The rising price of food caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and increased energy costs could push a quarter of a billion more people into extreme poverty, Oxfam has warned.
The charity said these new challenges had piled on to the economic crises created by Covid, and called for urgent international action, including cancelling debt repayments for poorer countries.
“Without immediate radical action, we could be witnessing the most profound collapse of humanity into extreme poverty and suffering in memory,” said Oxfam’s international executive director, Gabriela Bucher.
Oxfam’s briefing, released on Tuesday ahead of World Bank and IMF spring meetings next week, said indebted governments could be forced to cut public spending to meet the rising cost of importing fuel and food.
Oxfam said cancelling debt repayments for this year and next could free up $30bn (£23bn) for dozens of the countries facing the biggest debts.
Read more at:
Quarter of a billion people now face extreme poverty, warns Oxfam | Global development | The Guardian
Showing posts with label Oxfam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oxfam. Show all posts
4/13/22
3/28/17
European Banking Industry: Oxfam claims Ireland is a tax haven for EU banks
The 'Opening the Vaults' study, completed in conjunction with the Fair Finance Guide International, shows that banks reporting in Ireland made over €2.3 billion in profits on €3bn of turnover in 2015.
This 76% profitability rate is four times higher than the global average – only the Cayman Island had a higher rate with 167%.
The report of Europe's 20 biggest banks stated that:
"The 16 top European banks operating in Ireland examined in the research paid an average effective tax rate in Ireland of no more than 6% – half the statutory rate of 12.5% – with three banks (Barclays, RBS and Crédit Agricole) paying no more than 2%."
It named Luxembourg and Ireland as the "most favoured tax havens" in Europe, accounting for 29% of the profits banks posted in such areas in 2015.
The 20 biggest banks posted €4.9bn of profits in Luxembourg in 2015 – more than they did in the UK, Sweden and Germany combined.
Read more: Oxfam claims Ireland is a tax haven for banks | Newstalk
1/18/16
Wealth: Richest 62 billionaires as wealthy as half the world population combined
The vast and growing gap between rich and poor has been laid bare in a new Oxfam report showing that the 62 richest billionaires own as much wealth as the poorer half of the world’s population.
Timed to coincide with this week’s gathering of many of the super-rich at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, the report calls for urgent action to deal with a trend showing that 1% of people own more wealth than the other 99% combined.
Oxfam said that the wealth of the poorest 50% dropped by 41% between 2010 and 2015, despite an increase in the global population of 400m. In the same period, the wealth of the richest 62 people increased by $500bn to $1.76tn.
The charity said that, in 2010, the 388 richest people owned the same wealth as the poorest 50%. This dropped to 80 in 2014 before falling again in 2015.
Mark Goldring, the Oxfam GB chief executive, said: “It is simply unacceptable that the poorest half of the world population owns no more than a small group of the global super-rich – so few, you could fit them all on a single coach.
“World leaders’ concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action to ensure that those at the bottom get their fair share of economic growth. In a world where one in nine people go to bed hungry every night, we cannot afford to carry on giving the richest an ever bigger slice of the cake.”
Note EU-Digest: Hope our politicians are reading this because they have completely failed on a local and global scale to remedy this ever increasing global problem. Finger pointing to others for this disaster is not acceptable.
Read more: Richest 62 billionaires as wealthy as half the world population combined
Timed to coincide with this week’s gathering of many of the super-rich at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, the report calls for urgent action to deal with a trend showing that 1% of people own more wealth than the other 99% combined.
Oxfam said that the wealth of the poorest 50% dropped by 41% between 2010 and 2015, despite an increase in the global population of 400m. In the same period, the wealth of the richest 62 people increased by $500bn to $1.76tn.
The charity said that, in 2010, the 388 richest people owned the same wealth as the poorest 50%. This dropped to 80 in 2014 before falling again in 2015.
Mark Goldring, the Oxfam GB chief executive, said: “It is simply unacceptable that the poorest half of the world population owns no more than a small group of the global super-rich – so few, you could fit them all on a single coach.
