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

More than 170 former heads of state and government and Nobel laureates, including former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown, former President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of France François Hollande and Nobel Laureates Professor Joseph Stiglitz and Professor Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, today called on President Biden to support a waiver of intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines and pursue a people’s vaccine to end the pandemic in an open letter today.

In response to World Health Organization (WHO) member states not reaching an agreement on a pandemic accord in time for the World Health Assembly this week, Oxfam International’s Health Policy Lead, Anna Marriott, said: “Negotiators have been working on drawing up a global treaty meant to prevent a repeat of the extreme vaccine apartheid between Global North and South during the COVID-19 pandemic. But time and time again in these negotiations, rich countries have danced to the tune of big pharmaceutical corporations instead of healing the deep geopolitical chasms caused by their short-sighed vaccine nationalism."

As UNGA77 kicks off, Oxfam experts are engaging with a delegation in New York along with remote participation. Oxfam experts will be focused on issues including Hunger and the Global Food System, Climate Justice, the crisis in Yemen, Ukraine, COVID-19 recovery, Inequality, Education, and more. 

The COVID-19 death toll has been four times higher in lower-income countries than in rich ones, according to a new report published today by Oxfam on behalf of the People’s Vaccine Alliance as the world marks two years since the World Health Organization declared the pandemic. 

This report describes some of the work that Oxfam International has done so far around the world in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Three months into the crisis, we have reached over 4.5m people and aim to reach 14m people by raising €100m. 

“The G20 reiterated previous commitments to reduce inequality, boost the participation of women in work and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. The G20 said they would draw up a proper response to the refugee and migrant challenge next year, which is too late. The world needs urgent action now, not more words.”

Today’s World Wealth Report from Capgemini shows that times have never been better for the world’s wealthiest - since 2009 more than 4.5 million new millionaires have been created, rising to a total of 15.4 million millionaires across the world last year. Yet while the wealthy prosper, 702 million people living in extreme poverty are being left behind.

Eighty two percent of the wealth generated last year went to the richest one percent of the global population, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth, according to a new Oxfam report released today.

Dangerous, poorly paid work for the many is supporting extreme wealth for the few. Women are in the worst work, and almost all the super-rich are men. Governments must create a more equal society by prioritizing ordinary workers and small-scale food producers instead of the rich and powerful.