Buke Gabasa Halake, Biqiltu Women Group Chairlady holds up kale from the group's kitchen garden. The kitchen garden is part of the Oxfam Kenya's resilience and livelihoods building project for drought-affected communities in Marsabit. (Photo: Peter Irungu/Oxfam)
The Oxfam Climate Initiative (OCI) is a strategic, global initiative created to advance climate justice across Oxfam. Established in 2019, OCI serves as a coordinating, connecting, and catalytic body that supports climate work across regions, countries, and affiliates.
OCI’s core role is to facilitate knowledge exchange, strengthen cross-regional collaboration, amplify Global South perspectives, and align local-to-global learning efforts. Over the past seven years, OCI has played a central role in embedding Climate Justice as a global area of ambition within Oxfam’s Global Strategic Programming, in shaping key frameworks such as the Global Climate Influencing Strategy and acting as a catalyst between needs and funding opportunities for climate work.
Flora Ernesto Sitoe is a member of the Solid Waste Centre's committee. The committee members educate the community about solid waste and then buy it from community members who have decided to collect it. They also collect and separate the waste by material type, then resell it to bigger centers in Maputo. (Photo: Jessica Dimande/Oxfam)
Strategic Priorities
1. Strengthening positioning and partnerships
OCI aims to consolidate our role as a trusted programmatic and technical actor within major climate networks and institutions, while ensuring that Oxfam’s feminist, just, and inclusive climate vision is consistently represented. We are the co-focal point for the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Partnership, we co-present Oxfam at the Climate Action Network, and we support delegations at major climate events such as Conference of the Parties (COPs).
2. Enhancing knowledge sharing and learning
We regularly host internal and public-facing OCI Connect sessions to inspire and equip Oxfam colleagues and partners with the knowledge, skills, and relationships needed to advance climate justice across our programs.
3. Improving local and regional relationships
OCI is the connector of climate justice colleagues across Oxfam. We support southern-led climate justice programs through our decolonial feminist seed fund, investing in long-term partnerships with feminist, indigenous, and grassroots organizations and ensuring local ownership in climate justice efforts. We also facilitate south-to-south learning exchanges and support colleagues in implementing their climate action priorities.
4. Funding
To diversify funding opportunities for climate justice work across the confederation, OCI leads the Green Climate Fund strategy, coordinates efforts for donor pre-positioning at climate events and supports Just Energy Transition multi-country program development and fundraising. OCI works with and in response to Global South teams’ needs and priorities.
22+Seed funded projects | 7+Years of supporting climate justice work | 150Attendees at 5 OCI Connect sessions |
Sreyna, Srey Ngor and Chan Ra are part of the Clean Water Station Group, where members are elected to help maintain the solar powered water station. This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. (Photo: Aimee Han/Oxfam)
Our Approach
Prioritizing Southern-led leadership in all climate justice work.
A gender-transformative mindset with all our work.
No top-down management but rather trust in community-based knowledge.
Fully transparent and open about our working processes.
The people behind OCI
Safa’ Al Jayoussi
Global Climate Justice Lead
Amman, Jordan
Safa' Al Jayoussi leads the Oxfam Climate Initiative at Oxfam International. She is a decolonial feminist climate justice expert with nearly 20 years of experience, and she has been a UNFCCC observer since 2008. She is a member of Oxfam International's Senior Program Team and one of the leading Southern voices on climate justice, Just Energy Transition, and locally led climate actions. Prior to Oxfam, she led regional climate and advocacy work at Save the Children International, led Greenpeace's Arab World office, and previously co-chaired Climate Action Network International (CAN I).
Cristina del Castillo
Climate Funding Manager
Barcelona, Spain
With 20+ years of experience as a development professional at Oxfam and UNDP or trade for a Spanish Government agency, Cristina offers her expertise in resource mobilization across climate, development, and humanitarian programs in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Within OCI, her extensive knowledge as the most senior member of the team, her collaborative approach and fluency in three languages are used to build and keep partnerships at all levels.
Amelie Eckersley
Information & Knowledge Coordinator
Berlin, Germany
Amelie builds archives of Oxfam’s programmatic successes, supports country, regional and cluster teams in implementing their Seed Fund programs, and facilitates the production of OCI Connect sessions, bringing together colleagues from across the confederation. She has worked in various Oxfam offices since 2024 and previously worked in the field of gender equality.