Bangladesh
One of Asia's poorest nations, Bangladesh faces many natural disasters, most notably flooding. Oxfam Hong Kong's projects therefore integrate disaster management with general community development work to make sure that we address people's needs. No long-term benefits are possible if people are continually set back by poor disaster preparedness.
Bangladesh faces many other challenges: poverty, illiteracy, gender discrimination, and more. Oxfam's gender-sensitive and integrated programmes include agriculture, advocacy, community health, income generation, and land rights issues.
Other related information:
Emergency Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Management Projects 2001/2002
Campaigns (Bangladesh)
Cambodia
Oxfam Hong Kong's programme priorities in Cambodia are food security and livelihood, health, gender, community awareness and organising, peace and rights, advocacy on Mekong issues, landmines and violence against women. Under these, the priority target groups are women, the disabled and urban and rural poor. Oxfam Hong Kong's Womyn's Agenda for Change (WAC) programme, in particular, aims at facilitating the development and strengthening of the women's movement across all sectors and classes in Cambodia through popular education methods and training.
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Emergency Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Management Projects 2001/2002
China
Oxfam Hong Kong began supporting development and relief projects in China in 1987, such as comprehensive village development, organizational development, income generation projects, small-scale infrastructure projects, health care, competency building, policy promotion and education.
Oxfam Hong Kong's first project in China was in 1987, supporting rehabilitation work with people with disabilities. In 1991, we launched resettlement and drainage system projects after huge floods in Guizhou. In 1992, we began long-term integrated community development projects with ethnic minority communities in remote mountainous areas of Luquan County, Yunnan Province, and in Weining County, Guizhou Province. In the same year, Oxfam opened our field office in Kunming, Yunnan Province, and established the Oxfam China Development Fund to finance projects in China.
From 1996 onwards, we have been supporting project and site investigations and pilot development projects in Northwest China (Qinghai, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces), development projects with poor people in urban areas (such as Shenzhen Special Economic Zone), and advocacy projects (such as research on micro-credit schemes and conferences on poverty alleviation).
Over the past 15 years, from 1987-2002, Oxfam has carried out over 650 projects in 18 provinces/municipalities of China, mostly in the poorer inland areas of the Southwest and Northwest. We've allocated over HK$140 million for this work. Most of the communities are farmers living in remote areas, women, minority people, and their families. Oxfam also works in cities to help migrant workers and other labourers.
Emergency relief and rehabilitation is another important part of the China programme. Since 1991, we have launched projects for victims of floods, earthquakes and snowstorms in the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Qinghai and Yunnan.
Our poverty alleviation programmes in China aim to improve people's livelihoods in a sustainable and gender-equitable way, with the active participation of the beneficiaries themselves. Projects are specifically designed to encourage women's participation and to address their practical and particular needs. We believe that it is also essential to encourage policy studies and research on poverty alleviation issues in China. Training sessions, exchanges abroad, and sharing of project experiences strengthen the skills and capacity of the organisations we work with.
Other related information:
China Disaster Relief Appeal 2003
Recent Emergency Projects
Advocacy
Timor-Leste ( East Timor )
Oxfam Hong Kong opened a field office in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, in March 2001. Our involvement in Timor-Leste started in 1999 when Oxfam Hong Kong's former Executive Director, John Sayer, participated in a team of international observers for the popular consultation. The turnout of voters was phenomenal: 98.6% of those eligible voted, of whom 78.5% voted in favour of independence. Then, following the post ballot destruction of September 1999, Oxfam Hong Kong supported emergency relief work with donations received from the Hong Kong public. The opening of the field office marked a new stage of support for the East Timorese. When this new nation formally achieved its independence on 20 May 2002, it began a slow and difficult process of developing its own system of independent governance. The country faces many challenges - economic, social and political. Most of the people live a subsistence lifestyle in rural villages, and in the towns and cities unemployment rates are very high.
Oxfam Hong Kong, along with Oxfam affiliates, has been assisting the people of Timor-Leste to participate actively in their country's development. Oxfam Hong Kong's programme focuses on rural development and current projects include the following:
- Community health and livelihoods projects in Oecusse, with Oxfam Australia (OCAA). Oecusse is an isolated enclave in the western part of the island;
- Agroforestry in Liquica, a district to the west of the capital Dili. This work is with and through local organizations based in Liquica;
- A fisherfolk programme in Manatuto, in the east of the country; Oxfam Hong Kong operates these projects, with the involvement of local community groups.
Drought has affected many communities in Timor-Leste in 2002 and 2003, and we have been providing support for disaster management at the national and local levels, with a focus on strengthening local capacities and reducing community vulnerabilities. Oxfam Hong Kong has also been supporting vocational and technical skills training and has provided opportunities for East Timorese to expand their knowledge and experience through participation in regional workshops. Research on coffee and on local handicrafts has helped inform livelihood strategies and policy development related to livelihoods in Timor-Leste. In relation to peace-building and reconciliation, Oxfam Hong Kong has also supported research on justice issues and a documentary film on justice and reconciliation.
