Oxford Policy Management (OPM) is an international development consulting firm which aims to help low- and middle-income countries achieve growth and reduce poverty and disadvantage through

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

reform. The company works with donor organisations (which have included

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

and the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

), governments and

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

focusing on areas such as economic development, health, education,

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

and social welfare, with a strong focus on research. OPM is headquartered in

Oxford, UK Oxford () is a cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world; it has buildings in every ...

, and has several hundred staff and a global network of offices.

History

Born out of the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in 1979, when it was originally known as the Food Supply Analysis Group, OPM initially focused on

applied research Applied science is the application of the scientific method and scientific knowledge to attain practical goals. It includes a broad range of disciplines, such as engineering and medicine. Applied science is often contrasted with basic science, ...

to help solve the

food security Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, healthy Human food, food. The availability of food for people of any class, gender, ethnicity, or religion is another element of food protection. Simila ...

problems of Eastern and

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

. Five years later it became the Food Studies Group, addressing both the supply and demand sides of public services, supported by statistics and survey capabilities. In 1996 Oxford Policy Management was established as a limited company, separate from the University of Oxford. The company was owned half by staff and half by investors, former employees and friends of OPM, as it is today. In 2007 OPM set up its first international office in

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, led by Pakistani nationals, and by the mid-2010s it had offices across Africa and Asia.

Issues addressed

Examples of OPM's studies and policy work include: * Climate change: Action on Climate Today, a programme developing strategies to

combat climate change Climate change mitigation (or decarbonisation) is action to limit the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that cause climate change. Climate change mitigation actions include conserving energy and replacing fossil fuels with clean energy sour ...

impacts with

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

n governments * Education: Education Data, Research and Evaluation in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

(EDOREN) * Financial sector development: Towards Impact-Oriented Measurement (IOM) Systems for the FSD Network (with FSD Africa, a financial sector development programme) * Health: partner in Health & Education Resource & Advice Team (HEART) * Natural Resources and Energy: the first global study of mineral dependence, Blessing or curse? The rise of mineral dependence among low- and middle-income countries * Poverty and social protection: Public works programmes for protection and

climate resilience Climate resilience is a concept to describe how well people or ecosystems are prepared to bounce back from certain climate hazard events. The formal definition of the term is the "capacity of social, economic and ecosystems to cope with a hazardou ...

: theory of change and evidence in low-income countries * Social care services: development of

palliative care Palliative care (from Latin root "to cloak") is an interdisciplinary medical care-giving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating or reducing suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Man ...

services for the

Republic of Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

References

External links

Homepage
{{Authority control International development agencies International management consulting firms 1979 establishments in England British companies established in 1979 Consulting firms established in 1979 Companies based in Oxford Management consulting firms of the United Kingdom