Change Not Charity: Essays on Oxfam America's First 40 Years
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Change not Charity: Essays on Oxfam America’s first 40 years Change not Charity: Essays on Oxfam America’s first 40 years Edited by Laura Roper Contents Acknowledgements 7 Author Bios 9 Introduction 15 The Early Years (1970-1977): Founding and Early Fruition 1. The Founding of Oxfam America, John W. Thomas 23 2. From Church Basement to the Board Room: Early Governance and Organizational Development, Robert C. Terry 28 3. Launching Oxfam’s Educational Mission, Nathan Gray 48 4. Humanitarian Response in Oxfam America’s Development: From Ambivalence to Full Commitment, Judith van Raalten and Laura Roper 57 5. Perspectives on Oxfam’s Partnership Model, Barbara Thomas-Slayter 74 The Short Years: Establishing an Institutional Identity and Ways of Working 6. Acting Strategically: Memories of Oxfam, 1977–1984, Joe Short 91 7. The Origins of Advocacy at Oxfam America, Laurence R. Simon 114 8. Humanitarian Aid Experiences at Home and Abroad: An Oxfam America Memoir, Michael Scott 140 9. Oxfam’s Cambodia Response and Effective Approaches to Humanitarian Action, Joel R. Charny 165 10. Women’s Empowerment in South Asia: Oxfam America’s First Gender Program, Martha Chen 175 11. Lessons from Lebanon, 1982–83, Dan Connell 186 The Hammock Years (1984–1995): Organizational Evolution in an Ever-Changing World 12. Walking the Talk: Development, Humanitarian Aid, and Organizational Development John Hammock 203 13. The 1984 Ethiopia Famine: A Turning Point for Oxfam America, Bernie Beaudreau 229 14. Finding My Feet: Reflections of a Program Officer on Her Work in Africa in the 1980s, Deborah Toler 236 15. Reflections on Working with Rebel Movements in the Horn of Africa, Rob Buchanan 251 16. The Power of Words, Pictures, and People: Reflections on Oxfam Communications, Sylvia Sukop 264 17. Expanding and Formalizing Oxfam America’s Advocacy Agenda, 1987–1988, James Arena-DeRosa 272 THE OFFENHEISER YEARS: Becoming a Global Player in a Globalized World 18. Adopting a New Business Model, Raymond C. Offenheiser 291 19. Oxfam America and Oxfam International: Expanding Leverage in a Globalizing World, L. David Brown 318 20. The Campaign for Oxfam America: Ten Years in the Making, Stephanie Kurzina 329 21. Communicating about Oxfam America: “It’s Complicated,” Myrna Greenfield 341 22. CHANGE: Oxfam America’s Vision Promoting Internationalism as a Civic Value, Nancy Delaney 356 23. Structuring a Global NGO for a Rights-Based Change Agenda, Susan H. Holcombe 362 24. Hurricane Mitch: Turning a Disaster into an Opportunity for Development in Central America, Carolina Castrillo 376 25. Promoting Social Change through the Gender and Law Reform Agenda, Margaret Samuriwo 383 26. Taking a River Basin Approach: The Oxfam Mekong Initiative, Mike Ounsted 393 27. Becoming Oxfam: A Regional Office Perspective on the Transformations in Oxfam America through Its Association with Oxfam International, Martin Scurrah 407 28. The Advocacy Learning Initiative: Shifting from Development Funder to Ally for Social Change, Gabrielle Watson 429 29. Organizations and Innovation:Oxfam America Goes to School on Development Finance and Learns Essential Lessons, Susan Clare 442 30. Introducing and Implementing a Comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation System at Oxfam America, Sandra Ng 464 Acknowledgements From my very earliest days at Oxfam America, I found myself treated to many enjoyable conversations with staff, present and past, who were keen to share stories of their time with the organization. As I listened and began to collect these anecdotes, I realized that willy-nilly, I was becoming the organizational historian. The material was always rich, colorful, passion- ately conveyed, and, occasionally, a bit exaggerated in the telling. But what I took from these tales was the impact of working at Oxfam on the lives of each of these storytellers. Their time at Oxfam America had been an important, if not formative, moment in their lives. While the tales may be about a Cambodia or a Nicaragua or a Zimbabwe, the narrators always conveyed a sense that they were proud to be on the right side of an important fight for right and justice and privileged to be part of an organization that gave them the professional freedom to speak out, take action, live their values, and bend the arc of history even a little bit. And this made all the difference. After many such conversations and some good deal of prodding from numerous former staff, I decided to take on the task of trying to assemble an organizational history. A first attempt in the late 1990s was aborted, but 10 years later the timing was propitious, as many of our found- ers were ripe for the project and still retained original documents in their garages and base- ments sufficient to jog their memories so they could record their reflections. In thinking about the approach, we decided against a straight chronological history written by a single author and opted instead for