Centering Women's Rights Organizations: Evaluative Research on Oxfam's COVID-19 Response in Colombia, Iraq, and Kenya

"It is evident that WROs [women's rights organisations] have been key figures in the COVID-19 response while also managing acute challenges around lack of recognition, funding, and exclusion from decision-making spaces." 

This evaluative research report highlights the work that women's rights organisations (WROs) have been doing to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, looking at their strengths and the challenges they face, as well as at how Oxfam has been trying to support their work. It also seeks to understand how well Oxfam has upheld its commitments to its principles of local humanitarian leadership (LHL) in relation to its partnerships with WROs. By adopting a feminist approach, the study seeks to provide a clear assessment on the ways that Oxfam - and other international actors - can better support WROs involved in humanitarian response. The study is based on a literature review and case studies on Oxfam's experiences in Colombia, Iraq, and Kenya.

As explained in the report, the Oxfam Confederation has long considered itself a champion of LHL and has been working to transform the humanitarian system so that "local humanitarian actors (whether civil society, government or both) [are] leading humanitarian response and ensuring it is fast and appropriate and meeting the needs of the affected population." The research focused on LHL and the experiences of WROs, as "WROs are often sidelined from the global humanitarian system and are thus denied access to resources and opportunities to influence decision-making. Yet they are often first responders in humanitarian crises, as they have been during the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, during the pandemic, support to WROs - as well as to groups working on gender issues - was among the first to get cut. If organizations like Oxfam are not pursuing their commitments in relation to WROs, that is a deep gap considering Oxfam's aspiration to be a gender-just organization, guided by feminist principles."

The research and analysis were guided by six principles that Oxfam America identified in 2019 that should underpin LHL. They are:  
 

• Partnerships: Partnerships between international actors and local actors are "as equal as possible", with collaborative decision-making, shared learning, and long-term partnerships.
• Capacity Sharing: International actors prioritise the capacity-development needs of local actors, as specified by local actors themselves, and prevent the negative impact of recruiting local/national staff during emergencies.
• Funding: International actors pass 25% of humanitarian funding to local actors, including overhead costs, and are transparent about such funds.
• Public Engagement: International actors facilitate direct connections to donors, make visible the role of local and national actors, and acknowledge their contribution in any publications or communication materials.
• Influencing: International actors recognise the responsibility of local and national actors to lead in humanitarian emergencies and help enable them to participate fully in decision-making mechanisms and coordination forums.
• Gender Justice: International actors actively engage with women's organisations and gender justice, prioritising their leadership and voice. This principle is examined in the research and analysis via the first five principles. 
   

The above principles can also interrelate and depend on one another - for example, partnerships can lead to increased funding, which can support capacity-sharing opportunities, which can lead to additional funding opportunities.

Guided by these principles, the research sought to answer three main questions:
 

1. WROs' experiences during COVID-19: What has been the organisational experience of WROs during COVID-19 in humanitarian contexts in relation to the LHL principles?
2. WROs' perspectives on Oxfam: From the perspective of WROs, to what extent did Oxfam uphold its LHL commitments during COVID-19 in relation to the LHL principles?
3. Evaluation of Oxfam: How well has Oxfam upheld its commitments to LHL, and what were the challenges and successes?

From the literature, as well as from Oxfam's experience in Colombia, Iraq, and Kenya, the findings overall show that WROs have been key figures in the COVID-19 response while also managing acute challenges around lack of recognition, funding, and exclusion from decision-making spaces. Local organisations, including WROs, continued their work in humanitarian response, shouldering even more as international actors reduced their participation. As noted in the three case studies, WROs provided crucial response activities in ways that enhanced Oxfam's efforts, such as embedding self-care in their response in Colombia, gender-specific expertise on legal issues in Iraq, and access to urban communities in Kenya.

Based on the findings, the report highlights what Oxfam has done well and what challenges remain in terms of supporting WROs in humanitarian contexts. For example, under the Partnerships principle, the findings showed that what worked was relationships that are based on mutual support and need and reciprocal accountability, as well as the establishment of trust and transparency where communication is open and regular. One of the challenges or needs identified was a deeper exchange of learning between Oxfam and partners, as well as among partners. There should be more feedback and learning loops so partners can see what impact their partnership has on Oxfam's decisions. Under the Funding principle, the research found that Oxfam's flexibility around funding, e.g. around budget line items, and their gender-focused funding, in a time when funding from other sources was diminishing, was a strength. Challenges remained, for example, around continued limited funds and data around funding and the fact that the short-term, project-specific nature of grants from Oxfam was at odds with the long-term nature of WROs' gender work.

Based on an analysis of what worked and what challenges remain, the report outlines several recommendations on how Oxfam - and other international actors involved in humanitarian response - can improve: 
 

• Partnerships: Recommendations cited are around building trust, ensuring mutual accountability and transparency, establishing learning exchanges, and embracing the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. For example, one recommendation for building trust calls for more investment of time and resources in: building co-creation spaces; treating trust building as a key step in the partnership process and not as a given; affording the same grace of trust to local partners that would be afforded to international actors; easing the gap caused by Oxfam staff transitions by taking the step to capture institutional knowledge/memory; and investing time in building requisite contextual knowledge and language skills.
   
• Capacity Sharing: Recommendations under this principle focus on moving from building capacity to sharing capacity and engaging in dialogue and collaborating. For example, the report recommends that Oxfam should concretise what it means by capacity sharing - i.e., valuing complementary knowledge and capacities - and be clear on how it is different from capacity building. This conceptual shift needs to be accompanied by real-world implementation.
   
• Funding: Recommendations here revolve around providing WROs with long-term, flexible, direct funding; valuing gender work; and ensuring diversity. Around valuing gender work, the report, for example, recommends that Oxfam continue to support WROs, particularly in terms of their humanitarian work. Oxfam should also continue to track the amount of funding going to WROs to ensure that funding levels remain constant or increase.
   
• Public Engagement: Recommendations here focus on facilitating access to donors and shining a light on local actors' work. In terms of the way forward, the report notes that although Oxfam has been making strong progress in highlighting the work that is being done by local partners, including WROs, much of this work is coming from Oxfam. More of this work - whether it is a blog or a research report - should be done by local organisations and WROs, as telling their own stories represents an important shift in power that needs to happen more frequently.
   
• Influencing: Recommendations here focus on supporting participants to gain direct access to coordination and decision-making spaces and to work in solidarity to protect WROs, who are often attacked for their human rights and gender justice work. In terms of the way forward, the report, for example, notes that Oxfam's brand and reputation should continue to be used to open doors for WROs and that Oxfam should continue to use its convening power to bring together stakeholders (WROs, local actors, international actors, donors, etc.).