Oxfam Research Paper

Non-governmental development organizations are working to decrease and eradicate poverty throughout the world and to increase equitable treatment and well being throughout the global populace. This essay will examine two such Non-governmental development organizations and examine and contrast their values, behaviors and practices. Differences will be drawn between these Non-governmental development organizations, as well as highlighting similarities in view and achievement between both Non-governmental development organizations. Overall these differences and similarities will be highlighted in reference to their relationship to the global market and international civil society. Ultimately it will be demonstrated that, whilst Non-governmental development organizations work through different goals and processes, they are coming together in their effects to improve economic equilibrium, health and wellbeing for marginalized and impoverished countries and communities.

There are a number of Non-governmental development organization (NGOs) operating in the developed and developing countries with the goal of working in order to eradicate poverty at a global level. Among these NGOs two of the most recognised NGDOs are Oxfam Australia and Save the Children Australia (The Global Journal, 2012).

Oxfam is a unified international confederation of 17 organisations that works across approximately 90 countries worldwide.

The consistent aim of Oxfam is to find solutions to poverty and the poverty cycle and to work to decrease or eliminate what it considers to be injustice around the world. Each separate affiliated organization that makes up Oxfam works towards the same goals together internationally to achieve an optimum unified impact. The goal of Oxfam is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives. Oxfam achieves this by working directly with various communities and aiming to influence powerful individuals and organizations (Oxfam International,

2015).
The view of Oxfam is that poverty can eventually be eradicated and that it is preventable. Oxfam considers the causes of poverty to be injustice and inequality, and contends that these social imbalances can be improved upon and eventually eliminated. Oxfam acts to support the lives of impoverished people to empower them at the micro community level, with the ultimate belief that, over time, communities will be more balanced and individuals will not need to suffer from the injustices that surround poverty. With the aim of assisting people through long term solutions, Oxfam aims to eliminate injustice, empowering people to develop and maintain a prosperous future for themselves and the society they are a part of. Oxfam has a major goal bringing a positive change to the lives of poor people and it has 12 other key goals. These key goals form part of the Oxfam Strategic Plan 2009 -2014 (Oxfam, 2014).
Since 1942 Oxfam has continued to work towards the development of organizations to reduce poverty through a variety of means, goals, values and projects. The consistent vision throughout these outreach methods was that poverty and powerlessness can be avoided. Primarily Oxfam has worked to address the structural causes of poverty and factors surrounding injustice and work primarily through local organizations making them accountable for their practices, values and social and global impact (Hilhorst, 2003).
In pursuing their goal of eradicating injustice and poverty Oxfam's initial efforts were geared towards the provision of food, and over time expanded to include efforts to provide medicine to those with limited access who were in need. Oxfam has expanded their practices and beliefs to work at reducing access to guns and weapons in order to enable and increase peace throughout impoverished regions affected by conflict. In more recent times, Oxfam has also worked to improve international trade practices and processes where crafts and produce come from poorer regions of the world. Oxfam is constantly working so various products can be sold at a fair price in order to increase income and shift economies upwards in poorer regions.
Since 2000, Oxfam has functioned from a rights-based approach striving to ensure and protect what the organization considers to be essential and basic human rights. These rights are: the right to a sustainable livelihood, the right to basic social services, the right to life and security, the right to be heard, and the right to an identity injustice (Oxfam International Strategic Plan 2007–2012). Oxfam aims to help people directly when the existent local capacity is inadequate to ensure balanced access to what they consider to be reasonable human rights, or when methods to access such rights are considered inappropriate for Oxfam’s purposes. Additionally, Oxfam endeavors to assist in the development of structures which directly benefit people facing the realities of poverty (Chung, 2003).
The key goals of Oxfam are founded on the notion that equal rights can be achieved for all people in the world. Included in these goals are: the right to be listened to, the right to gender justice, the right to live a safe and protected life, the right to sustainable food, the right to reasonable sharing of natural resources, and the hope for achievable and accessible rights to financial assistance for development. The remaining goals of Oxfam are focused on global change which includes globally influencing a network of companies, organizations and powerful individuals. Oxfam also works to highlight and maintain accountability to ensure unjust practices cannot go unnoticed. Oxfam works to invest in people and marginalized communities themselves to assist with cost effectiveness and increase income, particularly in areas where it may be easy for people to work at what would be considered an 'unfair' income or in unfair conditions.
Save the Children is another merit able and highly regarded NGDO. Save the Children focus their work on issues surrounding children and childbirth. Their primary and original goal has been and continues to be to eradicate injustice surrounding infant deaths during and immediately after birth, and the prevention of death to mothers during and surrounding giving birth. Save the Children has retained an ongoing campaign which focuses on a specific goal that is ending unnecessary deaths to infants and mothers during childbirth as a political priority (Save the Children Fund Australia, 1990; Save the Children, 2015). Conversely, Oxfam has three main areas of focus: development work, in order to improve communities by helping to reduce poverty with enduring, sustainable solutions based on each community's needs; humanitarian work, to assist those affected by natural disasters and conflict; and political work, in order to influence policy decisions that could impact and ideally reduce conflict at local, national, and international levels (Oxfam International, 2014).
Some actions by the Save the Children organization have thus focused on providing children with equal access to health and education. Save the Children claims to be a secular child focused development organization. In saying so, Save the Children do not identify as part of any political party or religion. The ongoing focus is upon issues pertaining to children and the needs children have during their youngest and most vulnerable years (Save the Children, 2015). Conversely, (as discussed earlier) Oxfam is far broader in their scope in terms of aims as well as programs. Furthermore, Oxfam must pool funds achieved from several different programs they run, and disperse the funds across the various missions they try to achieve (Hillhorst, 2003).