Testing New Approaches to Ensure Effectiveness
Goal: $3 million
Oxfam strives to employ best practices in its development work. And to maximize our effectiveness, we are continually testing new approaches, creating innovative measures to evaluate their impact, and applying the lessons we learn.
For example, our campaign to help coffee growers get better prices for their beans revealed powerful ways to link regional work to high-level advocacy. We helped Ethiopian farmers to convince their government to export their coffee through cooperatives to the international market, from which small-scale growers had previously been excluded.
We also helped negotiate fair prices in international markets and an exemption from export taxes, and we worked with coffee roasters to increase demand. Between 2003 and 2006, Ethiopian co-op sales more than tripled—and the price cooperatives were able to get for coffee jumped from 45 cents per pound in 2002 to $1.60 in 2006.
In the coffee case, the impact was clear.
We need to find equally clear ways of measuring the impact of all the work we do. With help from The Campaign for Oxfam America, we will be testing new methodological approaches, strengthening our planning, and promoting learning across organizations.
