With the tremendously long length of time for which these multiple sex scandals were covered for, it was essential for Oxfam to address their issues in order to prevent from sinking their image even further.
In the heated peak of these sexual misconduct allegations in February of 2018, Oxfam released an elaborate statement of how they are going to deal with this issue on their website:
We are deeply shocked and dismayed by these revelations. We share with you the profound revulsion at this unacceptable behavior of a few privileged people who had the opportunity to serve Oxfam and were abusing the very people they were meant to protect.
They also abused the trust of our supporters and the thousands of dedicated Oxfam staff and volunteers working around the world to end poverty and injustice. This is an appalling mark against the high values we set for ourselves at Oxfam. Advancing women’s rights in situations of high vulnerability especially in crises is central to what we do.
– Oxfam (February 2018)
Their page goes into detail on the history of this scandal, their course of action and take on this problem. They have repeatedly stated that their failure of transparency with Haitian and Chadian country officials, escalated into this larger problem which is being actively teared down in the media. They do provide concrete examples of how they are striving to improve the organization’s work environment by altering their Code of Conduct and posting the details of the 2011 Internal Investigation which they have failed to discuss in the past. However their very broad plan of action does not promise an immediate improvement. The outline entails:
- The creation of an independent commission led by women’s rights and human rights experts who will conduct a review of Oxfam’s practices, operations and culture, including an audit of the handling of past cases.
- The immediate creation of a new global database of accredited referees designed to end the use of forged, dishonest or unreliable references for past or current Oxfam staff.
- We are doubling the number of staff working on safeguarding and tripling the budget for this work to just over $1 million.
The primary concern with these declarations, is the low specificity of how exactly they are going to create these committees. In another section of their written apology, they discussed the creation of a “Safeguarding Team and a confidential ‘whistleblowing’ hotline”. This is a critical resource for companies to utilize in times of discomfort among colleagues, yet how will Oxfam strengthen this division? Their narrative makes it seem like this was not a prioritized department in Oxfam, yet one of their primary issues which they focus on is “Right to be heard – voices for choices“.
It seems that Oxfam decided to have an internal whistleblowing hotline, which can be problematic, as issues could be more easily covered in-house rather than through outsourcing. Yet with this new policy change, will they begin to outsource these new “experts” in order to exterminate the abuse of power? Will they have more cautious background checks before hiring these individuals to these delicate positions? These factors might be important to consider for Oxfam, as no one strives to find a workplace where there is even a small fragment discrimination that can potentially occur. Doubling the number of individuals does not necessary mean that the problem will be eradicated.
Oxfam is desperately trying to hold on to their professional ties in order to demonstrate their change of thought. They believe that posting a compilation of past misconduct cases will demonstrate their full transparency, which it will and is going to put them on a positive track to potentially gain back the trust of the public. Yet people are going to become more invested if they begin seeing internal modifications, such as change in leadership.
Further details on their immediate response can be found here: https://www.oxfam.org/en/immediate-response-actions-sexual-misconduct
Sources:
https://www.oxfam.org/en/how-we-are-working-rebuild-your-trust
Click to access oxfam_employee_code_of_conduct.pdf
https://www.oxfam.org/en/explore/issues/global-citizenship
Oxfam Scandal 
I liked the layout and flow of this blog, especially with the placement of the video which put a face on all of the information you provided in the beginning of the post. I definitely see that Oxfam made an effort to improve the situation and rebuild trust right from the breaking of this scandal. The video of the executive director was a strong move; the CEO of Mylan went for several interviews on TV but she never made a heartfelt message like the woman in this video, she instead continually insisted that her and her company were not at fault. Although I do see their move towards a better culture, I agree that they lack specifics and a lot of their solutions don’t guarantee that injustice won’t continue.
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Thank you! I also believe that the video was a powerful way to reach out to their donors, employees and anyone else who is potentially connected to the company. It creates a more intimate atmosphere and demonstrates vulnerability, which is something that is usually absent from companies’ apologies.
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It’s always easy for an organization to create goals, but actually achieving them is the complication. I can understand the primary concern people are having with Oxfam’s new declarations. Steps need to be laid out and planned for them to be able to reach their new goals for the organization and its supporters. I also think that the internal whistle blowing hotline could become another issue. Trust is not something the organization has at its current stage in its relationships with its supporters, so it needs to be earned for them to have anything operating internally. They could work with other organizations or have supervisors, which they request helping their image.
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That is really true! I think that looking from their perspective, the massive size of the organization, it could become overwhelming for a third party to deal with these issues and could come at a higher cost. However, I still believe that this will aid the company to create a safer environment by eliminating internal bias.
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Its such a shame that an humanitarian organization has to go through things like this. I think that this goes to show the importance of good ethical training of employees and volunteers as well as a third party run whistleblower hotline. I think the steps that the organization is taking are good to start to resolve these issues but they will feel the affects of this for a long period of time.
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I wonder how detailed their ethical training is. Especially for a company who stands for “moral justice”, I am curious to see the approaches which they take to train their employees. Perhaps Oxfam may not even have ethical training and try to hire people who have a “clean background”, which where they might be at fault.
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Coming straight from reading Mylan’s responses, it was slightly pleasant to hear that there were actually some goals that they initiated. The feasibility of it, however, is a little bit more concerning, so they might have had the disadvantage because it’s very hard to accomplish the things that they listed and prove it as well.
I think that your view on the whistleblowing hotline is very true – it’s difficult to tell because of the additional staff as well as the problem may be evaded or harder to prove that it exists.
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You make a very interesting point which I was unable to touch upon in my blogs in detail, that perhaps they might have set too many goals. They are quite broad and a little difficult to keep track of. For example, their connection with the public has already been quite weak when I was tracking their social media websites, and they are still on the hot seat currently. I think they are still being closely monitored by everyone, so we will have to see what they will actually do in the near future.
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