The Oxford Committee for Famine Relief was formed on 5 October 1942 at a meeting in the Old Library of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin. It was one of several similar groups set up around the U.K. during the Second World War, in support of the National Famine Relief Committee, to lobby for the relief of suffering behind the Allied blockade in Greece and other countries under German occupation. The Oxford Committee initially raised funds to be channelled through the Greek Red Cross. Throughout the remainder of the war it also campaigned, unsuccessfully, for the lifting of the blockade to allow relief supplies through to starving populations. In March 1943 it was registered as a charity under the War Charities Act.

In the post-war years, the Oxford Committee remained in existence to raise funds and dispatch supplies of food and clothing to refugees and others in Europe through agencies such as the Salvation Army and the Save the Children Fund. In 1948 it broadened its aims to include 'the relief of suffering as a result of wars or of other causes in any part of the world' and turned its attention also to aid for refugees in the Middle East and people affected by conflict in Korea in the early 1950s. In the 1960s, it gained national recognition through its humanitarian response to war and famine in the Congo and Biafra. In 1965, the shortened telegraphic address, 'Oxfam', which had been used informally since the 1940s, was adopted as the charity's registered name.

During the 1960s Oxfam began to highlight the need in many countries for long-term development work to address the causes of poverty. It played a leading role in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation's 'Freedom from Hunger' campaign, launched in the U.K. in 1962, which aimed to combat food shortages, not by giving food aid but by enabling people to grow enough to feed themselves. Oxfam's grants to local agencies for work in areas such as agriculture and public health increased throughout the decade. By the early 1970s, it was supporting 800 projects involving local communities, overseen by eleven Field Directors based in the countries concerned. Public education, campaigning and advocacy on issues affecting poor people also became a major focus for the organization at this time.

Today, advocacy and campaigning, development work to help poor people work their own way out of poverty, and humanitarian work in emergencies, assisting those immediately affected by conflict and natural disasters, remain the basis of Oxfam's programme. As a major, international non-governmental organization, Oxfam is a world leading expert in public health in emergencies.

In 1962, Oxfam was launched in Canada. Other Oxfams followed, in America, Belgium and elsewhere. Oxfam International, a confederation of non-governmental organizations, was formed in 1995. Oxfam GB, the organization founded in Oxford in 1942, and other national Oxfams are members of Oxfam International.

For further information please see M Black, A Cause for our Times: Oxfam - the first 50 years (Oxfam and Oxford University Press, 1992).

Records of grants made by Oxfam

A Grants Sub-Committee was set up in November 1955 to oversee and report to Oxfam's Executive Committee on the funding and management of its programme. Membership consisted of trustees and external expert advisers, with staff in attendance. From 1963, Field Committees for geographical regions, responsible for considering grant applications, reported to this Committee, renamed the Overseas Aid Committee in January 1964. In 1975 the Overseas Aid Committee was stood down and its responsibilities transferred to the Executive Committee. Field Committees were stood down in 1992 and their functions passed to a new, global Overseas Committee.

From the 1960s, Oxfam's development and humanitarian programme was managed by the Overseas Aid Department, reporting to the Overseas Aid Committee. As the Department expanded it was renamed the Overseas Division in 1975 and, in 1995, the International Division. 'Desks' or departments based on geographical regions including Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean, were responsible for areas of the international development programme and acted as liaison with programme staff in countries where Oxfam and its partners were active. An Emergencies, later Humanitarian, Department was concerned with response to natural disasters and other humanitarian emergencies.

From the late 1950s, documentation regarding applications for grants for development and humanitarian work, and the making of grants, was filed according to the agency or partner applying for the grant and then by country. Such files, which came to be referred to as 'project files', were maintained latterly by the Desks (development grants) and the Emergencies, later Humanitarian, Department (grants made in response to humanitarian emergencies). Files for grants made for other purposes, such as Oxfam's Fair Trade programme and development education, were maintained by the appropriate departments.