Oxfam (Great Britain) founded in England in 1942 as a development, relief, and campaigning organisation dedicated to finding lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world. It was established at a time characterised as the darkest days of the Second World War and it offered help to the thousands who were starving in Nazi-occupied, Allied-blockaded Greece. It is now an international family or organisations. It works with poor communities, local partners, volunteers, and supporters. In the UK, it is a chain of High Street shops, a trader importing foods and crafts, a major voice in the debate about poverty, and above all a charity supported by 30,000 volunteers and 500,000 individual donors. Oxfam supports local organisations in 77 countries around the world.

Oxfam's first support to Bangladesh was in 1971 in the refugee camps. Since then it has been responding with emergency assistance at times of crisis, and funding local organisations that are seeking long-term solutions to poverty and powerlessness. Working through local organisations and community-based organisations, often in remote areas, Oxfam supports people in their struggle to become self-reliant and to overcome some of the obstacle that keep them in poverty. The main areas of development funded by Oxfam in Bangladesh are reducing vulnerability to disasters, making the best use of land, providing education and healthcare services, protecting legal rights, and strengthening community organisations. An important focus of Oxfam's work is its support to groups of landless people, especially women. With increase in the capacity of the major national non-government organisations in Bangladesh, Oxfam started extending support to small and emerging organisations, which often work on very localised scale.

Oxfam programme in Bangladesh focuses on (a) reaching poor marginalised people inhabiting the ganges and brahmaputra river basin and coastal areas and addressing their needs as communities vulnerable to floods and cyclones, integrating disaster preparedness into the long-term development programme; (b) giving voice to marginalised groups of people such as those with disability, the tribal people and sex-workers; (c) improving the status and material condition of women; (d) supporting advocacy initiatives of partner organisations to deal with issues of consumer rights and working conditions in the garment factories; (e) developing advocacy skills in the macro-economic issues; (f) ensuring regional co-operation in the areas of disaster preparedness, flood warning and arsenic poisoning mitigation initiatives; and (g) supporting through Oxfam Fair Trade (ECOTA Forum) its members on design training, health and safety issues, marketing and technical assistance.

Oxfam works to ensure that all its development and humanitarian programmes make a difference to women's lives. It is committed to developing positive action to promote the full participation and empowerment of women in existing and future programmes to ensure that Oxfam's programmes benefit men and women equally. Oxfam promotes independent access for women to key resources (eg, land, employment), services and facilities, recognises and helps women exercise their rights over their bodies and protection of violence.

Oxfam's programme in Bangladesh is managed by the Programme Representative who leads a core team of managers responsible for programme development and its implementation. He is a member of the Oxfam's South Asia Regional Management Team. The programme has a total of 27 staff. Funding to the Bangladesh programme is provided by the head office of Oxfam through its South Asia Regional Office located in Bangladesh. The programme raises funds from institutional donors such as DFID and ECHO for development and humanitarian programmes. CAA Oxfam Australia and Oxfam Hong Kong also provides funds to OXFAM Bangladesh.

Oxfam projects are concentrated in five areas: River Basin Programme (RBP), Coastal Programme, Disaster Preparedness Programme, Indigenous People and Capacity Building Programme and the Gender Programme. Members/beneficiaries of Oxfam programmes include 64 partners with 338,500 beneficiaries. These are 10 RBP partners with 125,000 direct beneficiaries, 5 coastal partners with 25,000 direct beneficiaries, 8 indigenous partners with 20,000 direct beneficiaries, one disability partner with 2,500 direct beneficiaries, one gender programme partner with 20,000 direct beneficiaries, 8 Education partners with 40,000 beneficiaries, 23 Disaster regular partners and 9 Rehabilitation partners with 106,000 beneficiaries. The budget of Oxfam operations in Bangladesh in 2000-2001 was A3735,134 and in 2001-02, A3598,111. The Budget figures exclude the emergency operation. [Shamsul Huda]