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Fighting inequality is not just an issue of fairness but an economic necessity. That’s not Oxfam speaking, but the International Monetary Fund today. 

Luc Lamprière, spokesperson for Oxfam said:

Income inequality is high or increasing in 60 percent (64 out of 106) of low- and middle-income countries receiving grants or loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, reveals new Oxfam analysis ahead of the 2024 Spring Meetings in Washington D.C. Countries with high levels of income inequality have Gini coefficients above 0.4, the warning level set by the United Nations.

Runaway inequality has created a world where 62 people own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population – a figure that has fallen from 388 just five years ago, according to an Oxfam report published today ahead of the annual gathering of the world’s financial and political elites in Davos.

A new Oxfam report today says that as many as 11 people are likely dying of hunger and malnutrition each minute. This is more than the current global death rate of COVID-19, which is around seven people per minute. The report, ‘says that conflict remains the primary cause of hunger since the pandemic, pushing over half a million people into famine-like conditions ―a six-fold increase since 2020.

The European Union, which holds eight seats out of twenty four on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) board, has made an offer to rotate some of their IMF board seats with middle-income countries

As the era of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) comes to an end, the world has a historic opportunity to set ambitious goals to end poverty and protect the planet. This paper puts forwards Oxfam’s proposals for what new goals and targets should be included and how they can be designed to bring about lasting change.

Political leaders have admitted that they will probably fail to deliver on promises to halve world hunger by 2015

 

What is the IMF doing in practice to tackle inequality? Its main initiative has been a series of pilots that integrate inequality analysis into its economic surveillance of countries. This paper outlines Oxfam’s evaluation of these pilots and finds that they are not promoting policies that reduce inequality.