Oxfam leaves Cuba due to financial problems and internal reorganization

The NGO Oxfam announced on Tuesday its departure from Cuba after almost three decades, at a time when the island is facing its worst economic crisis in 27 years, due to its internal reorganization and financial problems that aggravated the pandemic.

“This decision has been taken from a process of institutional transformation, internal reorganization of the confederation (...), accelerated by the pandemic and by the impact also on Oxfam's finances, including difficulties in raising funds in other countries,” his representative on the island, Elena, explained at a press conference Gentili.

Gentili highlighted that the reorganization of Oxfam International, a confederation of 21 Oeneges based in Nairobi, Kenya, will affect 17 other countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Sierra Leone and the Dominican Republic, which, like Cuba, “are facing crisis situations.”

“It is a very tough decision that must be taken responsibly for a transformation” of Oxfam “into an even more globally balanced, more influential and more sustainable organization” to “tackle poverty and its root causes,” he said.

Oxfam arrived in Cuba in 1993, at a time when the country was facing a severe economic crisis, resulting from the disintegration of the Soviet communist bloc, its main ally and economic support for 30 years.

Paradoxically, their departure now comes when the country is going through its worst economic crisis since then, dragged by the fall in tourism during the pandemic and the tightening of the US embargo, in force since 1962.

Gentili said that the “closing of the program”, a decision taken “two years ago”, “does not mean (...) that we cannot continue to support and collaborate with civil society organizations at the country level.” He announced that Oxfam Canada will guarantee the implementation of its projects in Cuba until 2024.

For nearly three decades on the island, oenegé developed cooperation projects worth between $1 million and $1.5 million a year in the areas of sustainable agriculture, risk management and humanitarian response to natural disasters.

She also participated in the design and implementation of public policies with an emphasis on issues related to women's rights, and warned about the impact of the US embargo.

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