MEB Oxfam Lobbying Report June 2011x - ESCP Europe

Lobbying in the EU: Oxfam 

Emma Bentley, Aniket Bhatt, Rita Brand, 

Veronica Mirto, Nick Retzman 

Group Three 

ESCP Europe 

79, avenue de la République 

Paris, France 

Oxfam International actively campaign and lobby in the EU on a number of 

issues ranging from climate change to eliminating poverty and from 

humanitarian assistance in conflict zones to trade and agriculture. 

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MEB: Group 3 

Emma Bentley, Aniket Bhatt, Rita Brand, Veronica Mirto, Nick Retzman 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Oxfam: An Overview .................................................................................................................................... 3 

Origin, Structure, Purpose and Sphere of Involvement ................................................................................... 3 

Oxfam in Brussels........................................................................................................................................... 3 

Mission .......................................................................................................................................................... 4 

Oxfam: Lobbying .......................................................................................................................................... 5 

Lobbying Activities ......................................................................................................................................... 5 

Current Campaigns ........................................................................................................................................ 6 

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 7 

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OXFAM: AN OVERVIEW 

OXFAM –ORIGIN, STRUCTURE, PURPOSE AND SPHERE OF INVOLVEMENT 

Oxfam International, hereby known as “Oxfam”, was created by non-governmental organisations in 1995, aiming at 

reducing poverty and injustice on an international level. The name derives from the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, 

which was founded in the UK in 1942 and which campaigned for food supplies for starving women and children in 

occupied Greece during the Second World War. 

The Oxfam International Secretariat is based in Oxford, UK and runs advocacy offices in Brussels, Geneva, New York, 

Washington DC and Brasilia. There are currently 15 member organisations of the Oxfam International confederation based 

in the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, India, Mexico, 

The Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United States. 

In addition to emergency relief, Oxfam also works on many long-term development programmes and is involved in 

campaigns for fair trade regulations, improved health and education, and the fight against the climate change amongst 

many more. Through the collaboration with more than 3,000 local partner organisations, Oxfam does so using the 

following activities: 

• Development: Works with other organisations and communities, both internationally and locally, in developing 

programs to eradicate poverty and other important problems across the globe. 

• Emergencies: In times of natural disasters or conflicts, Oxfam helps on the ground by providing those affected 

with basic necessities, medicines, food etc. 

• Campaigning: Launches campaigns to the general public to increase their knowledge and awareness of current 

pressing issues and to encourage them to take part in Oxfam’s activities. 

• Advocacy: Trying to change certain rules and regulations which will help eradicate poverty, injustice by lobbying 

or putting pressure on decision makers. 

• Policy research: Due to Oxfam’s extensive global experience and presence, they can analyse and develop policies 

and then attempt to persuade the decision makers, for example, those in Brussels, to implement these policies. 

OXFAM IN BRUSSELS 

From the dedicated Oxfam Campaign and Advocacy Office located on Rue de la Science in the administrative heart of 

Brussels, Oxfam seek to influence EU policy in the areas in which Oxfam are active. The Brussels office ensures that EU 

officials, European politicians, as well as the media, have all the latest Oxfam analysis and policy proposals. They 

constantly look to increase the influence they can exert over policy-makers by maintaining positive working relationships 

firstly with influential figures in the EU, as well as with other like-minded lobbying groups and NGOs also based in Brussels. 

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MISSION 

Oxfam believes every human being should have the following five basic human rights. These are listed below. 

• Livelihood: Oxfam condemn all exploitative trade policies, and in turn advocate an improvement in working 

conditions, especially for women. 

• Basic Services: Oxfam actively campaign for provision of health services and education for all. They use fundraising 

campaigns to generate more aid and they look for new methods of spending this aid in more effective 

manners. They also educate and provide training for local people about clean water and basic health services. 

• Be safe from harm: In dangerous emergency situations, Oxfam provide people with all the basic amenities as well 

as helping to rebuild the community so that the inhabitants live in safety and security. 

• Be heard: There are two elements to this category – individual and political. The first element is to represent 

those people whose voices are not heard and in these cases, Oxfam will help ensure their voice is loud enough to 

be heard. The second element is that Oxfam will put pressure on influential figures to make sure that they are 

listening and acting upon what they have heard. 

• Be treated as equal: Oxfam also campaign against any sort of discrimination on grounds of religion, disabilities 

etc and help people attain all essential services, jobs. 

It is with these firmly in the forefront of the mind that Oxfam operates and develops all of its policies, both for the EU and 

internationally. This can be demonstrated by looking at the more concrete campaigns and lobbying activities that Oxfam 

have been tirelessly engaging in. 

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LOBBYING 

LOBBYING ACTIVITIES 

Oxfam´s efforts to put pressure on decision makers focus on methods such as campaigns, advocacy, and the provision of 

policy analysis and proposals. The Brussels office directs Oxfam´s involvement and influence on European Union policies. 

