poverty

The combined wealth of the richest 1 percent will overtake that of the other 99 percent of people next year unless the current trend of rising inequality is checked, Oxfam warned today ahead of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.

Inequality is spiralling out of control, but consensus on how to address it is gathering pace. Following on from the success of last year’s symposium about Africa’s extractives industry and illicit financial flows, Oxfam and the University of Oxford are coming together again to examine the causes and consequences of uneven economic growth and rising inequality in the global South, while assessing policy solutions and charting a way forward for equity, democracy and social stability.

Germany and Spain have made the most dramatic increases in perceived seriousness of poverty and homelessness according to the latest GlobeScan poll of 24,000 citizens across 24 countries.

On the newly published UN Synthesis Report on the post-2015 framework, which sets the global development agenda for the next 15 years: Oxfam is disappointed that the UN has not made far stronger proposals to address extreme economic inequality and climate change in its new report.

G20 Leaders meeting in Brisbane, Australia this weekend (15 and 16 November) are being urged to tackle rising inequality head-on or risk leaving millions of people trapped in poverty, as new figures reveal the wealth disparity in a number of G20 countries.

The gap between the rich and the rest is extreme and growing. G20 nations are not immune.

Rising inequality could set the fight against poverty back by decades, Oxfam warned today as it published a new report showing that the number of billionaires worldwide has more than doubled since the financial crisis. 

Oxfam presents new evidence that the gap between rich and poor is growing ever wider and is undermining poverty eradication. This report delves into the causes of the inequality crisis and looks at the concrete solutions that can overcome it.

Extreme inequality is hurting us all. Its damages economic growth, threatens decades of progress toward ending poverty and contributes to the death of one person every four seconds. Such stark inequality is not inevitable – it is the consequence of political and economic choices. And it can be reversed.

South Africa is considered a ‘food-secure’ nation, producing enough calories to adequately feed every one of its 53 million people. However, the reality is that one in four people currently suffers hunger on a regular basis.