Other related information:
Traditional Crafts of Timor Leste: A Marketing Overview
Hong Kong
Oxfam Hong Kong has been concerned that a significant number of people in Hong Kong have been living in poverty and finding life increasingly difficult despite the territory's prosperity. To address the poverty situation in Hong Kong, Oxfam has been working with local organisations and with disadvantaged groups by supporting their initiatives in the following areas:
- advocating positive changes in policy areas that affect the lives and rights of poor people and disadvantaged groups
- strengthening organisations of poor people and disadvantaged groups
- supporting income generation activities initiated by local organisations and disadvantaged groups
- training and capacity building with poor people and disadvantaged groups
- public education to raise awareness about the nature and causes of poverty in Hong Kong
In addition to supporting other organisations' initiatives, Oxfam Hong Kong itself also advocates for social and economic policies which can help improve the lives of poor and disadvantaged people.
Other related information:
Hong Kong Programme's Campaign Partner in the Outsourcing Project
Guidelines for the application for grants from Oxfam's Hong Kong programme
Application form for grants from Oxfam's Hong Kong programme
Hong Kong Marginalized Worker's Living Agenda
India
In Bihar and Orissa, two states in northeast India where Oxfam Hong Kong works, a hierarchical and patriarchal system creates extreme poverty.
Life is particularly difficult for women: lower wages, lower literacy rates, higher mortality rates for girls, and dowry deaths, reported and unreported. Oxfam works to combine sustainable development with gender equity. Programmes include women's rights, forestry, irrigation, income-generation and general community development work.
We also have a special concern to help adivasis (tribal people) and dalits (low-caste people) to improve their livelihoods and access their basic rights.
Indonesia
Oxfam Hong Kong started building its programme here in 2001.
Since the fall of the authoritarian Suharto government in 1998 amidst a disastrous economic crisis, the country has been facing an enormous debt that hinders economic and human development.
However, the 'democratic space' such as freedom of speech and association has increased, albeit in a fragile way, but there are concerns that the 'traditional elites' such as the military will step into the power vacuum. Strengthening civil society through capacity building and public education is as urgent as ever. Oxfam has been supporting local groups on many initiatives, such as advocacy on the debt.
A vast country with diverse peoples, the country is also besieged by frequent conflicts along ethnic and religious lines, as well as the often violent independence movements in Aceh and Papua.
Illegal logging is another concern to Oxfam. The environmental degradation and the subsequent risk of landslides and flooding has had a big impact on the livelihoods of people.
In both the armed conflicts and in areas where there's illegal logging, Oxfam has supported work with vulnerable communities that reduces risks and tries to resolve conflicts through peaceful dialogue.
The Philippines
Oxfam Hong Kong's very first development project was in the Philippines, way back in 1986. It's not by chance. The Philippines has a long tradition of working for community development, and NGO workers there are very experienced - in fact, Oxfam Hong Kong employs several Filipinos in our Hong Kong office.
The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in Asia, with frequent typhoons, floods and volcanic eruptions, especially in Central Luzon. A central focus of our current work, therefore, is disaster management.
Yet this work isn't only working with disasters coming from the natural environment - it's also on peace and security issues, especially in Mindanao, as civil conflict has ravaged the region for decades.
Oxfam makes every effort to integrate these concerns into our long-term development programmes, so that we can make sure people's livelihoods are secure - always a basic aim here at Oxfam.
But sustainable livelihoods don't only depend on small-scale, on-the-ground interventions in the community. We also need to support advocacy work that helps create 'pro-poor' laws and policies that help institutionalize reform, so that benefits will last into the next generations. This is especially important for changing the unequal realities faced by groups such as indigenous peoples.
Oxfam also supports community groups in the Philippines that are tackling other national, macro-economic issues, such as debt. And to enhance peoples' participation in decision-making, we also support public education activities on key issues such as constitutional reform.
Finally, given the long tradition of NGOs promoting participatory local governance, Oxfam has also encouraged initiatives for the Filipinos to share their knowledge and experience with other countries in the region. For example, a disaster management network is in the making.
Vietnam and Laos
Oxfam has been working in Vietnam since 1988, mainly in very poor and remote villages, and focussing on women and ethnic minorities. Recent projects have provided income, drinking water, irrigation systems, credit and savings schemes, veterinary training and more. We have also campaigned for sustainable tourism, against landmines and for sustainable development in the Mekong Delta. Future work will concentrate in the upland villages of north-central Vietnam with a shift to area-based integrated programmes. There is much work to be done, for in most villages where we work, people face 3-4 months of food shortages and have no alternative but to use contaminated drinking water.
Other related information:
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Read Oxfam's book on landmines in Vietnam
Emergency Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Management Projects 2001/2002
Work in Laos centers on unexploded ordnance, gender and development, and building up local organisations. A recent advocacy publication documents the lasting effects of the bombs and bomblets dropped so frequently on the country during the Indochina War which ended in 1973.
Other related information:
Recommended Article
Read Oxfam's book on bombs in Laos
Asia Region
Asia is the epitome of diversity and rapid change. This pace is exemplified by experiences with the Asian financial crisis and the birth of an independent East Timor in 1999. Asia is also a good source of experience and insight on the dynamics of issues and relationships of a cross-border nature. How the regions around the Mekong River develop - a river which runs through China, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, providing life and livelihood to millions of people on its path - is proving to be a classic experiment in dialogue and negotiation.
Oxfam Hong Kong sees these issues from a dynamic and macro-level rather than a country-based perspective. We therefore have supported regional programmes on the environment, labour rights, gender and women's issues, macro-economic issues, human rights, labour migration, security, multilateral financial institutions and multi-national corporations, education, debt and development issues. Methods also vary, from lobbying to conferences and multi-lingual publications, from video productions to on-the-ground integrated programme development.
Other related information:
Emergency Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Management Projects 2001/2002
