The first meeting of the Development Education Grants Committee was held on 29 July 1980, with Michael Rowntree as the first Chair and Owen G. ('Og') Thomas, Education Officer, as the first Secretary. It had eight members. The Committee was formed following a recommendation made in the Director's Report to the meeting of Oxfam's Executive Committee of 24 Jun 1980, that 5% of budgeted income should continue to be used for educational work and that an education grants committee similar to the existing Field Committees should be established to oversee and agree the educational grants made to non-Oxfam bodies.

In c.1986, the name of the committee was changed to the Development Education Committee. The committee was stood down in 1993, along with most other trusteee committees, following recommendations made for the restructuring of Oxfam. At its final meeting on 21/22 May 1993, the Development Education Committee approved a proposal for a new advisory group for development education to be formed. Most members of the Commitee transferred to the new group, called the Development Education Advisory Group (DEAG).

The DEAG was stood down in June 1996, after the Campaigns Department Development Education Management Team suggested that there was no short-term role for the Group, due to a lack of clarity about the advisory needs of Oxfam's Development Education programme and processes for commissioning work, and the review of three national grant-funding schemes.