Oxfam's Executive Director announces departure to head human rights organization

Dr Aruna Rao, Chair of the Oxfam International Board, said today: 

“Oxfam International Executive Director Gabriela Bucher has been offered a new leadership challenge in the field of human rights and it is with regret that I share that she will be leaving Oxfam on 30 April 2023. Gabriela will head up the The Fund for Global Human Rights, headquartered in Washington DC.

Gabriela quickly established her leadership credentials at Oxfam and impressed us all with her warmth and collegiate style of convening our global confederation, and her incredibly hard work and commitment to our cause of tackling inequality and poverty. Gabriela most recently led Oxfam’s latest exposé of global inequality at Davos, carrying our message to all corners of the world with great effect. The Board and all Oxfam’s affiliates and staff will miss her and wish her well.

During Gabriela’s tenure, Oxfam reached more than 25 million people through our long-term development programs and humanitarian interventions, including in partnerships with more than 4,000 civil society organizations in more than 90 countries. Gabriela shepherded Oxfam’s COVID-19 response, which saw us support 14.3m people, hundreds of health facilities and thousands of local businesses. She saw Oxfam mobilize over 3m people to take action against inequality, and personally led our advocacy work on this issue, pushing for systemic change with the World Bank, IMF and EU.

Gabriela continued our efforts to diversify our decision-making into the South, seeing a new Oxfam affiliate established in Colombia, and others on their paths to full affiliation in the Philippines, the Pacific, Indonesia, Kenya and Senegal. She oversaw a pivotal governance reform and launched our new 10-year global strategic framework.

The Oxfam International Board has launched a recruitment process for our next International Executive Director. We will be appointing an interim Executive Director in the coming weeks.”