“World leaders’ concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action to ensure that those at the bottom get their fair share of economic growth. In a world where one in nine people go to bed hungry every night, we cannot afford to carry on giving the richest an ever bigger slice of the cake.”
Note EU-Digest: Hope our politicians are reading this because they have completely failed on a local and global scale to remedy this ever increasing global problem. Finger pointing to others for this disaster is not acceptable.
Read more: Richest 62 billionaires as wealthy as half the world population combined
6/9/15
Africa: Corporate Tax Dodging Cheats Africa Out of 6 Billion Dollars, Says Oxfam - by Sean Buchanan
G7-based companies and investors cheated Africa out of an estimated
six billion dollars in a year through just one form of tax dodging,
according to a new Oxfam report 'Money talks: Africa at the G7',
released Jun. 2.
This is equivalent to three times the amount needed to plug the healthcare funding gap in the Ebola-affected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and at-risk Guinea Bissau.
According to an Oxfam briefing paper release in April this year, an estimated 1.7 billion dollars is required to close the healthcare funding gap to improve dangerously inadequate health systems in these countries. This figure is based on raising spending to the recommendation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) that 86 dollars per capita is required to achieve the minimum package of essential services.
"Multinational companies, many with headquarters in the US United Kingdom and other G7 countries, are cheating African countries out of billions of dollars in vital tax revenues that could help vulnerable people get decent healthcare and send their children to school", saysNick Brye, Oxfam's Head of U.K. Campaigns
Read more: allAfrica.com: Africa: Corporate Tax Dodging Cheats Africa Out of 6 Billion Dollars, Says Oxfam
This is equivalent to three times the amount needed to plug the healthcare funding gap in the Ebola-affected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and at-risk Guinea Bissau.
According to an Oxfam briefing paper release in April this year, an estimated 1.7 billion dollars is required to close the healthcare funding gap to improve dangerously inadequate health systems in these countries. This figure is based on raising spending to the recommendation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) that 86 dollars per capita is required to achieve the minimum package of essential services.
"Multinational companies, many with headquarters in the US United Kingdom and other G7 countries, are cheating African countries out of billions of dollars in vital tax revenues that could help vulnerable people get decent healthcare and send their children to school", saysNick Brye, Oxfam's Head of U.K. Campaigns
Read more: allAfrica.com: Africa: Corporate Tax Dodging Cheats Africa Out of 6 Billion Dollars, Says Oxfam
5/9/15
Solving poverty? The 1% Will Own Half of Global Wealth by 2016, but Oxfam Has a Plan to Even Things Out - by Laura Kiesel
Currently, the 80 wealthiest people in the world own a combined $1.9
trillion. Of this, the lion’s share is owned by U.S. citizens--as 35 of the top 80 are Americans--making the United States the most widely represented nation in the 1%.
“Our nation has long presented itself to the world as the model of successful, inclusive growth that lifts millions into the middle class,” Gawain Kripke, Policy Director at Oxfam America, told Main Street in an email. “[Yet] today, the U.S. ranks ten out 12 OECD countries in social mobility.”
According to Kripke, the current federal minimum wage is part of the problem contributing to the lack of social mobility among the lower and middle classes.
“Our country has the highest proportion of low-wage workers of any developed country, people who work hard but...are barely able to make ends meet,” says Kripke. “At least one in four Americans work at jobs that pay so little that they cannot sustain themselves and their families without turning to government programs or going into debt.”
At $7.25 per hour, a full-time worker makes $15,080 a year--almost $4,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. This rate has been stagnant for seven years, and according to Kripke, is more than 30% below what it was in inflation-adjusted dollars in 1968.
“Money buys political clout, which the richest and most powerful use to further entrench their influence and advantages,” says Kripke. “The preferences of the poorest people, however, demonstrate no statistical impact on the voting patterns of their elected officials.”
Paul S. Adams, associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, notes that this can have serious implications for the American middle and working classes.
“There are other consequences in the U.S. as well, ranging from the ability of the most affluent to unduly influence the political system, and even basic access to quality healthcare, education, housing, transportation and worker protections,” says Adams. “Too much concentration of wealth in the hands of a few seems inherently unstable as an economic order in modern political economic systems.”
