In order to improve Oxfam's response to humanitarian emergencies, a Disasters Unit was established in the early 1970s, alongside a Health Unit and, later, a Technical Unit. As the Disasters Unit grew in the following decades it was renamed the Emergencies Unit (late 1980s), the Emergencies Department (1993) and the Humanitarian Department (2000).

In 1993, following the disbanding of the Health Unit and the Technical Unit, a Public Health Team relating to these functions was formed within the Emergencies Department.