Oxfam Australia—blockade to blockchain

In July 2018, I joined a small team of humanitarians working to deliver cash-based assistance to displaced peoples in the Pacific by way of blockchain technology. This six-person contingent operates within an experimental unit of Oxfam Australia (OAU) called the Oxlabs. To understand why this unique entity was established and the potential impact of its objectives, it is vital to appreciate its context—structurally and historically.

This awareness begins with OAU, which belongs to an international confederation comprising 20 organisations working in more than 90 countries. In addition to Australia, these affiliates are based in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Quebec, South Africa, Spain and the United States.

Each of these affiliates is united by Oxfam International—a foundation registered in The Hague by a group of independent non-governmental organisations (NGOs) seeking to increase the impact of their mission to reduce poverty and injustice.^[1]

While Oxfam today is a truly global enterprise, its origins are British, and like so many of today's humanitarian empires, rooted in the injustices of war.

Origins: 1940–50s #

In 1942, war was raging in Europe as the continent’s most lethal famine gripped Axis-occupied Greece. Issues of food security had already been observed during the summer one year earlier, but by the winter of 1941–1942, starvation and related diseases were claiming the lives of thousands.^[2] At its height towards the end of January 1942, the famine in Athens and Piraeus was reported to have claimed over 2,000 lives per day.^[3] A few months earlier, a delegate for the International Red Cross based in Athens sent word to headquarters in Geneva that read: "Food situation in Greece extremely grave. Mortality increased sixfold in the last two months. Catastrophe inevitable unless outside help arrives quickly".^[3:1]

However, Winston Churchill had vowed "… to maintain and enforce a strict blockade not only of Germany, but of Italy, France and all other countries that have fallen into the German power".^[3:2] And since this blockade extended to humanitarian relief, the 'outside help' requested by the delegate could not be rendered, and an already dire situation was exacerbated.

Meanwhile, Edith Pye, an English Quaker in her late sixties, was working in defiance of the Allied blockade. Pye was devoted "… to dispelling British indifference towards hungry women and children in occupied countries"^[3:3]—a campaign that would evolve to become the Famine Relief Committee. On 20 July 1942, Pye took her campaign to Oxford, where a small group invited by the Rev. T.R. Milford became concerned by the matters she presented. When Milford's group reconvened on 5 October in the Old Library of St. Mary-the-Virgin, they constituted themselves as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief.^[3:4]

Eleven years later, antipodal to Oxford in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, Gerard Kennedy Tucker, an Anglican priest who had worked with victims of the depression in Melbourne, founded the Food for Peace Campaign. Tucker's group initially sent weekly donations to a small health project in India before establishing larger community-based campaigns across Australia. Meanwhile, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) launched its Freedom from Hunger campaign, which in 1961, inspired a community-based campaign in Australia with the same mission to increase the global awareness of poverty around the world. A year later, the Food for Peace Campaign became Community Aid Abroad (CAA) to reflect its evolving mission to assist communities more broadly than just providing food to maintain peace. All the while Oxfam in the UK was becoming the primary vehicle by which the British directed support to the FAO’s crusade.^[3:5]

The symmetry of Oxfam Great Britain (OGB) and CAA extended well beyond the support of Freedom from Hunger. They shared a vision of a just world without poverty, where all are treated equally and bare the rights of 'full citizens' with the ability to influence decisions that affect their lives.^[4] OGB and CAA's business strategies also bare similarities.

Early years in Australia: 1960–80s #

Just as OGB had done in 1948, CAA established a retail entity in 1965 called Trade Action to sell goods handcrafted by project partners—the profits of which were used to subsidise CAA's administration costs. Trade Action would eventually become Oxfam Australia Trading, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Oxfam Australia. It’s reported to have generated an income of AUD 12.3 million in 2017.^[5]

As Trade Action expanded to 22 stores across the nation, before being sold in 1978, CAA was also growing. "By 1970, CAA had 150 groups in four states and a small overseas budget of about $300,000".^[6] While its early growth is remarkable, CCA is unique for entirely different reasons.

In her book 'Practical Visionaries: A Study of Community Aid Abroad', Susan Blackburn observes that unlike many NGOs at the time, CAA had implemented its field activities in partnership with local NGOs from the very start. "This was possible because it began its activities in India, where Indigenous-development NGOs, outgrowths of the Gandhian movement, emerged much earlier than in any other developing country".^[6:1] Blackburn suggests that because CAA was sensitive to the colonial legacy of India, it was at first relatively uncritical of poor performance. However, its Indian experience served to develop a self-conscious far in advance of many Northern NGOs of the time, particularly regarding the tradeoff between strong grassroots ties and monitoring for effectiveness. Over time, this awareness enabled CAA to take advantage of an ever-larger pool of partners while facing increasing pressure to consider financial performance in tandem with its founding ideologies.^[6:2]

"By the early 1980s, CAA was building on its experience to focus self-consciously on the national impact of its NGO partnerships",^[6:3] while Oxfam was beginning to hone its ability to take up issues of special concern, as opposed to popular concerns of the past.^[3:6]

Globalisation: 1990–2010s #

The 1990s ushered in a new era, as two-thirds of CAA's supporters had by this time either lived in or visited the Global South. This is in stark contrast to the decades previous where development education had been a growing area of focus.^[6:4]

In 1992, the Australian Freedom from Hunger Campaign and CAA merged to become one of Australia’s largest international development organisations—three years later CAA became a founding member of Oxfam International. In 2001, CAA prepended Oxfam to its name, reflecting the affiliation before becoming simply Oxfam Australia in 2005.

