The Importance Of Supporting sustainable livelihoods, Jim Clarken, CEO of Oxfam Ireland

Interesting interview with Jim Clarken, CEO of Oxfam Ireland 

What is your own background briefly?

I am the CEO of Oxfam Ireland and an Executive Director of Oxfam International working in over 90 countries delivering life-saving humanitarian support and long-term development programmes.

Prior to joining the international development sector, I worked for over 15 years at senior management and board level in a range of industries including energy, pharma, environmental, construction, brewing and start-ups. I then moved to South Sudan, where, as a volunteer I helped to run a large primary health care, water and sanitation programme.

I grew up in Co. Limerick and studied Commerce in NUI Galway before starting work in West Cork. I subsequently completed an MBA at UCC, where I am currently an Adjunct Professor at the School of Business and Law at UCC.

I am lucky in my work to share public platforms with thought leaders, academics and senior politicians at the UN, OECD, EU and other key global fora and here in Ireland on a range of issues including inequality, climate change, business and human rights, tax justice and refugee rights and the SDGs.

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

Not at all!

I suppose my background in managing business and people was useful and I learned so much from my time in Sudan, but I will always be grateful to the Board for taking a chance on me to have the honour of leading this organisation.

Insights with Jim Clarken, CEO of Oxfam Ireland

How was the last year for Oxfam?

Last year, Oxfam Ireland reached over 8 million people across 10 countries through our long-term development and humanitarian work.

In Ireland, we worked with 11 national partners and allies and engaged over 36,000 people with our advocacy and campaigns work to tackle the root causes of poverty and injustice, like economic inequality and migration.

We also contributed funds to the work of the global confederation which directly benefitted 19.5million people across 90 countries.

Last year, we worked with households and communities to develop new, sustainable livelihoods by enabling business ownership and land rights, and improving access to markets, technology and finance. We supported female candidates in their campaign for political office in Zimbabwe and promoted the participation of women in politics in the run-up to elections in Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. We also continued to support people in their fight for access to essential services like healthcare and medicine.

Our humanitarian programmes delivered life-saving support to people devastated by conflicts, disasters and the climate crisis in countries struggling to cope with some of the worst humanitarian crises of our time. While locally, we pushed for an amendment to Ireland’s family reunification law for refugees which could unite immediate family members trapped in conflict zones or displaced in third countries with their loved ones here in Ireland.

We know the world will be transformed when women live lives free of discrimination, inequality, exploitation and abuse. We continued to support organisations that focus on gender equality, legal reform and ending violence against women, and together worked to challenge harmful norms and sexist beliefs that perpetuate cycles of poverty experienced by women and girls across the world.

1 min pitch for what you are doing now?

This is an exciting time as we develop our new global strategic framework. We aim to build on our successes across our development, humanitarian and campaigning work while also adopting a more multi-dimensional approach to transform the systems that perpetuate poverty, inequality, exclusion and exploitation. Right now, we are continuing to tackle global inequalities that cut across gender, global tax systems and migration while scaling up our influencing work on the climate crisis, highlighting its devasting impact on the world’s poorest and calling for urgent action at home and internationally.

We have made sustainability a cross-organisational priority, taking advantage of our unique ability to link our programme and influencing agenda to our trading network which promotes a circular economy that eliminates waste and protects resources. In all of this, we’re continually striving to leverage technology and innovation to empower and mobilise people in the fight against poverty and injustice.

We have been watching a lot of positive videos on YouTube about reforestation projects to counter desertification, how does the Oxfam initiatives around Agriculture and climate resilience help to impact this and other key issues?

Climate change, the lack of access to land and poor investment in small-scale farming all contribute to food insecurity around the world. Last year, we worked with small-scale farmers to help them to diversify their crops and farming systems to survive changing climates and form co-operatives which foster financial and food security.

One ongoing project we are partnering on is directly training and supporting 200 rural smallholder farmers, in particular women, to manage run-off water ponds protected by agro-forestry trees. These ponds help reduce soil erosion while maintaining healthy and productive soil conditions. They also enable the development of irrigated field crops and the establishment of nurseries for forestry trees which can be sold by the farmers. It is our hope that this will lead to increased agricultural production and productivity leading to greater food security and more resilient livelihoods.

