World hunger and famine

When disaster strikes, Oxfam works with a global network of local organizations to address urgent humanitarian needs and protect lives. We deliver food, clean water, cash, and information, working closely with local leaders who know how best to help people in need.

Since the outbreak of conflict in Gaza in 2023, Oxfam has worked with local partners to distribute food, water, and hygiene items. In early 2024, Oxfam began working with our partners to provide clean, desalinated water from wells in southern Gaza with solar-powered pumps, trucking water to areas hosting displaced people, and installing latrines. By working closely with our partners in Gaza, Oxfam has helped reached more than 1.2 million people with humanitarian assistance.

In many other areas of the world, it is apparent that the way we produce and distribute food is not meeting the needs of all people. That's why Oxfam is working with local communities across the world to build resilient and sustainable local food systems able to provide nourishing food for everyone to solve world hunger.

Building livelihoods

In order to stop world hunger, Oxfam and our partners help farmers learn new techniques, share their innovative ideas with each other, grow more food, and earn more money. And when sudden disasters (an earthquake or an upsurge of locusts), or slow-onset emergencies such as drought bring hunger and the threat of famine, we help people rebuild the ways they make a living so they can put food on the table.

For farmers, we provide seeds, tools, and other supplies to help them grow their own food, keep their livestock healthy, and become self-sufficient. In many emergencies, Oxfam provides cash so people can make their own food purchasing decisions, to ensure they can get what will help them best (and circulate money in the local economy).

Providing water, sanitation, and hygiene

Communities enduring emergencies and food shortages may also face a lack of clean water and the threat of disease. It’s hard to absorb nutrition from any available food if you have a stomach ailment. Oxfam and our partners help people with a source of clean water, soap so they can stay clean, and a proper toilet to avoid contaminating water supplies. In many of Oxfam’s ongoing programs, our partners work on promoting good hygiene and sanitation to help people stay healthy even when there is not an emergency.

Advocating with and for communities

Oxfam and our supporters advocate for peace and security solutions, push for adequate assistance for people affected by war and famine, and campaign for climate action given the climate crisis' effect on the world’s supply of food and the poorest communities.

Our research and advocacy advance sustainable development in ways that help reduce the risk of future food crises and disasters, helping communities become more resilient.

We also advocate for more assistance for rural women farmers, who account for nearly half the agricultural workforce in developing countries. Despite their crucial roles in producing food, they face discrimination and limited bargaining power, disadvantages in land rights, unpaid work, insecure employment, and exclusion from decision making and political representation.

Reducing the risk of disasters

To help communities become less vulnerable to emergencies and resulting food insecurity, Oxfam works with communities to anticipate and prepare for the next disaster. Local emergency management committees--supported by Oxfam and partners-- analyze risks, monitor rainfall and other data, create early warning systems and set up evacuation routes, organize shelters and safe areas, and establish emergency food banks. We also help communities set up emergency response funds they can disburse in advance of storms and floods to help people cover emergency evacuation, food, and medical expenses. This is part of Oxfam’s work to encourage innovation in local humanitarian leadership: As communities face more dire threats from climate change, and less support from international actors, local approaches to reducing risk and responding to disasters are more essential than ever.

Since 2022, Oxfam has channeled $3.3 million to four local humanitarian groups in El Salvador and Guatemala working in 48 communities, many of them in the chronically dry Corredor Seco. We have also directed $4.5 million to support disaster risk reduction work with emergency response funds by eight partners working in 87 communities in the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Indonesia. By early 2025, there were 135 participating communities in these six countries that now have locally led disaster risk reduction and early warning systems.

How you can help end world hunger

Find out what you can do to reduce hunger and the likelihood of famine in the world. Visit our Take Action page to host an Oxfam Hunger Banquet, add your name to a petition or contact your member of Congress to push for better policies, and join our E-Community.

You can also make a donation towards hunger relief: Your financial contribution can help fight hunger and famine, so we can defeat poverty and injustice.