Humanitarian aid and Peacebuilding
We protect and build resilient and dignified lives in the most fragile contexts marked by multiple crises including conflict. Our work meets the needs and rights of crisis-affected communities, while also tackling the root causes of violent conflict that often cause these needs and support local capacities for peace.
Oxfam Denmark reached 223,659 people
with humanitarian response in 2021
Oxfam Denmark reached 34,332 people
through inclusive peacebuilding in 2021
We worked with 53
local and national partners
56% of the people Oxfam Denmark
worked with were women and girls
We work in fragile contexts experiencing multiple, intersecting crises with major impacts on the poorest and most vulnerable people. It can, for example, be a long-lasting conflict where the overlapping impacts of climate change, a disease outbreak such as COVID-19 and an economic crisis are visible.
We put people at the centre and have a particular focus on women and youth, including on their meaningful engagement, specific needs and rights. Our work is always context-specific. We engage with local and national groups and organizations and have a strong commitment to support their leadership. All our humanitarian work is based on the humanitarian principles.
We focus on food and economic security, protection, water, sanitation and hygiene as well as community-led dialogue, reconciliation and initiatives that foster peaceful coexistence.
In our humanitarian work, we support crisis-affected people in meeting their most urgent needs. Our preferred method of support is multi-purpose cash, allowing people to decide for themselves what they want to buy and at the same time supporting local markets.
Whenever it is possible, we aim at not only saving lives here and now, but also for people to be self-reliant, developing solutions which contribute to more resilient and peaceful communities. We look to repair and improve water systems with solar-power pumps instead of supporting water trucking and diesel. We support climate-smart agricultural production, value chains and livelihoods so that crisis-affected will be able to meet their own needs, have dignified lives and strengthen local economies. We protect lives. This is not least important as most of the crises we work in are protracted.
How Oxfam Denmark works with humanitarian aid and peacebuilding
- We will ensure vulnerable, crisis affected people receive lifesaving humanitarian assistance
- We will strengthen community capacities and mechanisms to deal with destructive conflict and to resist processes of escalation of violence and polarization
- We will support community-led reconciliation, dialogue and mediation efforts, that seek to build and strengthen social cohesion
- We will strengthen livelihoods and access to basic services for those living in crisis, ensuring they live dignified, resilient and sustainable lives
- We will give crisis affected people and civil society a voice in decision making on peace, security and humanitarian actions
In our peacebuilding work, we pursue inclusive community-led peacebuilding initiatives that seek to support and build capacities/mechanisms within a society to address grievances, mediate conflict, and strengthen inter/intra-group relations and trust as a long-term and sustained process. Pending on context and entry points, we support activists and civil society to influence and engage in peace processes at sub-national, national, or regional/ cross-border level.
We work with stand-alone humanitarian response and peacebuilding projects, but prefer when relevant to work across the humanitarian, development, peace nexus. We advocate for crisis-affected people’s rights and work for a stronger role of affected population, and local and national civil society organizations. We have a strong focus on Women, Peace and Security (UN resolution 1325)1 and the Youth, Peace and Security (UN resolution 2250) agenda pushing for greater inclusion, participation and influence of women, youth and civil society organisations in decision making on peace and security.
We work strategically with a long-term vision, mostly in protracted crises. In the Middle East, we work in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon. In the Sahel region Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and the crisis in South Sudan, where our involvement also covers the neighbouring countries, especially Uganda. We also work on peacebuilding in Colombia, Ghana and Mozambique and respond in Ukraine and in other acute crises in countries where Oxfam and partners are present.
Together we can fight hunger
We are working to ensure vulnerable people in the most fragile contexts do not go hungry. Deep injustices in the world’s food system mean that despite there being plenty of food for everyone, 205 million people in 45 countries face acute food insecurity today, meaning they are severely malnourished and require rapid humanitarian assistance. Climate, conflict, and economic shocks drive this insecurity.
We cover the emergency food needs of the most vulnerable people through cash transfers. In addition, we build the resilience and productivity of communities to withstand future shocks, improving agricultural practices, building sustainable, diverse livelihoods, and improving water infrastructure among other activities. With your help, we can not only ensure hunger needs are met but also build a sustainable future for vulnerable communities.