Another upcoming project in Rwanda will introduce and provide training on bio-intensive farming systems – an improved farming methodology based on agro-ecological principles of sustainable organic agriculture systems. The proposed project will train horticulture farmers in the use of these principles specifically within the Rwandan context, including perfecting the composting technique, soil conservation and rainwater retention techniques.

In terms of your innovation initiative, how is that developing? What success stories have you had? & any interesting, unexpected outcomes?

Oxfam is renowned internationally for its expertise in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion (WASH). We provide WASH services directly to communities in humanitarian emergencies and promote more sustainable approaches to WASH in our longer-term programmes.

We have a long history of developing new innovations and technologies across WASH. Projects over the years have ranged from the use of Tiger Worms in toilet systems to break down faecal waste into vermi-compost, which can be used as fertiliser on land or as chicken feed, to toilets in refugee camps that use urine to generate electricity.

More recently, Oxfam and Sempo have had the first successful trial demonstrating community co-development of a blockchain solution to deliver localised, cash-based disaster assistance in the Pacific region.

Local communities are always first responders – yet they are rarely the main responders to the increasing challenges of natural, climate-related and manmade crises. Blockchain technology has the potential to address existing pain points in the more traditional way of delivering aid to these communities, usually through manually distributing cash and vouchers. It is now widely accepted as the most dignified and appropriate form of humanitarian assistance which also offers an opportunity to improve the efficiency of how aid is delivered without compromising transparency and sustainability.

How will the early warning weather systems help?

Early warning weather systems provide advance warning to communities at risk of reoccurring extreme weather events. But in addition, they also allow communities to better plan for and mitigate against repeat disasters which can wipe out livelihoods and homes, and even result in loss of life.

We believe that when local communities are better prepared in terms of knowledge, knowledge-sharing and coordination, they are more able to prevent and respond to humanitarian crises.

For example, under the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) work of our colleagues in Oxfam India, their partner Unnayan has tried to minimise the impact of disasters through strengthening things like early warning systems, search and rescue abilities and community preparedness levels.

Community-based early warning system were strengthened in 10 villages by taking the following steps:

• Unnayan activates its early warning structures during the monsoon season when the chances of floods are high. A coordinator is designated to coordinate with the district administration for early warnings dissemination.
• At the community level, early warning teams are established, and their capacities are built in surveillance, warning dissemination, evacuation support and relief management.
• The traditional methods of warning dissemination (muniadis, blowing conch, beating drums) which are well understood by the communities are promoted.
• Community, with support from Unnayan, does a hazard and risk analysis considering the history of floods, vulnerable settlements in the flood prone areas.
• The coordinator tracks the water levels in consultation with the office of the central water commission.
• Manual 24 hours surveillance is activated when the water reaches the danger level.
• Water readings are registered manually every half an hour. As soon as the Government warnings are relayed it is disseminated by the coordinator telephonically to each early warning committees
• The early warning committees then act according to the Government advisories and help their respective villagers in timely evacuation. They are supported by the search and rescue teams to help the disabled, old and trapped people. This team are well trained and equipped with proper search and rescue equipment.
• Three Oxfam boats and 10 trained rescue personnel are quickly deployed during floods and work in close coordination with the district administration.
• Critical infrastructure such as raised platforms for asset storage are constructed in the most vulnerable villages to help communities protect assets which are difficult to carry during evacuation.
• Boats are provided in low-lying villages to ensure that the stranded population has access to critical infrastructures such as drinking water sources, local hospitals, and market during inundation period as well.

Tell us about your fashion sustainability initiative?

Through Fashion Relief, Second Hand September and our network of shops we offer solutions to ‘throwaway fashion’, encouraging people to donate pre-loved items and reduce the amount of clothes that end up in landfill – as well as extending the lifecycle of clothes and raising awareness about fast fashion.

We also work with retailers, encouraging them to donate their end of line or excess stock to us instead of sending it to landfill – a more sustainable solution for people and planet. All funds raised through our shops and Fashion Relief events support our work to beat poverty globally.

People have been reusing and reselling clothes with Oxfam Ireland since it opened its first shop in 1971, and since then we have worked to maximise the value of everything we are given and minimise waste.

Although there is a growing sustainable fashion movement in Ireland, it is not usually the industry people think of when considering climate villains or main polluters.

