Dr Tim Lusty obituary

Oxfam’s first disasters officer, he was the inspirational leader of the charity’s health unit

Dr Tim Lusty, who has died of cancer aged 76, was a pioneering figure in both emergency and health development work, within Oxfam and beyond. Under his inspirational leadership, from 1976 until 1987, the Oxfam health unit introduced one innovation after another, including the development of emergency feeding kits, high-energy biscuits and water distribution kits, still in use today.

Tim’s distinctive contribution was to insist on embedding disaster responses and community health programmes within a clear evidence base. This emphasis on measurement was to become unpopular within Oxfam during the Cambodian emergency of 1979. Tim’s assessment (showing low rates of child undernutrition) diverged from the organisation’s initial declaration of famine in the wake of the Khmer Rouge, but his principled insistence on an evidence-based approach was vindicated and subsequently endorsed in policy.

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