emergency fund

Clerence Tamara, a leader in her island community in Vanuatu on disaster preparedness and risk reduction, blows a conch shell—a warning signal for her community. “In my community, we blow the conch shell in emergencies, and it means ‘act now!’ I would like to blowthe conch shell so everyone in the world can hear it, because climate change is an emergency, and to stop it, we all need to act now.” (Photo: Elizabeth Stevens/Oxfam America)

Funding the Frontline: How an Oxfam Emergency Response Fund facilitated local humanitarian action

From 2014 to 2020 Oxfam embedded an Emergency Response Fund (ERF) in its multiyear disaster risk reduction programs in Asia-Pacific and Central America. The Oxfam ERF was designed as a flexible funding mechanism to prioritize small-scale, under-the-radar, and forgotten emergencies and help local...