At present Oxfam is participating in more than 1000 projects globally. This is made possible only through the donations made by the general public. The key question that is often asked is whether Oxfam is actually making a difference and the organisation takes that question very seriously. Oxfam is constantly examining whether its work is really transforming lives. Oxfam is continuously looking to learn and improve so that it can have the biggest possible impact.
Evaluation is critical
Evaluating and monitoring of the work it does is critical to Oxfam. It enables the agency to understand what is working and where it can make improvements. It allows Oxfam the ability to share its knowledge and make more effective plans. It also ensures that Oxfam is accountable to everyone that is a stake holder including the general public who makes its work possible. Above all else, the evaluation of the work it does allows Oxfam to maximise the number of people it is helping as it seeks to achieve genuine and long lasting change.
Constantly looking in the mirror
Every year, Oxfam undertakes and publishes several impact evaluations. What the agency learns from them shapes its future projects. There is no single method that has the ability to asses all of Oxfam’s work. For example, the way a humanitarian response is evaluated is quite different from the way Oxfam’s work with farmers is assessed. This means Oxfam uses a number of evaluation tools that are specific to certain situations.
Learning from experience
For example, in Uganda Oxfam recently measured how effective it was in setting up a project that is designed to empower women to run their own small business and increase their income. The agency undertook a survey and collected data. That information was used to measure how women who benefitted from the project were more empowered compared to women who did not participate in the project. The results clearly showed the women that Oxfam worked with were better able to contribute to household income because they had better access to business loans.
Work made possible by the general public
Much more work needs to be done in order to improve women’s power to participate in big decisions at home and their control over household goods. Oxfam has learned from that example so that in future projects it will seek to help women ensure they are also heard at home as well. This is just a single example of how Oxfam is constantly seeking to improve on the work it does. It also ensures the donations made by the general public.