“Campaigning is the process of mobilizing people to join together to take action to challenge the powerful to make 

decisions to help benefit, not harm the powerless” 1 

This is central to Oxfam’s principles and so it comes as no surprise that Oxfam is very active launching and promoting new 

campaigns. It believes it is the best way to put decision makers under as much pressure as possible, in order to lead them 

to listen and take measures to solve the problems or issues that they are proposing or advocating. As you can see, this has 

two strands: firstly, appealing to the general public to increase their awareness of the issues and to ask for their support 

and the second to appeal to the EU decision makers and policy developers and this often takes place behind closed doors. 

Oxfam actively lobby EU officials and decision-makers on a regular basis whilst also maintaining good working 

relationships with leading representatives. Oxfam representatives are present at and participate in conferences as well as 

consultation and policy meetings. The Head of the EU Advocacy Office has a very public role, often giving media 

interviews, speeches and writing articles and papers on the whole range of issues that Oxfam campaign on. 

Many Oxfam employees keep a public blog http://blogs.oxfam.org/, but in particular, we would like to draw your 

attention to the Oxfam EU blog http://oxfameu.blogactiv.eu/ and to the very recent development that on the 31 st May 

2011, the Brussels office started their own Twitter account http://twitter.com/#!/OxfamEU to keep the public as up to 

date as possible about their activities. 

Oxfam take pride in their good reputation and what we found very heartening was that Oxfam are partners in the climate 

category of a naming-and-shaming ‘competition’ for the worst lobbyists in the EU. The purpose of such a ‘competition’ is 

to discourage lobby groups from engaging in dirty tactics and under-handed activities by exposing them publically. For 

example, the ‘loser’ of the 2010 ‘competition’ was npower, the subsidiary of the German energy giant RWE, because 

although they were supposedly advocating environmentally friendly policies, they were in fact also lobbying to keep their 

highly-polluting oil and coal powered stations in use. 2 

1 What is Campaigning?, from http://youth.tearfund.org/students/campaign/what+is+campaigning.htm 

2 http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2010-12-02/worst-eu-lobbyists-2010-revealed-rwe-goldman-sachs- 

isda accessed 10 June 2011 

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CURRENT CAMPAIGNS 

The biggest campaign at the moment is one which Oxfam have very recently launched called “GROW” which is a global 

movement to provide food to everyone by tackling the related issues of climate change, rising oil prices and unfair trade, 

and the campaign has received the support and endorsement of many high-profile figures, such as Archbishop Emeritus 

Tutu and the former Brazilian President Lula. The Head of the Oxfam International EU Office, Elise Ford, believes that the 

EU can make a difference on this issue and she is campaigning strongly for the EU to get more involved: "the potent 

combination of power, policies and financial punch gives the European Union the potential to shape the global food 

security debate.” 3 

This is a very ambitious campaign centred around the following three prongs: 

Growing better: investing in a new future for agriculture, giving to the smaller producers the resources to grow enough 

for themselves and the others. Sharing better: transforming how is now managed the food chain between farmers and 

consumers so as to ensure that people are not exploit, everyone can eat and benefits are fairly distributed. Living better: 

rethinking human notion of prosperity and developing better ways to run businesses, respecting world natural resources, 

deal with climate change ensuring next generations a better future. 

To generate more buzz for the GROW campaign, Oxfam have raised a blog, “From Poverty to Power” 4 , written by Duncan 

Green, Head of Research for Oxfam UK, that aims to follow success, effectiveness, real changes achieved from this new 4 

year Oxfam mega-campaign, providing papers, case studies, such as any evidence that common people are willing to 

witness. 

Other campaigns that Oxfam are involved in include: 

Oxfam is trying to generate support for the aptly named “Robin Hood Tax” by asking members of the public to write 

letters to G20 and European Union leaders. Oxfam will then use this pressure from the public to add weight to their 

lobbying of the that the proposal should be implemented. This tax is for financial transactions made by bankers and the 

money generated can be used for eradicating poverty by providing education to all, fight climate change. This tax is 

expected to generate 200-500 billion dollars globally. This campaign is going on in Canada, Australia, France, and 

Germany. 

Concerning the provision of medical services in developing countries, Oxfam has recently submitted a report concerning 

Medicine Regulations in which it said that poor quality medicines are causing problems for patients in developing 

countries. They said that rich countries wants more intellectual property protection that health regulations and this will 

not solve the problem but might make generic medicines unaffordable for the people. It is campaigning that health 

regulations should be made a priority and rich countries should provide the technical and financial support for this. 

3 http://www.cafonline.org/Default.aspx?page=20174 accessed on 6 June 2011 

4 From Poverty to Power http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=5591 

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BIBLIOGRAPHY 

http://www.oxfam.org/en/about/why 

http://www.oxfam.org/en/about/what 

http://www.oxfam.org/en/policy/eye-ball 

http://www.oxfam.org/en/policy/giving-developing-countries-best-shot-vaccine-access 

http://www.oxfam.org/en/getinvolved/jobs/head-office-eu-advocacy-110317 

http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/reports/growing-better-future 

http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/policy/averting-tomorrows-global-food-crisis 

http://oxfameu.blogactiv.eu/ 

http://oxfameu.blogactiv.eu/grow-campaign/ 

http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=5591 

http://www.worstlobby.eu/2010/about 

http://www.cafonline.org/Default.aspx?page=20174 

http://euobserver.com/9/32412 

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MEB Oxfam Lobbying Report June 2011x - ESCP Europe

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