The Pulte Institute for Global Development, along with the Keough School of Global Affairs, is working with Oxfam America to produce a series of case studies focused on the organization’s biggest legal, humanitarian challenges.
"From Crisis Management to Feminist Leadership at Oxfam America" is one of the two already published cases. It is co-authored by Sara Gaviser Leslie and Barbara Durr.
"Oxfam, the international nongovernmental organization, was rocked by press revelations in 2018 of sexual misconduct in its 2011 Haiti humanitarian operations following the devasting earthquake there. The scandal, which occurred amid a crescendo of the #MeToo movement, challenged the new leader of Oxfam’s American affiliate with not only managing the reputational crisis, but also with pressing the organization and the larger NGO sector to make a systems change and a cultural shift on sexual exploitation and abuse. The case raises questions about how a leader can change a long-held culture of ignoring sexual misconduct, how and why changing perceptions mattered in that change, and what leadership approaches were effective."
"What’s in Your Cup? Oxfam America Takes on Starbucks" , written by Nick Galasso, Barbara Durr, and Benjamin Topa, is the other article that is currently available.
"Some of the world’s best coffee is grown in Ethiopia, where the livelihoods of 1.5 million small farmers depend on selling their superior beans at a fair price. But in the late 1990s and early 2000s, prices in the global coffee market plummeted. To gain some premium pricing, the Ethiopian government sought to trademark the names of its coffee regions, but the coffee giant Starbucks stood in the way. Oxfam America, the small NGO which was challenging the “rigged rules” of international trade, created its first corporate campaign against Starbucks to press the company to grant Ethiopia and its poor farmers trademarks. The case examines this “David and Goliath” battle."
An additional two case studies will be created for the series and will be published on CurateND in the coming months.