Financial Transaction Tax campaign: Evaluation report

Overview

The Financial Transaction Tax (Robin Hood Tax campaign) is a series of loosely coordinated national campaigns aiming at a small tax on financial transactions, with some of the proceeds spent on development. First launched in the UK in February 2010, by mid-2012 the campaign has spread to a number of countries in both Europe and around the world. Oxfam’s contribution to the campaign involved leading or participating in coalitions in some countries, providing resources (such as communications materials) in others, and coordination of global projects and products, and during global moments. Unusually for an Oxfam campaign, it did not have one global strategy, but rather involved different coalition structures, brands and even policy asks in different locations.

This evaluation was conducted by a team of external consultants between Jan-June 2012. It involved 87 telephone interviews with internal and external stakeholders, a review of materials and monitoring information and an online survey of over 500 Oxfam GB campaign supporters. Policymakers and advisors at national and European level were some of the 21 external stakeholders from 9 countries interviewed by the evaluation team. The evaluation involved interviews with representatives from 17 countries, but focused in particular on France, Germany and the UK.

The evaluation took place during a ‘live’ campaign, and capitalized on opportunities for the team to benefit from campaign findings in real time.