What we do

Solar-Powered Bubble Dryer

A Ray of Hope

Helping small farmers recover from floods with solar-powered innovation.

In Camarines Sur, rice farming is more than a livelihood – it’s a way of life. But in October 2024, Severe Tropical Storm Trami brought the worst flooding the region had seen in 30 years, leaving farms underwater and harvests destroyed.

Tatay Apol, a farmer in Barangay La Purisima, lost nearly three tons of palay to the floodwaters. Like many others, he faced months of uncertainty, relying on relief supplies while waiting for the land to recover. “We were caught unprepared,” he said. “But we had no choice – we tried again.”

With support from Oxfam Pilipinas and local partner Coastal CORE, smallholder farmers in Nabua and Bula are now rebuilding with tools designed for resilience. One of the most promising innovations is the Solar Bubble Dryer – a portable, solar-powered system that helps farmers dry rice grains even during rainy weather. More than 1,000 farmers have already benefited, and local governments are exploring ways to expand access.

Unlike traditional drying methods that leave grains exposed to moisture and pests, the Solar Bubble Dryer protects harvests and improves overall yield and income. Farmers have also received training to manage and maintain the equipment, ensuring it remains a shared resource for the whole community.

Alongside the dryers, farmers will receive rice and vegetable seeds and organic fertilizers to restart planting. These efforts are helping communities not just recover, but prepare for future challenges.

“This support is a big help to us struggling farmers,” said Tatay Apol. “Now we have a way to protect what we’ve worked so hard to grow.”

Development programmes

Oxfam’s programmes are designed to drive systemic change for communities across the Pacific and beyond.

Oxfam supports development programmes in Laos, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. In the 2023 fiscal year, these programmes reached at least 17,468 people.

Kōtui

The Kōtui programme is designed to drive systemic change for vulnerable and marginalised women facing climate breakdown and disasters. The projects included in the Kōtui programme aim to improve women’s access to resources and opportunities and make sure that the governance systems that affect them include women and their priorities.

Kōtui seeks two long-term outcomes: first governance systems affecting resilience are more inclusive, accountable and gender-responsive. Secondly, women have more equitable access
to resources and opportunities that matter to their resilience and wellbeing

Learn more here.

Essential Cash & Livelihoods Project

Lao PDR

This project focused on vulnerable communities, especially women, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Vientiane, Oudomxay, Xayaburi and Bokeo Province.

Fostering Lasting Opportunities in WaSH (FLOW)

Papua New Guinea

Our goal is to improve health, resilience, and quality of life for remote and vulnerable communities, particularly women and children, in rural Papua New Guinea.

Climate Finance and Empowerment Project

Solomon Islands

Women in Solomon Islands have little influence on the critical decisions that directly impact their lives because they are not often included in decision-making groups or processes.

Climate Finance Project

Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste accesses significant amounts of climate finance, yet women and other vulnerable groups in Timor-Leste have not yet been able to adequately access or benefit from climate finance.

Women and Land Project

Timor-Leste

This project will drive work on the distribution of land rights information at the community level, alongside broader women’s empowerment work.

Hamriik Project

Timor-Leste

This initiative aims to strengthen the climate change adaptation capacities of households and communities in rural Timor- Leste

Tuvalu Climate Finance Project

Tuvalu

The islands of Tuvalu are extremely low-lying and sea level rise is a direct threat to lives, assets, livelihoods and ecosystems. Oxfam is helping to make climate change adaptation and resilience policy settings more inclusive and equitable.

Other programmes include:

Rohingya refugee programming
Enhancing Youth Employment and Livelihoods Vanuatu (EYEL)
UnBlocked Cash Vanuatu

Where we work

where we work

At Oxfam Aotearoa, our work focuses on the Pacific countries of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Tuvalu, as well as Timor-Leste, Laos, and Bangladesh. Discover more about Oxfam’s programmes in these countries below.

About us

Bangladesh

Close to a million Rohingya people have fled violence in Myanmar to seek refuge across the border in Bangladesh.

Lao woman in front of damaged home post flash floods.

Laos

Beginning in June 2022, Oxfam Aotearoa has supported a programme in Lao PDR that focuses on vulnerable communities, especially women, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Vientiane Capital, Vientiane, Oudomxay, Xayaburi and Bokeo Provinces.

Papua New Guinea

Oxfam is working with our partner organisations to help communities achieve the right to live free from poverty, with a sustainable income and secure food supply.

A woman wearing a pink shirt works on shell money

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands faces significant challenges across the areas of climate resilience, gender equity and inclusive governance.

Timor-Leste

With your support, we’re helping farmers in rural Timor Leste gain financial and farming skills so they can earn a decent income.

Tonga

Oxfam works with local partners in Tonga to provide youth development opportunities and support farmers and producers.

Tuvalu

One of the smallest and most remote countries on Earth, Tuvalu is comprised of nine coral atolls in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and Australia.

About us

Oxfam is a worldwide development organisation that mobilises the power of people against injustice.