Fast fashion clothes are produced in high volume which means a high cost to the planet: According to the UNFCCC, the textiles industry accounts for more carbon emissions than international aviation and shipping combined  – is the world’s second most polluting industry after oil and it accounts for approximately 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, clothes are produced cheaply which often means low wages and poor working conditions for garment workers.

Overproduction is part of the problem. Shared Cloth published a report that states 20 items per person is produced every year (150 billion garments), and 30% of them are never sold. On top of that, cheap production and plummeting prices means the items we buy often end up in landfill before they should.

According to Re-dress, 225,000 tonnes of textiles are dumped in Ireland each year – that’s the equivalent of over 5,000 44 tonne lorry loads. This is having a devastating impact on our planet and people. We know that the world’s poorest, who did the least to cause climate change, are most affected, through droughts, floods and extreme weather events.

In addition, clothes can take up to 200 years to decompose whereas recycling the 225,000 tonnes of textiles would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 300,000 tonnes per year – the equivalent of taking 50,000 cars off the roads per year.

Oxfam staff sort clothing into different grades depending on garment type, condition, style and fabric.  The clothing donated to Oxfam Ireland is used in the most suitable market via several different routes, including:

• Oxfam high street shop – most of the donated clothing is sold in the shop it was donated too as we believe in local economy.
• online platforms such as Thriftify
• designers who restyle garments and reuse fabrics in their collections – for example, we provide denim to a company that make them into designer tote bags

The low-grade items not sold as clothing are sold in bulk to recycling reprocessing companies in Ireland where it’s used, for example, as mattress filler, carpet underlay, upholstery and car sound insulation. Unsaleable items which are too soiled or damaged to be recycled are incinerated by a textile recycler.

We ran your green election manifesto earlier this year, which parties can we look to for proactive/positive environmental activities?

Most parties commit to some level of emissions reduction, with the Green Party, People Before Profit and the Labour Party having by far the most ambitious targets. However, it is disappointing that none of the parties mentioned supporting poorer countries to cope with a climate emergency they did least to create through climate finance.

The Green Party is the only party that refers to the circular economy in its manifesto committing ‘to gradually move Ireland from a linear economy to a circular one. This will be done by developing a stronger recovery industry, reducing imported goods, and developing an associated manufacturing industry.’ Unfortunately, none of the other parties mention how the circular economy could be developed in the textile sector in their manifestos.

The textile sector, especially in terms of fast fashion, has huge potential in terms of circular practices. We need strong regulations to ensure that tonnes of clothing don’t end up in the landfill every year and to secure living wages and good working conditions for workers.

How can people find out more about you personally & your work?

There’s plenty about me online in various articles or in LinkedIn or other social media or just get in touch!

Who do you get inspiration from?

Always from the people we work with.

I have the amazing privilege of traveling to see our work across the world and am always inspired by people who are making change happen in their lives – for themselves and their communities. People like Dr. Atar who I worked with in South Sudan, who had endless opportunities to work and make a very comfortable living anywhere in the world but choose to stay and serve his community despite the war and chronic poverty.

People like Linga Mihowa, our Country director in Malawi who is a fearless voice for women’s rights – pushing boundaries and helping make transformative change happen for women and girls. We work with extraordinarily courageous people who stand up to repressive regimes or against patriarchal norms and insist on having their voices heard.

Here at home, there are people like Bridie Costello in Bray who has volunteered with Oxfam since the early 1980’s joining thousands of volunteers who give their time to support people they will never meet. We have an army of young volunteer campaigners who mobilise people to support our work and put pressure on government to do the right thing.

And there are also thousands of people across Ireland who trust Oxfam with their generosity and money to deliver for people living in poverty. And finally I work directly with the most committed, passionate people who constantly inspire and challenge me!

I am lucky to say, there is no shortage of inspirational people that I am lucky to meet along the way!

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

We are working hard to improve people’s lives, but without better co-operation from global leaders, inequality will go unchecked, climate change will be exacerbated and wars, like the ongoing conflict in Yemen, will continue to rage.

Lastly, our environmental performance and carbon emission figures are available in our annual report (pages 38 – 39). Each year we carry out carbon reporting which includes recommendations for how we can reduce our footprint for the following year. In January, we also secured our Fair-Trade Workplace certification from Fair Trade Ireland. We will continue our journey of sustainability and hope to share further updates and progress next year!

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