IMPACT
JUST ECONOMIES
I don’t know when I started living in poverty.
Throughout my life I’ve been convinced that I was middle class. We pay, we eat what we can, but I feel like we no longer have a life to speak of.
"I can no longer buy some types of fruit. Peaches, nearly €6 per kilo! When did this all get out of hand? I have to spend twice as much now, but the person selling peaches is just as poor as me – where has that money gone?
We aren’t asking for anything exceptional. No, I just want the basics, the normal stuff. To go to bed knowing there is no outstanding bill to pay tomorrow."
– Rosa
"I can no longer buy some types of fruit. Peaches, nearly €6 per kilo! When did this all get out of hand? I have to spend twice as much now, but the person selling peaches is just as poor as me – where has that money gone?
We aren’t asking for anything exceptional. No, I just want the basics, the normal stuff. To go to bed knowing there is no outstanding bill to pay tomorrow."
– Rosa
Rosa lives in Spain and is a mother of two.
After the disruption brought about by the Covid pandemic, millions of people like Rosa are struggling to pay for heating and food.
It is symptomatic of spiraling inequality in which the richest are getting richer, while the majority pay the price.
OUR WORK
We are fighting for just and sustainable economic systems that have people and planet at the center, promote equality and help end poverty; systems that build social cohesion, support the rights of all workers, and promote the economic empowerment of women, racialized and marginalized groups.
People across the world are suffering from the soaring cost of living, loss of income, hunger and the devastating effects of climate crisis.
We are fighting for just and sustainable economic systems that have people and planet at the center, promote equality and help end poverty; systems that build social cohesion, support the rights of all workers, and promote the economic empowerment of women, racialized and marginalized groups.
People across the world are suffering from the soaring cost of living, loss of income, hunger and the devastating effects of climate crisis.
Our media brief in May 2022, Profiting from Pain, predicted that in 2023, 263 million more people would crash into extreme poverty, at a rate of a million people every 33 hours.
Huge inequality has been played out in access to vaccines worldwide. In 2022–23 we continued our work with the People’s Vaccine Alliance, a global coalition working to ensure equitable access to Covid vaccines and treatments. The alliance employed multiple tactics, including the Survival of the Richest campaign against big pharma monopolies, and called on leaders during the G20 Summit in Indonesia in November 2022 to share vaccine technology. Over 13 million people around the world have taken action to demand the people’s vaccine.
We continued to investigate how far the biggest supermarkets protect the conditions and rights of the workers who produce our food, as part of our Behind the Barcode/Price campaign. Recent scores show that most supermarkets are now taking human rights more seriously, but across the board they still avoid addressing the underlying root causes of exploitation.
We continued to investigate how far the biggest supermarkets protect the conditions and rights of the workers who produce our food, as part of our Behind the Barcode/Price campaign. Recent scores show that most supermarkets are now taking human rights more seriously, but across the board they still avoid addressing the underlying root causes of exploitation.
In 2022–23 Oxfam had the opportunity to speak at the World Economic Forum (WEF) twice – an extra WEF event was scheduled in late 2022, ahead of the return to an in-person forum in January 2023.
We exposed how the richest keep getting richer, amid devastating, multiple crises; and we showed what can be done to turn the tide, primarily by increasing taxation on the world’s wealthiest.
And our Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index called on governments to reject austerity and focus on enhancing the incomes of the poorest people.
In 2022–23 Oxfam had the opportunity to speak at the World Economic Forum (WEF) twice – an extra WEF event was scheduled in late 2022, ahead of the return to an in-person forum in January 2023.
We exposed how the richest keep getting richer, amid devastating, multiple crises; and we showed what can be done to turn the tide, primarily by increasing taxation on the world’s wealthiest.
And our Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index called on governments to reject austerity and focus on enhancing the incomes of the poorest people.
OUR WORK ACROSS THE WORLD
WORLD HUNGER
Debunking myths about a broken system
We know that a broken global food system underpins the sharp increase in chronic hunger in many parts of the world. But political leaders, especially in Europe, have tended to attribute recent rises in hunger globally largely to the war in Ukraine and the inability to export wheat and other grains.
To challenge that narrative, in September 2022 we published Fixing Our Food: Debunking 10 myths about the global food system and what drives hunger. The paper urged a shift in our current food system from an industrial, exploitative and extractive model, to a local and sustainable one that recognizes people’s right to food – one that reduces inequality and poverty.
