Evaluations

Oxfam's Women’s Rights and Accountabily Initiative

Advancing gender justice in natural resource governance

Together Against Poverty Phase II Project Learning Review - Advocacy in Action: Stories of Change and Learnings for the Future

Oxfam, through the four-year, multi-country program Together Against Poverty Project -Phase II (TAP2), has implemented impactful interventions contributing to strategic policy and practice outcomes in agriculture, aid effectiveness, and gender equality.

Throughout the project, Oxfam has undertaken continuous learning and adaptation to ensure that our different advocacy and program tactics and strategies, which include research, policy development, direct advocacy, alliance building, and public communications, are the most effective for achieving desired outcomes.

To this end, we present seven stories of ‘Signs of Change’ that highlight how Oxfam’s work has contributed to change, the different strategies utilized to effectively make change happen, and general reflections and learning for our future work. These stories come from across the project’s geographies and cover work related to food systems, aid quantity and quality, and gender justice from the start of the grant in July 2021.

This Learning Report serves as a concise but powerful resource for internal learning and external impact showcasing concrete examples of policy and program successes across multiple contexts.

The Gaza Scorecard: Israel Fails to Comply with U.S. Humanitarian Access Demands in Gaza

Locally Led Emergency Response Fund (LL-ERF) Project: Experiences from Bangladesh, Puerto Rico, and Uganda

This report contains learning from a pilot implementation of the Locally Led Emergency Response Fund (LL-ERF) Project in three countries. The LL-ERF is a funding innovation that provides flexible, quick humanitarian funding to local actors in order to save lives during emergencies, advocate for the rights of people affected, and advance the shifting of power to local actors in the humanitarian sector. In the pilot, the LL-ERF was designed and managed by a consortium of local actors in each of the three pilot sites. Feedback from communities showed that this funding facility helped reduce suffering caused by low-attention disasters. This learning report identifies good practices and challenges and documents the experience of local actors in managing funds and designing response options.

The learning in this report presents opportunities to explore how best to increase and direct funding to local actors. At the same time, it identifies barriers encountered during the LL-ERF Project that stakeholders in this sector must continue to overcome together.

Assessing the Implementation of Climate Targets: Behind the Brands agribusiness companies

In Oxfam’s most recent Moving the Middle assessment, published in 2023, climate performance was not assessed, because the existing climate framework did not reflect the increasing urgency of the climate crisis. It also did not account for recent reporting and disclosure developments relevant to the agricultural sector, including updates from the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) and the United Nations High Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non State Entities (HLEG).

This report provides the outcomes of a new and updated climate assessment of the seven major agribusinesses. The assessment applies a new, comprehensive and ambitious climate framework which evaluates the strength of companies’ climate commitments as well as the extent to which they report on progress. This includes how companies are implementing their commitments, including evidence of internal changes; budgeting for planned climate actions; reporting on progress against identified targets; and monitoring impacts, particularly in relation to suppliers and small-scale farmers.

While the assessment outcomes vary considerably across indicators, companies performed poorly across the board, suggesting that action remains far below what is necessary to sustain a sustainable and just global food system.

The outcomes of the assessment highlight the urgent need for improved climate action in the agribusiness sector. Companies should not only increase the ambition and scope of their climate commitments, but also work to ensure they are implemented throughout their direct and indirect supply chains. They should make the development of their emission reduction strategies participatory and inclusive, and support sourcing models which strengthen small-scale producers’ ability to implement low carbon, resilient and regenerative agriculture practices. They should recognize the unique role of women in the agricultural transition, and actively support women’s inclusion in agricultural supply chains. At the very least, companies should ensure that human rights are respected across their operations. The report includes key recommendations for the agribusiness sector, centered around the themes of climate ambition, gender and small-scale producer inclusion, and transparency.

Evaluation of the Phase II Extractive Industry (EI) and Gender Project Funded by the Hewlett Foundation

In both Zambia and the Dominican Republic (DR), bringing together women’s rights organizations (WROs) and extractive industry transparency and accountability (EITA) organizations has led to transformational outcomes, above all in collaboration and participation, resulting in incorporation of gender in stakeholders not traditionally focused on gender. Project participants claimed to have gained confidence and developed communication skills critical in their advocacy activities. There has been awareness raising on women’s rights and a community of women informed and gaining command of the field related to the extractives industry, plus understanding and use of the technical extractive industry (EI) lexicon. The project design was considered to be well conceived, and the implementation well carried out, even in the adverse conditions created by COVID-19 on communication and physical gathering and deployment of participants. This final evaluation of Phase II of the project, helps the staff and partners to build out further learning in our coming work on Gender and EI accountability and at the individual level, there has been impact that will last into the years to come despite the closure of the Oxfam in Dominican Republic office. This impact is in confidence, communication skills, awareness on women’s rights, and advocacy for EI transparency.