As the Desks became established, the administrations for Asia and the Middle East were drawn together under one Area Director. A process of decentralisation in the 1990s, referred to as 'regionalisation', resulted in management responsibility for Asia being transferred to a Regional Management Centre in Asia. The administration for the Middle East remained in Oxford as part of the Regional Management Centre for Russia, Eastern Europe, the Former Soviet Union and the Middle East (later the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States region).

The Consortium of British Charities, comprising Christian Aid, Oxfam and War on Want, was formed, initially as the Disasters Emergency Committee Sub-Committee for East Pakistan, to carry out a programme of work in East Pakistan, later Bangladesh, following the 1970 cyclone and the civil war in 1971. (See MS. Oxfam PRG/3/3/2/5-8.)

In 1979 Oxfam initiated the formation of the NGO Consortium for Kampuchea (Cambodia), which carried out a programme of relief there from October 1979 to December 1981. The Kampuchea Information Office, based on the Asia Desk in Oxfam House, coordinated and managed communications relating to the programme with Consortium members (see MS. Oxfam PRG/3/3/2/13-15).

Oxfam's Indochina Working Group was established in 1985 to support its lobbying and campaigning work relating to Kampuchea, Thailand and Vietnam particularly, in the first years of its existence. In May 1988 the Working Group was split into the Indochina Policy Group and the Kampuchea Working Group. The Kampuchea Working Group was disbanded in Nov 1988, the Indochina Policy Group in May 1991. (See MS. Oxfam PRG/3/3/2/69-72.)