Six cool inequality moments to watch out for.
Six cool inequality moments to watch out for.
A peak behind the scenes ahead of some major upcoming global inequality moments
The team at Oxfam has been busy putting together new analysis ahead of some of the biggest annual inequality moments. Today, we bring you a teaser of what’s coming up.
Today at UNGA: Oligarchy and Multilateralism Debate with South African Foreign Minister- tune in online. The United Nations General Assembly meets this week. The dire humanitarian situation and risk of all-out war in the Middle East rightfully tops of the main agenda.
On the sidelines, Oxfam and the Ford Foundation are holding an event about how extreme inequality and global oligarchy are undermining multilateralism. Accompanying research for the event highlights that the world’s richest 1% own more wealth than 95% of humanity and details how large corporations and the ultrarich use their vast resources to shape global rules in their favour, often at the expense of everyone else.
Speakers at the event include Ronald Lamola, South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Nanjala Nyabola, a Kenyan independent writer, activist and researcher, and Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International. Karen Attiah, columnist for The Washington Post, will moderate.
You can watch today’s live stream of the event here at 1pm ET / 7pm CET / 8pm Nairobi.
The EQUALS podcast is back! We have an exciting season of guests lined up on our podcast which begins tomorrow, on 27th September. Naf and Max are excited to be joined by our new hosts Annie and Grazielle as we interview experts on all dimensions of inequality. The first episode is an in-depth and fascinating interview with the new Executive Director of Oxfam International Amitabh Behar on what motivates him to fight inequality. Follow us wherever you get our podcasts using this link.
Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank. Oxfam’s flagship research, The Commitment to Reducing Inequality index (CRI 2024) will be launched on the 21st October to coincide with the World Bank and IMF annual meetings.
Now in its fifth edition, the research assesses the commitment of 164 countries and regions to fighting inequality. This year’s report highlights huge cuts to education, health and/or social protection budgets, the backtracking of progressive taxation and regressions on labour rights and minimum wages. It also looks at the role of the World Bank and IMF in the fight to reduce inequality; the actions they are taking that are increasing the gap, and what more they can do to reduce it.
G20: The widely anticipated meeting of world leaders’ in Brazil meet on the 18th November. In our update last month, we reported that G20 Finance Ministers had agreed to a historic tax declaration. As the G20 leaders summit happens in November, we will be pushing for them to endorse and build on this declaration to commit to work closely together to tax the richest.
COP29: At last year’s COP, Oxfam put the inequality of climate change high on the global agenda. This year’s climate and inequality report will be out just ahead of the COP and is looking really exciting. It details the deadly effect of climate terrorism by the elite. In a groundbreaking study, ‘Carbon Inequality Kills’ tracks the emissions from the private jets, super yachts and investments of the world’s richest people, detailing what soaring global temperatures means in terms of deaths, hunger and inequality to the people who did the least to cause it. The report will be launched on 29th October.
Africa Inequality Report: Our latest regional report on inequality in Africa will be released on December 1st. With South Africa taking the chair of the G20, the report will be launched there, as well as across the continent. The report draws on the latest data to show the scale and causes of inequality in Africa, home to the world’s most unequal countries.
Davos 2025: As the world’s rich and powerful meet in Switzerland, in late January 2025, Oxfam will again highlight the gross levels of global economic inequality. The 2025 report will detail how the super-rich are takers not makers, with most wealth inherited or from crony sources. IN particular this year’s report will look at historic and modern day colonialism, and how this drives extreme wealth inequality, particularly how these colonial systems of economic exploitation continue to benefit the super-rich at the expense of ordinary people all over the world today.
Other cool things this week:
At UNGA, President Lula of Brazil and President Petro of Colombia both used Oxfam’s inequality statistics in their speeches to the General Assembly.
