Oxfam has taken the Overall Award for Excellence at this year’s Charity Awards, for its pilot Women’s Rights Fund project supporting grassroots women’s rights organisations in four countries.
Oxfam’s Women’s Rights Fund differs from traditional aid projects in that it gives partner organisations multi-year, flexible funding while supporting their sustainability through tailored guidance and mentoring.
The Charity Awards judges believe that if the programme can be scaled up across more countries, it has the potential to catalyse systemic change across Oxfam and potentially throughout the wider international development sector.
Alongside the nine other category winners and the recipient of the Daniel Phelan Award for Outstanding Achievement, Oxfam was presented with the trophy at a black-tie ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London last night, hosted by BBC News presenter and journalist Asad Ahmad.
Awards judge Richard Hawkes, chief executive of the British Asian Trust, said Oxfam was driving “genuinely massive change” by sharing power and standing in solidarity with communities of lived experience.
“The international development sector has been talking about decolonisation for more than 30 years but hasn’t actually managed to do it,” he said.
“This is far more significant than just this programme, because Oxfam is the biggest beast and if they are leading this radical shake-up then the rest of the sector will have to take notice.”
The Women’s Rights Fund began in 2020 in Kenya and the Occupied Palestinian Territory – well before the recent cuts to official aid in the US and UK – and Oxfam added new partners in Lebanon in 2024 and Nepal this year.
The now-20 grassroots partner organisations are given £20,000 a year for three years, plus up to £12,000 worth of support from their Oxfam country office to develop a plan for sustainable growth and development.
Early results from the pilot project have been outstanding. From 2021 to 2024, the women’s rights organisations supported have trebled the number of people they help, and the first cohort of funded organisations in Kenya and Palestine raised an average of $70,000 (£52,000) per year each, thanks to the fundraising advice they received.
Oxfam now has ambitious plans to roll out the Women’s Rights Fund to 70 partners across 10 countries over the next two or three years.
Judges’ comments
Shane Ryan, senior adviser to the National Lottery Community Fund, said the testimonials from partners confirm that the fund represents a meaningful shift from traditional, often extractive funding relationships, toward more equitable partnerships.
“The influence of the model on other Oxfam programming and external organisations suggests potential for sector-wide change in funding practices,” he said.
Sharika Sharma, head of business development at overall awards partner CCLA, said: “Shifting practice in a large organisation isn’t easy. I applaud the team’s courage and innovation but, most importantly, the results. Oxfam has listened carefully to its partners in developing the Women’s Rights Fund and changed the delivery of traditional aid projects.
“While this programme was in place before the UK’s recent announcement of reduced aid spending, such challenges are probably going to continue for some time. I hope this award catalyses discussions about the future of development funding models and inspires other organisations.”
Matt Nolan, chief executive of Civil Society Media, congratulated Oxfam on winning the highly-coveted award in the Charity Awards’ 25th anniversary year.
“For a quarter of a century, the Charity Awards have been highlighting and celebrating the very best of charitable endeavour by UK-based charities large and small,” he said.
“As we look ahead to the next 25 years, it seems fitting that the judges have chosen to recognise Oxfam, one of the most long-established and high-profile charities, that has faced its own challenges and yet continued to innovate and strive for best practice.
“I hope this award provides even more leverage to help Oxfam scale up the Women’s Rights Fund and show that the charitable sector stands firmly in solidarity with the world’s poorest communities – even if governments choose not to.”
Oxfam: ‘It means the world’
Accepting the award last night, Oxfam GB chief executive Halima Begum, said: “This award means so much for everybody in Oxfam.
“But the sector, we are struggling beyond means, beyond words, at the moment, because as we try and transform, our world doesn’t get easier, it gets more complex.
“And yet we have to find it within us to show the humility to do things differently, be transformative, and still hold that space for the humanitarian crisis that we find ourselves in. And so to be honoured with this gives us actually that much more of a push as well, because we want to transform structures [that] get in the way.
“Ultimately, the learning that we’re doing is actually coming from the communities that we work for, and at a time when the rollback on women's rights is just so severe at the moment, to honour us with this award actually validates the work that we do with women’s rights, women’s courage, women’s leadership. It means the world.”
Other winners
Dame Esther Rantzen, founder of Childline and the Silver Line, and lifelong campaigner and activist, won the Daniel Phelan Award for Outstanding Achievement. Click here to read why.
Read more about Oxfam’s programme on the Charity Awards website.
Click here to read the full list of Charity Awards 2025 winners.
Related articles