To address these consequences and the other issues inherent in extreme income inequality, Oxfam International revealed a “Seven Point Plan,” as part of its Even It Up Campaign, which is as follows:
-- Clamp down on tax dodging by corporations and rich individual
-- Invest in universal, free public services such as health and education
-- Share the tax burden fairly, shifting taxation from labour and consumption toward capital and wealth
-- Introduce minimum wages and move towards a living wage for all workers
-- Introduce equal pay legislation and promote economic policies to give women a fair deal
-- Ensure adequate safety-nets for the poorest, including a minimum income guarantee
-- Agree to a global goal to tackle inequality.
Byanyima has expressed that if nothing is done to address the issue, it’s not just people on the bottom who will suffer, but the entire global economy.
Read more: The 1% Will Own Half of Global Wealth by 2016, but Oxfam Has a Plan to Even Things Out
“Our nation has long presented itself to the world as the model of successful, inclusive growth that lifts millions into the middle class,” Gawain Kripke, Policy Director at Oxfam America, told Main Street in an email. “[Yet] today, the U.S. ranks ten out 12 OECD countries in social mobility.”
According to Kripke, the current federal minimum wage is part of the problem contributing to the lack of social mobility among the lower and middle classes.
“Our country has the highest proportion of low-wage workers of any developed country, people who work hard but...are barely able to make ends meet,” says Kripke. “At least one in four Americans work at jobs that pay so little that they cannot sustain themselves and their families without turning to government programs or going into debt.”
At $7.25 per hour, a full-time worker makes $15,080 a year--almost $4,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. This rate has been stagnant for seven years, and according to Kripke, is more than 30% below what it was in inflation-adjusted dollars in 1968.
“Money buys political clout, which the richest and most powerful use to further entrench their influence and advantages,” says Kripke. “The preferences of the poorest people, however, demonstrate no statistical impact on the voting patterns of their elected officials.”
Paul S. Adams, associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, notes that this can have serious implications for the American middle and working classes.
“There are other consequences in the U.S. as well, ranging from the ability of the most affluent to unduly influence the political system, and even basic access to quality healthcare, education, housing, transportation and worker protections,” says Adams. “Too much concentration of wealth in the hands of a few seems inherently unstable as an economic order in modern political economic systems.”
To address these consequences and the other issues inherent in extreme income inequality, Oxfam International revealed a “Seven Point Plan,” as part of its Even It Up Campaign, which is as follows:
-- Clamp down on tax dodging by corporations and rich individual
-- Invest in universal, free public services such as health and education
-- Share the tax burden fairly, shifting taxation from labour and consumption toward capital and wealth
-- Introduce minimum wages and move towards a living wage for all workers
-- Introduce equal pay legislation and promote economic policies to give women a fair deal
-- Ensure adequate safety-nets for the poorest, including a minimum income guarantee
-- Agree to a global goal to tackle inequality.
Byanyima has expressed that if nothing is done to address the issue, it’s not just people on the bottom who will suffer, but the entire global economy.
Read more: The 1% Will Own Half of Global Wealth by 2016, but Oxfam Has a Plan to Even Things Out
1/16/14
European Financial Markets: Europe tightens up financial market rules - but Britain once again "odd man out"
The Europe Union is to tighten regulation of financial markets under a deal to prevent any repetition of the rampant speculation which helped bring down banks and crash the global economy.
After two years of tough talks, the European Parliament and negotiators for the 28 member states agreed a deal in principle that sets new rules to regulate the market, known as MiFID II.
Read more: Europe tightens up financial market rules - Yahoo News
After two years of tough talks, the European Parliament and negotiators for the 28 member states agreed a deal in principle that sets new rules to regulate the market, known as MiFID II.
"These new rules will improve the way capital markets function to the benefit of the real economy," said the EU's Financial Markets Commissioner Michel Barnier.
"They are a key step towards establishing a safer, more open and more responsible financial system and restoring investor confidence in the wake of the financial crisis."
Barnier first pushed for the new rules in 2011 at the height of the eurozone debt crisis which was sparked by the 2008 global financial crash.