what might be characterized as an organizational memoir that taps many distinct voices across the 40-year history of the organization. Given the highly participa- tory and often disputatious internal culture of the organization, this approach seemed fitting. This collection of essays was many years in the making, as the authors took time from their busy professional schedules to make their various contributions. I was most fortunate in this process to enlist Laura Roper in role of project manager, editor, and chief cajoler. It is her com- mitment to this project and her combination of persistence, charm, wit, and guile that man- aged to elicit such an outpouring of content from so many different informants. Without her leadership, this project simply would not have happened. I am most indebted to her for her loyalty to the task and for the quality of the final product. Acknowledgements 7 It is not hyperbole to say this book would not have been possible without the generous time commitment of many others. I would especially like to thank Joel Charny, Joe Short, and Bar- bara Thomas-Slayter, who participated in an advisory group at the early stages of the project. The detail-oriented Kevin Ferguson provided excellent editorial services, and Jane Huber, Carl Soares, and Jeff Deutsch got me smoothly through the production process. I owe many thanks to Ellen Seidensticker for keeping this project on track so it would come out in time for Oxfam America’s 40th anniversary. I am proud and delighted that I was able to complete this proj- ect on my watch as president of Oxfam America. I hope it serves to guide and inspire many future generations of Oxfam America friends and staff. Raymond C. Offenheiser President Boston, MA June 1, 2010 8 CHANGE not CHARITY: Essays ON OXfam AMERICA’S FIRST 40 YEARS Author Bios James Arena-DeRosa started at Oxfam in transformation. He worked with Oxfam 1987 as National Speakers Bureau Coordi- America as an organization development nator, and in the late 1980s and early 1990s consultant off and on in the 1980s and 1990s, went on to build the first formal Public and has been on its board since 2002. Advocacy Program, serving as the Director Rob Buchanan is currently President of the of Public Advocacy for several years. After El-Hibri Charitable Foundation. Prior to that, leaving Oxfam he became the New England he was Managing Director for International Regional Director for the Peace Corps and Programs at the Council on Foundations. He an Adjunct Lecturer at the Heller School worked at Oxfam America from 1985–1995, for Sustainable International Development, serving as Program Director for the Horn of Brandeis University. Currently he is the Africa from 1989–1994 and subsequently as Northeast Regional Administrator for Food the first director of Oxfam America’s Wash- and Nutritional Services at the USDA. Prior ington Advocacy Office. He is co-author to joining Oxfam, he worked on several state- of Making a Difference in Africa: Advice from wide and presidential campaigns and served Experienced Grantmakers. as Special Assistant to the Massachusetts Secretary of State. Carolina Castrillo is a practitioner and man- ager of international relief and development Bernie Beaudreau is currently the Executive programs with substantial field and head- Director of Serve Rhode Island (formerly the quarters experience in a variety of US-based Rhode Island State Commission for National organizations. During the 1980s, she worked and Community Service). Deeply involved on human rights and refugee issues in the in poverty issues his entire life, he has been United States. She has managed programs in VP for Development at the Global Food Central America and Asia and has worked Banking Network, the Executive Director with Lutheran World Relief, Catholic Relief of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank Services, and twice as Oxfam America’s from 1995–2007, and prior to that, Director Regional Director for Central America, of Resource and Constituency Development recently rejoining Oxfam in 2008. at Oxfam America, where he worked for Joel Charny is the Vice President for Policy 11 years. for Refugees International. He was the Oxfam L. David Brown is Associate Director for America representative on the Oxfam NGO International Programs at Harvard’s Hauser Consortium team in Phnom Penh during the Center for Nonprofit Organizations and Cambodia emergency in 1980. Over his career Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy at Oxfam America he served as Asia Regional School of Government. His research and Director, Overseas Director, Policy Director, consulting focus on strengthening civil and interim Executive Director. society organizations and networks that foster sustainable development and social Author Bios 9 Martha (Marty) Chen is a Lecturer in Pub- Nancy Delaney began at Oxfam as a volun- lic Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School teer in 1991 and currently serves as the Com- and International Coordinator of the global munity Engagement Manager.