Oxfam Aotearoa has met all the standards and expectations of corporate governance, transparency, accountability, and good practice, as outlined in the Council for International Development’s Code.

Oxfam Aotearoa adheres to the Code of Conduct and professional standards of the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association.

About us

Our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi

In supporting self-determination of tangata whenua, we want a meaningful and committed relationship that better informs how we work together with partners and colleagues elsewhere in the world on their own mana motuhake journey.

A mother is hugged by her two young children

Who we are

Oxfam Aotearoa’s work is made possible by a network of people committed to Oxfam’s vision.

How we work

No one knows a communities’ needs better than the people who belong to it.

Our vision and goals

Oxfam is a global movement of millions of people who share the same vision.

Our history

The defining moments in Oxfam Aotearoa’s work.

Emergency relief

Together, we can save lives and help communities rebuild.

Each year more than 30 million people flee their homes or lose their livelihoods as a result of conflict and natural disasters. We believe everyone has a right to a warm, safe and secure home – and we know you feel the same.

Oxfam is one of the world’s leading providers of humanitarian aid in emergencies, with well-recognised expertise in clean water, sanitation, public health, food security, and the protection of civilians. We have a strong reputation for scale, speed, and innovation.

Oxfam responds directly wherever there is a widespread threat to life, health, and livelihoods. And we stay for the long-term to rebuild lives and reduce the risk of future disasters. With your help, we have launched rapid responses after natural disasters, such as recent cyclones in Vanuatu, widespread drought in East Africa, and the tsunami in Tonga. We also support those who have been displaced by conflict, such as we are seeing in Myanmar, Ukraine and Gaza.

HUMANITARIAN RESPONSES

Oxfam Aotearoa’s response in 2025 reflects a strong commitment to both emergency relief and long-term resilience. Oxfam supported four different humanitarian projects during 2024-25 including continued support for civilians in Gaza, families surviving floods and cyclones in Bangladesh and the Philippines, and disaster preparedness training in Tonga. In 2026, we responded to the escalation in Israeli military bombardment across Lebanon by providing hygiene kits, clean water, and warm bedding for people who have lost everything.

These projects reached a total of 204,726 girls, boys, women and men including elderly and people living with disabilities.

Lebanon

The escalation in Israeli military bombardment across Lebanon caused a massive humanitarian crisis across the region. Oxfam’s team in Lebanon responded and is still responding to this crisis. The team on the ground is providing hygiene kits, clean water, and warm bedding for people who have lost everything.

gaza

Most of Gaza’s civilian population has been displaced, multiple times, the healthcare, sanitation, and water systems are in ruins and tens of thousands of civilians have already been killed. Oxfam has mounted a humanitarian response despite unprecedented challenges, delivering cash, food, clean water and restoring sanitation infrastructure. In the first six months of the war, we have supported more than 250,000 people. Support our work in Gaza here.

UKRAINE

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Oxfam has been on the ground at the border, helping refugees who were fleeing violence. From March 2022 our partners in Ukraine have provided food, hygiene products, legal and psychosocial and cash assistance, organized safe transport and shelter, repaired damaged homes and restored livelihoods. Together we have supported more than 2 million people with vital humanitarian assistance across Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Moldova.

ROHYINGA REFUGEE CAMPS IN BANGLADESH

Oxfam’s work has been designed to improve conditions for Rohingya women refugees in Cox’s Bazar by strengthening their participation in community decision-making, and leadership in the camp coordination. Activities focus on mobilising women’s and men’s groups, established in Teknaf and Ukhiya camps in previous MFAT-funded programming, to design and implement their own community-based programming, with emphasis on public health promotion, care work, monitoring and tackling rumour and stigma, and supporting survivors of gender-based violence. Learn more about Bangladesh.

How you can help

Each year more than 30 million people flee their homes or lose their livelihoods as a result of conflict and natural disasters.

Emergency funds are crucial for Oxfam to act quickly whenever disasters occur around the world. With your help, we can launch a rapid response after tropical cyclones, earthquakes or human-made accidents.

Take action with us

Join our campaigns to be the change you want to see.

About us

Alaina from Tuvalu stands on a beach with X behind her

Stand With Our Pacific Neighbours – Fair Starts Here

The climate crisis is unfair. Pacific communities are facing rising seas, stronger storms and growing climate impacts despite contributing little to the pollution driving the crisis. As a Pacific nation, New Zealand has a responsibility to support our neighbours. By contributing our fair share of climate funding, we can make a difference. Fair starts here.

Cynthia Houniuhi, president of Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC) in front of the Uto ni Yalo boat docked at Nuku'alofa. Campaign Make Rich Polluters Pay for the damage they cause

Make Rich Polluters Pay

Climate change affects us all, but not equally. People living in low-income countries and communities are hit hardest by extreme climate disasters. They also have fewer means to recover, deepening inequality and poverty. Meanwhile, big fossil fuel corporations continue to pollute our climate without restraint. They make bumper profits, pay little tax and use their influence to rig the system in their favour.