During this era, Oxfam crystalised its brand and grew its value. In 2007, The Guardian reported that Oxfam was the UK's third most valuable charity brand behind Cancer Research UK—in first place—and The National Trust—in second. At that time, Oxfam's income had been increasing "… by an average of 8% a year to over £250m", and its brand value had grown 4% in the previous year to be valued at GBP 172m.^[7]

In 2012, its total income was reported as GBP 318m according to data from Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), ahead of The British Red Cross Society but behind The Save The Children Fund.^[8] Pérez-Peña of The Guardian reports that today Oxfam spends more than $550 million annually, employs 5,000 staff and maintains 27,000 volunteers.^[9] Meanwhile, in Australia during the 2016–2017 financial year, OAU reported a total income of AUD 90.9m, 50.3m of which came from public donations, 27.7m from grants and 12.3m from Oxfam Shop sales.^[5:1]

Today, Oxfam still stands apart from many aid agencies as it has become a secular, independent, non-government, not-for-profit organisation working in over 90 countries around the world. The members of the confederation cooperate on development projects and disaster relief while also sharing educational and campaigning resources. Oxfam Australia claims its theory of change is guided by a central belief in active citizenship and accountability, building upon its rights-based approach to development. It is in light of these high ideals that the news of 9 February 2018 must be scrutinised.

Oxfam was accused of concealing an investigation into allegations of orgies held between its employees and hired sex workers in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.^[10] The accusations were made by The Times of London, which also reported that Oxfam failed to warn subsequent employers of the sexual misconduct of some of those involved.^[11]

Two days later, the international development secretary of the United Kingdom, Penny Mordaunt, threatened to cut Oxfam's government funding unless the charity surrenders all information on the accused. Meanwhile, further allegations emerged of employees soliciting sex workers in Chad during operations in 2006.^[10:1]

The following day Oxfam's deputy chief executive, Penny Lawrence, who had been the program director at the time, resigned from the organisation.^[9:1] Soon after, it was revealed that one of the accused, Roland van Hauwermeiren, had been forced out of a previous charity agency after similar investigations.^[10:2]

On February 21, Elgot & McVeigh of The Guardian reported that Oxfam had lost 7,000 regular donors since the beginning of the month.^[12] Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary at the Department for International Development, indicated that this issue threatened the UK Government’s legal responsibility to spend 0.7% of its gross national income on foreign aid. He went on to say, "The reputation of the sector, the reputation of aid, the reputation of the 0.7% commitment, all of those I think have been pulled into the mix".^[13]

After a two-month suspension of OGBs Haitian operations beginning in February, the Haitian Government announced on June 14 that it was withdrawing Oxfam GB’s right to operate in the country "for violation of Haitian law and serious violation of the principle of the dignity of the human beings".^[10:3]

Working Towards Tomorrow #

The head of Oxfam International, Winnie Byanyima, warns that what happened in Haiti "is a stain on Oxfam that will shame us for years".^[10:4] Yet, the British Government relies heavily on Oxfam to carry out humanitarian and economic development projects around the world.^[9:2]

Oxfam remains relevant, despite the inexcusable actions of its staff over the years. These actions and the mismanagement of the response are reminders of the invaluable nature of transparency within the sector.

This is especially true in an environment where donor spending has been stagnant since the 1970s at roughly 0.33 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI).^[14] During the 2016–2017 financial year, OAU reported a consolidated operating deficit of AUD 4.7m, putting additional strain on the organisation to operate leaner. Currently, 67% of Oxfam's income is spent on Programs, 22% goes to Fundraising and Promotion, and 11% is allocated to Administration.^[5:2] Chief Financial Officer Anthony Alexander and Co-Chair of the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee Ann Byrne write that:

"Our overall future financial outlook is strong. However, we need to ensure we continue to focus on building an efficient, effective and resilient organisation into the future".^[5:3]

Enter Skunkworks. During a short program spanning three months from September to December in 2017, a seven-person team identified as Skunkworks was established in an offsite startup incubator called Venture-Store to pursue two grand objectives.

The primary objective was to evaluate whether cross-functional, client-focused teams practising innovation methodologies can improve the efficacy of private sector partnerships to increase the impact of Oxfam's work to tackle poverty. The secondary objective was to generate and test ideas that create value for OAU and private sector partners.

When Skunkworks was dissolved, the ideas it generated became a series of similarly sized teams working in the same cross-functional fashion. These became known as Oxlabs. The Blockchain Oxlab is perhaps the most reactive to the current environment within the confederation as its project is committed to evaluating whether Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) can reduce the cost and transaction time of Cash Transfer Programming (CTP) while improving transparency and overall user experience. The team is working in partnership with Oxfam in Vanuatu to deliver two pilot programs to generate data to help answer this question.

If successful, this team could put the confederation on a path to become leaders in DLT-based CTP among other related applications. If this transpires, Oxfam will be on a path to greater transparency and efficiency at a time where these qualities have become more important than ever.

References #

• Next: We Of_Substance
• Previous: Core houses