Oxfam
International humanitarian relief, anti-poverty advocacy, development programming, and inequality-focused civil-society action
of 100 · improving trend · Visibly decent and improving
Standing
79/100
Raw Score
67/85
Confidence
78%
Evidence
Strong
About
Oxfam is a globally influential humanitarian and anti-poverty confederation with a strong social-care mission and large-scale delivery record, but its integrity score is constrained by serious safeguarding failures exposed through the Haiti scandal and subsequent regulatory findings.
The observable record is mixed-positive. Oxfam shows sustained social-care alignment through humanitarian relief, anti-poverty programs, advocacy, partner work, and public accountability materials. The UK Charity Commission safeguarding findings materially lower integrity; later follow-up and integrity reporting support cautious improvement.
Five Pillars
Pillar scores (0–100%)
Strong mission and social-care evidence, substantial humanitarian reach, and visible post-scandal reform, offset by serious regulator-confirmed safeguarding governance failures.
Goodness over time
Starts at 100 at birth, natural decay after accountability age, timeline events adjust the trajectory.
17 Criteria Scores
Individual item scores (0–5) with evidence notes
Reliability
Regulator-confirmed safeguarding mismanagement materially weakens integrity despite later transparency and reform.
Personal Discipline
Institutional equivalent: visible moral discipline exists in policies and reports, but historic protection failures show uneven discipline under risk.
Mobilizes resources for humanitarian and anti-poverty work at global scale.
Core Worldview
Institutional equivalent: explicit moral worldview centered on justice, equality, human dignity, and accountable systems.
Durable belief that structural causes of poverty and injustice can be changed through accountable public action.
Secular NGO, but principles are translated into formal objectives, codes, and accountability language.
Institutional equivalent: highlights service, courage, rights defense, and protection of vulnerable people as normative examples.
Formal accountability language is strong, though reduced by past safeguarding failure.
Contribution to Others
Supports affiliates, partners, staff, volunteers, and participants through a confederation model.
Poverty relief, crisis response, water and sanitation, and inequality reduction are central and repeatedly evidenced.
Emergency and development programs respond to direct community needs, though access varies by context and funding.
Advocacy targets structural constraints including gender injustice, civic-space restrictions, climate harm, and poverty systems.
Child-adjacent protection work appears across humanitarian and gender programming; safeguarding history prevents a higher score.
Repeated service to displaced, crisis-affected, refugee, and cut-off communities.
Stability Under Pressure
Persisted through reputational crisis and maintained relief work while undertaking reforms.
Large funding base and reporting discipline are strengths, but deficits and donor-trust sensitivity create pressure.
Works in conflict, crisis, and restricted civic-space contexts with partners and rights defenders.
Timeline
Key events and documented turning points
Oxford Committee for Famine Relief founded
Founded in Britain to campaign for food relief for starving civilians in occupied Greece during the Second World War.
→ Established a durable humanitarian identity rooted in emergency relief and public advocacy.
highOxfam International formed as a confederation
Independent NGOs formed Stichting Oxfam International to combine efforts against poverty and injustice.
→ Expanded Oxfam into a coordinated international confederation.
highCharity Commission issues official warning after Haiti safeguarding failures
The UK Charity Commission concluded that Oxfam GB safeguarding governance and culture repeatedly fell below expected standards.
→ Oxfam was formally sanctioned and required to continue systemic safeguarding reform.
severeRegulator follow-up finds serious reform effort with remaining work
The Charity Commission reported that Oxfam GB committed to 100 actions and recommendations, with most fully completed or substantially advanced.
→ Provided credible evidence of corrective effort, though not a clean erasure of the earlier failure.
highOxfam reports broad reach and continuing integrity work
Oxfam reported work in 81 countries and continued investment in integrity and safeguarding systems.
→ Confirmed large global reach and continuing public accountability obligations.
highEvidence Quality
8
Strong
2
Medium
0
Weak
Overall: strong
Institutional profile based on public evidence; this assessment measures observable conduct and does not judge hidden intention.