Oxfam representatives were invited to a seat at the table with governments, donors and other NGOs to help think through solutions. This included the Swedish Government Development Agency, an important donor for our work, and the European Commission, which offered us a platform to reach Commission staff, donor organizations, NGOs and other institutions that have a stake in global development issues.
The report’s influence is one step further towards alternative framing on food that considers climate and economic justice – and will lead to better outcomes for all.
DAVOS
Amplifying the voices of the majority
Every year, world leaders gather at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss resort town Davos to discuss the most pressing global challenges and drive forward solutions. Oxfam has been using this opportunity to highlight the inequality crisis and explore solutions. Our campaign activities last year in over 60 countries worldwide drew substantial media attention, reaching millions of people and pushing policy makers across the world to respond:
- The Colombian government announced its intention to host a regional summit on wealth taxes
- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez quoted Oxfam’s research during his keynote address to the WEF
- The former finance minister and a senior opposition leader in India used our key messages while critiquing the Indian national budget for 2023–24
- For the first time ever, tax was a trending topic on social media in Vietnam
- Following the success, mass campaign platform Avaaz launched a petition to over 70 million supporters on wealth taxation, drawing directly on our analysis and proposed solutions, linking our paper on its action page
- In response to Oxfam’s report, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development committed to investing significantly more in social security in developing countries.
EL SALVADOR
Tax Justice School
Twenty-five participants, mainly women and girls, made strides in demanding more progressive taxation at the 2023 seven-day Citizen School for Tax Justice in El Salvador, organized by Oxfam in alliance with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
The training, which Oxfam started in 2019, aims to extend the participation of women and young people in the development of an agenda for a more progressive, transparent and equitable tax justice. It gives social movements the analytical tools to make a legitimate demand for tax justice, and hold the government more accountable, against a backdrop of reduced citizen participation and shrinking civic space in El Salvador.
The training helped a young participant and journalist from El Gato Encerrado newspaper to publish research into pension law and budget cuts, reaching thousands of readers. Other training participants, members of the feminist and LGBTQIA+ collectives Ormusa and AMATE, were able to raise their voices at regional events in Panamá and Colombia.
In late 2023, Oxfam and partner Plataforma Global will host another training as part of the AltavosES Laboratory with a focus on developing advocacy and campaigns messaging.
GERMANY, NETHERLANDS, UK, USA
Supermarkets commit to change
In a global food industry worth trillions of dollars, too many women and men who grow and process our food are forced into lives of hardship, working long hours in inhumane conditions for little reward.
Since our 2018 launch of the Behind the Barcodes/Price campaign and Ripe for Change report, we exposed root causes behind human suffering in food supply chains, focusing on the role of supermarkets. By targeting supermarkets in Europe and North America with extensive operations across the world, we analyzed human rights policies and practices in their supply chains through four supermarket scorecards.
We initially discovered that none of the supermarkets were doing enough to ensure proper rights for those who produce our food. The Covid pandemic exacerbated inequalities, making the situation worse for workers and farmers; our report Not in this Together exposed how hardly any supermarkets provided them with substantial support, despite making record profits and shareholder payouts.
While our 2022 report Turning Point emphasized how US supermarkets must do better, the scorecard analysis of European supermarkets showed that change is possible. Most started taking workers’ rights seriously; improvements were seen concerning gender policies, transparency and commitments to human rights due diligence. Nevertheless, these supermarkets must now implement their commitments to ensure their policies and practices meaningfully protect and improve the lives of workers and farmers.
How does your supermarket check out?
UNITED STATES
Good jobs for better lives
With help from the Kellogg Foundation, Oxfam has, since 2020, worked with partners to train and place 431 individuals in local jobs in Louisiana and Mississippi. Two such partners have shown substantial growth and innovation: Dependable Source Corp (DSC) and New Way Mississippi.
DSC reaches out to groups including veterans, young people, formerly incarcerated and the unhoused; women receive targeted outreach, placing more of them in non-traditional, higher paying careers. DSC also partnered with the MS Department of Human Services Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Parenthood Initiative Program, to provide wraparound services alongside its workforce training. In the last year, over 95% of DSC graduates were trained and employed in the trucking industry, securing good salaries and benefit packages. New Way MS works to train and place returning citizens and members of the homeless population in Jackson, while advocating alongside the Mississippi Re-entry Coalition for legislation to help returning citizens become self-sufficient law-abiding citizens.
