A Response Shaped by Inequality

In September 2017, Hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico, causing widespread destruction and more than 4,000 deaths. The storm crippled already fragile infrastructure, leaving communities without electricity, clean water, and access to healthcare for months.

Oxfam entered in the immediate aftermath, not only because of the scale of humanitarian need, but because of the stark inequities in the U.S. federal response and their disproportionate impact on women and marginalized communities. From the outset, Oxfam’s program was grounded in a commitment to confront inequality and stand alongside those most excluded from systems of power.

In 2023, Oxfam made the difficult decision to close the Puerto Rico program, constrained by declining donor interest. In line with our values, we committed to a responsible exit, providing nearly a year’s notice to current partners, seeking to mitigate any potential harm, and offering them final support in funding, capacity strengthening, and fundraising. We recognize that how we leave is as important as how we enter. This exit evaluation was commissioned in that spirit. Using Oxfam’s local humanitarian leadership commitments as the framework, the evaluators from IRMA centered the voices and experiences of our partners, creating space for candid reflection.

Local Leadership Present and Strong

Between 2017 and 2025, Oxfam partnered with more than 20 Puerto Rican organizations, including women’s rights groups, to respond to humanitarian crises, support recovery, and strengthen long-term resilience.

Local organizations and Oxfam worked collaboratively together from the beginning. Strong local organizations were already present in the context, and Oxfam followed the lead of our partners in terms of program design and implementation. In the consultations for the evaluation, partners shared that a key strength of the program was Oxfam recognizing, respecting, and importantly, resourcing the strong local leadership within Puerto Rico. As a partner shared, “We know what needs to be done because we have a very active and knowledgeable civil society.”

What Shifting Power Looked Like in Practice

Oxfam’s role quickly evolved from direct response to a partner-led model grounded in local humanitarian leadership and feminist principles.

Partners reported strong autonomy in decision-making and did not feel directed to change their priorities. All partners consulted described relationships built on trust, where Oxfam supported rather than directed their work.

Funding was a key part of this shift. Approximately 51% of Oxfam program funds were transferred directly to local partners, well above global commitments. Respondents reported that early, flexible funding enabled their organizations to act quickly and respond to needs often overlooked by traditional humanitarian systems.

But Oxfam’s added value went beyond funding. In the evaluation, partners consistently highlighted three additional areas:

• Public facing communications that elevated Puerto Rican voices. Oxfam’s support for women’s rights organizations revealed the ongoing emergency of gender-based violence, enabling them to raise awareness locally on this issue. 
• Credibility that strengthened their standing with donors. For instance, according to Casa Pueblo, the partnership with Oxfam enabled the expansion of solar lighting on the island and increased publicity for their work. 
• Collective advocacy that amplified local agendas. Oxfam was able to open doors in government spaces in Washington, DC, enabling a coalition of Puerto Rican voices to reach decision-makers and policymakers. 

A Feminist Approach Strengthened the Work

Without exception, partners participating in the evaluation agreed that Oxfam embedded a feminist approach throughout its work.

This feminist commitment was most visible in who Oxfam chose to partner with and support. The program prioritized women’s rights organizations and feminist groups working on issues such as gender-based violence, inequality, solar power, and access to services.

Through these partnerships, Oxfam adapted its understanding of humanitarian needs, learning directly from local actors. Partners emphasized that gender-based violence is as much a humanitarian emergency as a hurricane, prompting Oxfam to support the use of funding to address gender-based violence through:

• Funding to organizations such as Proyecto Matria and Kilómetro 0 to support groundbreaking research on femicides. 
• Supporting the establishment of the Observatorio de Equidad de Género, the first entity in Puerto Rico to systematically monitor and report on gender-based violence.
• Aiding the Coordinadora Paz para las Mujeres, a network of over 40 organizations, in building renewable energy systems, such as solar panels, in shelters for survivors of gender-based violence, through Oxfam’s locally led Emergency Response Fund (ERFs), a flexible funding mechanism. (Check out our newly launched research report on the ERF project, which draws lessons from three contexts, including Puerto Rico.)
• Partnering with Casa Pueblo to distribute solar lights to women leaders, highlighting the link between energy access, gender justice, and community resilience.

Oxfam also made deliberate efforts to go beyond urban centers, supporting rural and marginalized communities often excluded from mainstream aid.

Where we need to improve

The evaluation highlights important gaps in Oxfam’s programming and ways of working:

• Funding predictability: While cumulative funding levels to each partner were significant, the funding was provided through a series of consecutive grants, and partners often experienced uncertainty about future support. Partners shared that short-term funding limits their ability to plan and sustain their work. Efforts to provide more long-term funding support is necessary. 
• Institutional support: Many partners did not recall substantial investment in long-term organizational capacity strengthening, pointing to a need for deeper and more explicit support.
• Duty of care: In the early response phase, gaps in security protocols and insufficient rest for staff created risks, highlighting the importance of prioritizing safety and well-being alongside rapid response.
• Exit process: Although Oxfam aimed for a responsible exit—providing advance notice, final funding, and support—some partners experienced gaps in communication, particularly after the program ended. Several noted that Oxfam’s departure coincided with other donors leaving, compounding the impact.

From Commitment to Practice

We learned from this evaluation that Oxfam performed strongly in partnering in ways that respected local autonomy, particularly after the initial emergency phase, with partners leading design and implementation. We also learned that we should do more to support long-term funding and institutional support of our partners, prioritize safety, and communicate more throughout an exit process. The evaluation findings remind us to keep aligning our funding, partnerships, and advocacy with our commitment to local and feminist leadership, and to hold ourselves accountable when we fall short.