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Inequality trapping hundreds of millions in extreme poverty: Oxfam
At a crossroads: Giant effigies depicting G7 leaders have two routes to choose from: the road to fueling inequality or the road to fighting poverty
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span class="inline inline-center">At a crossroads: Giant effigies depicting G7 leaders have two routes to choose from: the road to fueling inequality or the road to fighting poverty. (Courtesy of Oxfam International)'
More than 200 million people will be trapped in extreme poverty unless countries accelerate actions to tackle economic inequality, Oxfam warned in a paper published Monday.
The international aid agency further says the global goals for sustainable development that world leaders will promise at a UN summit later this week will be impossible to meet without policies enabling the poorest to benefit most from economic growth.
Oxfam's report, entitled Inequality and the End of Poverty, uses projections by World Bank economists to demonstrate how, even using optimistic assumptions about global growth, 200 million people will be trapped unnecessarily in extreme poverty by 2030, unless poor people's incomes grow faster than those of the rich.
'We can eradicate extreme poverty - but to do this we must tackle the growing gap between the richest and the rest. Extreme economic inequality has trapped hundreds of millions of people in a life of hunger, sickness and hardship,' Oxfam International executive director Winnie Byanyima said on Monday.
'Wealth does not automatically trickle down to those who need it most. It's up to politicians to ensure everyone gets a fair share of the benefits,' she went on.
People are categorized as living in extreme poverty if they have an income of less than US$1.25 per day.
Oxfam's report welcomes the historic success that saw poverty levels reducing by half between 1990 and 2010. However the report also demonstrates how rising inequality in many countries prevented even greater progress.
Oxfam says countries need to take action in three areas. They include clamping down on corporate tax dodgers that cheat developing countries out of billions of dollars each year, investing in public services so that everyone has access to a decent education and healthcare, ensuring decent jobs with decent wages, and fair deals for small farmers and others who survive by selling the fruits of their labor.
The agency says G20 finance ministers meeting in Lima next month can help scale up the fight against corporate tax dodging by backing collective international action to make multinational companies pay their fair share of tax in all the countries where they do business.
'The G20 should support calls from developing countries for the establishment of a new global tax body, which will bring all countries together to reform the global tax system.' (ebf)