To support learning while tracking progress, Oxfam worked with Resilia – a regional non-profit organization that collaborated with partners to define key performance indicators and develop outreach efforts. For example, DSC found that by incorporating mental health evaluations into their trainings, they could better match graduates with jobs and increase employer retention.
Oxfam continues to work closely with these and other Gulf Coast partners, amplifying the voices of local partners, and providing opportunities to connect by hosting policy advocacy workshops and gender-responsive budget trainings.
Hear from Willie Jones, President and CEO of DSC, on how her team is using workforce development as a vehicle for change.
INEQUALITY
Follow The Money
In October 2022 we published the latest edition of the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index (CRI), a tool developed by Oxfam jointly with Development Finance International in 2017. Published once every two years, it monitors policies relating to spending on health, education, social protection and taxation.
The 2022 Commitment to Reducing Inequality was the first detailed analysis of measures that 161 countries pursued during the first two years of the Covid pandemic. The index showed that despite the worst health crisis in a century, half of the low and lower-middle-income countries cut their allocation to health spending in their budgets. Almost half of all countries cut their contribution to social protection, while 70% cut spending on education. Despite huge pressure on government finances, 95% of the countries audited failed to increase taxes on the richest. 143 of 161 countries froze the tax rates on their richest citizens, and 11 countries even lowered them.
The 2022 report called on governments to produce Inequality Reduction Action Plans, rejecting austerity and focusing on making tax more progressive. The report saw a good level of media coverage in more than 50 countries and in more than 15 languages.
Since 2020, we have produced CRI reports at regional levels, using the same database; between April 2022 and April 2023 we launched the Pan Africa brief and the Southern Africa report.
WORLD HUNGER
Debunking myths about a broken system
We know that a broken global food system underpins the sharp increase in chronic hunger in many parts of the world. But political leaders, especially in Europe, have tended to attribute recent rises in hunger globally largely to the war in Ukraine and the inability to export wheat and other grains.
To challenge that narrative, in September 2022 we published Fixing Our Food: Debunking 10 myths about the global food system and what drives hunger. The paper urged a shift in our current food system from an industrial, exploitative and extractive model, to a local and sustainable one that recognizes people’s right to food – one that reduces inequality and poverty.
Oxfam representatives were invited to a seat at the table with governments, donors and other NGOs to help think through solutions. This included the Swedish Government Development Agency, an important donor for our work, and the European Commission, which offered us a platform to reach Commission staff, donor organizations, NGOs and other institutions that have a stake in global development issues.
The report’s influence is one step further towards alternative framing on food that considers climate and economic justice – and will lead to better outcomes for all.
DAVOS
Amplifying the voices of the majority
Every year, world leaders gather at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss resort town Davos to discuss the most pressing global challenges and drive forward solutions. Oxfam has been using this opportunity to highlight the inequality crisis and explore solutions. Our campaign activities last year in over 60 countries worldwide drew substantial media attention, reaching millions of people and pushing policy makers across the world to respond:
- The Colombian government announced its intention to host a regional summit on wealth taxes
- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez quoted Oxfam’s research during his keynote address to the WEF
- The former finance minister and a senior opposition leader in India used our key messages while critiquing the Indian national budget for 2023–24
- For the first time ever, tax was a trending topic on social media in Vietnam
- Following the success, mass campaign platform Avaaz launched a petition to over 70 million supporters on wealth taxation, drawing directly on our analysis and proposed solutions, linking our paper on its action page
- In response to Oxfam’s report, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development committed to investing significantly more in social security in developing countries.
EL SALVADOR
Tax Justice School
Twenty-five participants, mainly women and girls, made strides in demanding more progressive taxation at the 2023 seven-day Citizen School for Tax Justice in El Salvador, organized by Oxfam in alliance with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
The training, which Oxfam started in 2019, aims to extend the participation of women and young people in the development of an agenda for a more progressive, transparent and equitable tax justice. It gives social movements the analytical tools to make a legitimate demand for tax justice, and hold the government more accountable, against a backdrop of reduced citizen participation and shrinking civic space in El Salvador.
