What we do

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.

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.

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.

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.

Other programmes include:

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

Where we work

where we work

Oxfam works in 85 countries. Together, we can provide long-term solutions for communities in need.

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

Where We Work

Bangladesh

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

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.

Vanuatu

In Vanuatu, Oxfam is training and supporting farmers to establish and grow small-scale market gardens and find new income opportunities.

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.

About us

How we work

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

Our history

The defining moments in Oxfam Aotearoa’s work.

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.

Our vision and goals

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

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 tropical cyclones, earthquakes and volcanoes, such as the earthquake in Turkey and the tsunami in Tonga. We also support those who have been displaced by conflict, such as we are seeing in Myanmar, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

HUMANITARIAN RESPONSES

Five humanitarian projects were implemented during 2022-23 including continued work on hygiene and gender protection with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, water and food security for people affected by Tonga’s volcanic eruption and tsunami, and new outreach to vulnerable people impacted by flooding in Timor-Leste, droughts and floods in East Africa and refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.

These projects reached a total of 317,607 girls, boys, women and men including elderly and people living with disabilities.

You can help

EARTHQUAKE IN SYRIA & TURKIYE

In February, a 7.8 earthquake struck southern and central Türkiye and northern and western Syria. It was felt as far as Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus, and the Black Sea coast of Türkiye. The earthquake left millions of people homeless, with over one million individuals living in overcrowded emergency shelters or tent cities. Among these affected populations, Syrian refugees, who have sought safety in Türkiye over the past 12 years, are particularly vulnerable. Through our organisation Oxfam KEDV (Foundation for the Support of Women’s Work), more than 24,000 people were reached with hygiene kits, dignity kits, and menstrual hygiene kits. There have been efforts to improve access to clean drinking water by building toilets and showers in areas with insufficient facilities. Additionally, food assistance has been provided through cooked meals and food kits.

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 1.1 million people with vital humanitarian assistance across Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Moldova.

In August 2023, 24.5 tonnes of equipment (pictured) was loaded onto trucks headed for Kyiv to support communities affected by the Kakhovka disaster-induced flooding after the collapse of the dam. The equipment included 44 water tanks of various sizes and types, as well as pumps, tap stands and pipe work, and will provide essential clean water to these communities.

EAST AFRICA

The Horn and East Africa (HECA) is facing one of its most serious episodes of drought in decades. Oxfam has categorised this regional crisis as a Category 1 emergency – the highest and most life-threatening category of crisis. 23 million people in the region face food insecurity and 44.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. Our work is concentrated in 4 countries: Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan, in each of which we have a long-established presence with country offices and strong local partner organisations. Oxfam is responding with cash and voucher assistance, construction of water infrastructure, and distribution of hygiene and dignity kits.

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

Better Taxes for a Better Future

The power to make our tax system better lies with our decision makers – but as voters, we have the power to influence them!

Climate Shift: Sign the petition

The climate crisis is escalating in severity. Communities across Aotearoa are now feeling the devastating consequences of inaction firsthand. Right now, we have the opportunity to shift to a more connected society, where people and nature thrive.

Commit to a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific

Pacific leaders have issued an historic call to action for a Just Transition to a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific. We need our Minister of Climate Change James Shaw to stand with the Pacific and join their call.

A woman sits in a dark room, looking beyond a pile of fabric

What She Makes

Women make up 80% of the garment industry and 9 out of 10 do not earn enough even to afford decent meals. A living wage is not a luxury but is a minimum all working people should be paid to escape poverty.

Why we campaign

If we use our collective power, we can make real the vision of a world without poverty, and shift the window of what’s politically possible.

Woman walks with bucket of water towards green forest

How We Have Created Change Together

Learn more about how we’ve created change together in recent years.

Our work

Together we can provide long-term solutions for communities in need.

At Oxfam Aotearoa, our work challenges the underlying causes of poverty and injustice through long-term development programs, advocacy work and emergency relief. Discover more about our programs below.

Our programmes

Emergency relief

Together, we can save lives and help communities rebuild.

Development programmes

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

Push for change

If we use our collective power, we can make real the vision of a world without poverty, and shift the window of what’s politically possible. Together, we are tackling injustice by changing minds, systems and lives.

Te Tāhuna Kōkohu Ethical Investment Programme

Te Tāhuna Kōkohu Ethical Investment Programme will help Oxfam Aotearoa build its financial resiliency and self-sufficiency. This fund will ensure that Oxfam can continue to support change where it matters most, as well as to lead by example, ensuring that this wealth supports ethical businesses and business practices.