In 1961, Oxfam appointed its first Field Director, based in southern Africa and tasked with overseeing and developing the programme there. Other such appointments followed in Asia and elsewhere. Field Secretaries in Oxford were points of contact for the Field Directors. This administration grew to form 'Desks' based on geographical regions, including Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Field Secretaries and Desks were concerned with the entire programme in their regions, whether in terms of development or response to disasters, while the Disasters Unit and its successors led Oxfam's humanitarian emergency response. A process of decentralisation in the 1990s, referred to as 'regionalisation', resulted in management responsibilities being transferred from the Oxford Desks to regional offices in the countries in which Oxfam worked.