The training helped a young participant and journalist from El Gato Encerrado newspaper to publish research into pension law and budget cuts, reaching thousands of readers. Other training participants, members of the feminist and LGBTQIA+ collectives Ormusa and AMATE, were able to raise their voices at regional events in Panamá and Colombia.
In late 2023, Oxfam and partner Plataforma Global will host another training as part of the AltavosES Laboratory with a focus on developing advocacy and campaigns messaging.
GERMANY, NETHERLANDS, UK, USA
Supermarkets commit to change
In a global food industry worth trillions of dollars, too many women and men who grow and process our food are forced into lives of hardship, working long hours in inhumane conditions for little reward.
Since our 2018 launch of the Behind the Barcodes/Price campaign and Ripe for Change report, we exposed root causes behind human suffering in food supply chains, focusing on the role of supermarkets. By targeting supermarkets in Europe and North America with extensive operations across the world, we analyzed human rights policies and practices in their supply chains through four supermarket scorecards.
We initially discovered that none of the supermarkets were doing enough to ensure proper rights for those who produce our food. The Covid pandemic exacerbated inequalities, making the situation worse for workers and farmers; our report Not in this Together exposed how hardly any supermarkets provided them with substantial support, despite making record profits and shareholder payouts.
While our 2022 report Turning Point emphasized how US supermarkets must do better, the scorecard analysis of European supermarkets showed that change is possible. Most started taking workers’ rights seriously; improvements were seen concerning gender policies, transparency and commitments to human rights due diligence. Nevertheless, these supermarkets must now implement their commitments to ensure their policies and practices meaningfully protect and improve the lives of workers and farmers.
How does your supermarket check out?
UNITED STATES
Good jobs for better lives
With help from the Kellogg Foundation, Oxfam has, since 2020, worked with partners to train and place 431 individuals in local jobs in Louisiana and Mississippi. Two such partners have shown substantial growth and innovation: Dependable Source Corp (DSC) and New Way Mississippi.
DSC reaches out to groups including veterans, young people, formerly incarcerated and the unhoused; women receive targeted outreach, placing more of them in non-traditional, higher paying careers. DSC also partnered with the MS Department of Human Services Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Parenthood Initiative Program, to provide wraparound services alongside its workforce training. In the last year, over 95% of DSC graduates were trained and employed in the trucking industry, securing good salaries and benefit packages. New Way MS works to train and place returning citizens and members of the homeless population in Jackson, while advocating alongside the Mississippi Re-entry Coalition for legislation to help returning citizens become self-sufficient law-abiding citizens.
To support learning while tracking progress, Oxfam worked with Resilia – a regional non-profit organization that collaborated with partners to define key performance indicators and develop outreach efforts. For example, DSC found that by incorporating mental health evaluations into their trainings, they could better match graduates with jobs and increase employer retention.
Oxfam continues to work closely with these and other Gulf Coast partners, amplifying the voices of local partners, and providing opportunities to connect by hosting policy advocacy workshops and gender-responsive budget trainings.
Hear from Willie Jones, President and CEO of DSC, on how her team is using workforce development as a vehicle for change.
INEQUALITY
Follow The Money
In October 2022 we published the latest edition of the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index (CRI), a tool developed by Oxfam jointly with Development Finance International in 2017. Published once every two years, it monitors policies relating to spending on health, education, social protection and taxation.
The 2022 Commitment to Reducing Inequality was the first detailed analysis of measures that 161 countries pursued during the first two years of the Covid pandemic. The index showed that despite the worst health crisis in a century, half of the low and lower-middle-income countries cut their allocation to health spending in their budgets. Almost half of all countries cut their contribution to social protection, while 70% cut spending on education. Despite huge pressure on government finances, 95% of the countries audited failed to increase taxes on the richest. 143 of 161 countries froze the tax rates on their richest citizens, and 11 countries even lowered them.
The 2022 report called on governments to produce Inequality Reduction Action Plans, rejecting austerity and focusing on making tax more progressive. The report saw a good level of media coverage in more than 50 countries and in more than 15 languages.
Since 2020, we have produced CRI reports at regional levels, using the same database; between April 2022 and April 2023 we launched the Pan Africa brief and the Southern Africa report.
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