They aim to curb speculative trading in commodities and to regulate high-frequency trading so as better to protect investors and make the markets less crisis prone.
They will apply to investment firms, market operators and services providing post-trade transparency information in the European Union, a parliament statement said.
They will notably force market players to buy and sell financial instruments on regulated markets comparable to stock exchanges to ensure that all trading is tracked by MiFID.
International aid group Oxfam welcomed the deal but warned of the dangers of exemptions, especially for Britain which is home to one of the world's largest financial markets in London.
"Today's decision marks a good start in tackling 'gambling' on food prices which are a matter of life and death to millions," Oxfam said.
But "the deal is far from perfect," Oxfam said." Unjustified exemptions were granted to powerful lobbies and limits will be set nationally, rather than at the European level.
"There is a real risk, particularly in the UK, of ineffective sky high limits triggering a regulatory race to the bottom between European countries," it said in a statement.
3/17/13
Food Industry: The Ethics of Big Food
Last month, Oxfam, the international aid organization, launched a campaign called “Behind the Brands.” The goal is to assess the transparency of the world’s ten biggest food and beverage companies concerning how their goods are produced, and to rate their performance on sensitive issues like the treatment of small-scale farmers, sustainable water and land use, climate change, and exploitation of women.
Consumers have an ethical responsibility to be aware of how their food is produced, and the big brands have a corresponding obligation to be more transparent about their suppliers, so that their customers can make informed choices about what they are eating. In many cases, the biggest food companies themselves do not know how they perform on these issues, betraying a profound lack of ethical responsibility on their part.
Nestlé scored highest on transparency, as they provide information on at least some of their commodity sources and audit systems. But even its rating is only “fair.” General Mills was at the bottom of the ranking.
In addition to this lack of transparency, Oxfam’s report identifies several deficiencies common to all of the Big 10 food companies. They are not providing small-scale farmers with an equal opportunity to sell into their supply chains, and when small-scale farmers do have the opportunity to sell to the big brands’ suppliers, they may not receive a fair price for their product.
The Big 10 are also not taking sufficient responsibility to ensure that their larger-scale farm suppliers pay a decent living wage to their workers. There are 450 million wage workers in agriculture worldwide, and in many countries they are often inadequately paid, with 60% living in poverty.
Some of the Big 10 are doing more than others to develop ethical policies in these areas. Unilever has committed itself to sourcing more raw materials from small-scale farmers, and has pledged 100% sustainable sourcing for all of its main commodities by 2020. This policy gave Unilever the highest score on openness to small farmers, with a rating of “fair.” Danone, General Mills, and Kellogg’s were at the bottom, with a rating of “very poor.”
Read more: The Ethics of Big Food | New Europe
Consumers have an ethical responsibility to be aware of how their food is produced, and the big brands have a corresponding obligation to be more transparent about their suppliers, so that their customers can make informed choices about what they are eating. In many cases, the biggest food companies themselves do not know how they perform on these issues, betraying a profound lack of ethical responsibility on their part.
Nestlé scored highest on transparency, as they provide information on at least some of their commodity sources and audit systems. But even its rating is only “fair.” General Mills was at the bottom of the ranking.
In addition to this lack of transparency, Oxfam’s report identifies several deficiencies common to all of the Big 10 food companies. They are not providing small-scale farmers with an equal opportunity to sell into their supply chains, and when small-scale farmers do have the opportunity to sell to the big brands’ suppliers, they may not receive a fair price for their product.
The Big 10 are also not taking sufficient responsibility to ensure that their larger-scale farm suppliers pay a decent living wage to their workers. There are 450 million wage workers in agriculture worldwide, and in many countries they are often inadequately paid, with 60% living in poverty.
Some of the Big 10 are doing more than others to develop ethical policies in these areas. Unilever has committed itself to sourcing more raw materials from small-scale farmers, and has pledged 100% sustainable sourcing for all of its main commodities by 2020. This policy gave Unilever the highest score on openness to small farmers, with a rating of “fair.” Danone, General Mills, and Kellogg’s were at the bottom, with a rating of “very poor.”
Read more: The Ethics of Big Food | New Europe
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)