Trump administration was considering branding as antisemitic.

In a 2011 Columbia Journalism Review article, journalist Karen Rothmyer accused NGOs in general and Oxfam in particular of being unduly influenced by the priorities of the media, of providing inaccurate information to the press ("stories featuring aid projects often rely on dubious numbers provided by the organisations") and of perpetuating negative stereotypes which "have the potential to influence policy".

[86] In 2015, Omaar and de Waal, in Food and Power in Sudan, commented, "the 1990s have seen growing pressure for humanitarian institutions to become more accountable.

Journalist Noah Smith observed that the report depended on incorrectly cited numbers, allegedly from the World Bank, claiming that 198 million people would become poor in 2022.

[92][93] In February 2018 an investigation by The Times newspaper found that Oxfam allowed three men to resign and sacked four for gross misconduct after an inquiry concerning sexual exploitation, the downloading of pornography, bullying and intimidation.

A 2011 confidential report by Oxfam had found "a culture of impunity" among some staff in Haiti and concluded that "it cannot be ruled out that any of the prostitutes were under-aged".

[94] In the internal report, Van Hauwermeiren admitted using prostitutes at a villa whose rent was paid for by Oxfam with charitable funds.

Oxfam's chief executive at the time, Dame Barbara Stocking, offered Hauwermeiren "a phased and dignified exit" because sacking him risked "potentially serious implications" for the charity's work and reputation.

[95] Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, said Oxfam had failed in its "moral leadership" over the "scandal".

[98] The incident led the International Development Committee of the UK Parliament to issue a report about sexual harassment and abuse in the humanitarian sector on 31 July 2018.

[101][102] Oxfam's deputy chief executive Penny Lawrence resigned, taking full responsibility and acknowledging that "(c)oncerns were raised about the behaviour of staff in Chad as well as Haiti that we failed to adequately act upon".

[35] In June 2021, The Telegraph reported that leaked staff training documents claimed that "privileged white women" and "mainstream feminism" were supporting the root causes of sexual violence by wanting "bad men" fired or imprisoned, and adding that reporting sexual assault "legitimises criminal punishment, harming black and other marginalised people.

[109] The video was soon taken down and replaced with a revised version, replacing the three figures with a montage of social media images and the term "TERF",[112] and an apology stating that "Oxfam believes that all people should be able to make decisions which affect their lives, enjoy their rights and live a life free of discrimination and violence, including people from LGBTQIA+ communities.

"[112][113][114] In December 2023, the trade union Unite announced that hundreds of UK-based employees in Oxfam's shops and offices would undertake 17 days of strikes over low pay.

This was the first strike in the organisation's 81-year history, and was arranged in response to double-digit real-term declines in wages for UK-based staff that, it claimed, left some of the lowest paid employees unable to cover the cost of basic necessities.