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	Inequality Kills: The unparalleled action needed to combat unprecedented inequality by Oxfam International, agencies   17 Jan. 2022   Ten richest men double their fortunes in pandemic while incomes of 99 percent of humanity fall   The world’s ten richest men more than doubled their fortunes from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion — at a rate of $15,000 per second or $1.3 billion a day — during the first two years of a pandemic that has seen the incomes of 99 percent of humanity fall and over 160 million more people forced into poverty.   “If these ten men were to lose 99.999 percent of their wealth tomorrow, they would still be richer than 99 percent of all the people on this planet,” said Oxfam International’s Executive Director Gabriela Bucher. “They now have six times more wealth than the poorest 3.1 billion people.”   In a new briefing “Inequality Kills,” published today ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda, Oxfam says that inequality is contributing to the death of at least 21,000 people each day, or one person every four seconds. This is a conservative finding based on deaths globally from lack of access to healthcare, gender-based violence, hunger, and climate breakdown.   “It has never been so important to start righting the violent wrongs of this obscene inequality by clawing back elites’ power and extreme wealth including through taxation —getting that money back into the real economy and to save lives," she said.   Billionaires’ wealth has risen more since COVID-19 began than it has in the last 14 years. At $5 trillion dollars, this is the biggest surge in billionaire wealth since records began. A one-off 99 percent tax on the ten richest men’s pandemic windfalls, for example, could pay: to make enough vaccines for the world; to provide universal healthcare and social protection, fund climate adaptation and reduce gender-based violence in over 80 countries; All this, while still leaving these men $8 billion better off than they were before the pandemic.   “Billionaires have had a terrific pandemic. Central banks pumped trillions of dollars into financial markets to save the economy, yet much of that has ended up lining the pockets of billionaires riding a stock market boom. Vaccines were meant to end this pandemic, yet rich governments allowed pharma billionaires and monopolies to cut off the supply to billions of people. The result is that every kind of inequality imaginable risks rising. The predictability of it is sickening. The consequences of it kill,” said Bucher.   Extreme inequality is a form of economic violence, where policies and political decisions that perpetuate the wealth and power of a privileged few result in direct harm to the vast majority of ordinary people across the world and the planet itself.   “The world’s response to the pandemic has unleashed this economic violence particularly acutely across racialized, marginalized and gendered lines. As COVID-19 spikes this turns to surges of gender-based violence, even as yet more unpaid care is heaped upon women and girls,” Bucher said.   The pandemic has set gender parity back from 99 years to now 135 years. Women collectively lost $800 billion in earnings in 2020, with 13 million fewer women in work now than there were in 2019. 252 men have more wealth than all 1 billion women and girls in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean combined.   The pandemic has hit racialized groups hardest. During the second wave of the pandemic in England, people of Bangladeshi origin were five times more likely to die of COVID-19 than the White British population. Black people in Brazil are 1.5 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than White people. In the US, 3.4 million Black Americans would be alive today if their life expectancy was the same as White people — this is directly linked to historical racism and colonialism.   Inequality between countries is expected to rise for the first time in a generation. Developing countries, denied access to sufficient vaccines because of rich governments’ protection of pharmaceutical corporations’ monopolies, have been forced to slash social spending as their debt levels spiral and now face the prospect of austerity measures. The proportion of people with COVID-19 who die from the virus in developing countries is roughly double that in rich countries.   “The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed openly both the motive of greed, and the opportunity by political and economic means, by which extreme inequality has become an instrument of economic violence,” said Bucher. “After years now of researching and campaigning on the issue, this is the shocking but inevitable conclusion that Oxfam has had to reach today.”   Despite the huge cost of fighting the pandemic, in the past two years rich country governments have failed to increase taxes on the wealth of the richest and continued to privatize public goods such as vaccine science. They have encouraged corporate monopolies to such a degree that in the pandemic period alone, the increase in market concentration threatens to be more in one year than in the past 15 years from 2000 to 2015.   Inequality goes to the heart of the climate crisis, as the richest 1 percent emit more than twice as much CO2 as the bottom 50 percent of the world, driving climate change throughout 2020 and 2021 that has contributed to wildfires, floods, tornadoes, crop failures and hunger.   “Inequality at such pace and scale is happening by choice, not chance,” Bucher said. “Not only have our economic structures made all of us less safe against this pandemic, they are actively enabling those who are already extremely rich and powerful to exploit this crisis for their own profit.”   The report notes the significance of the world’s two largest economies — the US and China—starting to consider policies that reduce inequality, including by passing higher tax rates on the rich and taking action against monopolies. “This provides us some measured hope for a new economic consensus to emerge,” said Bucher.   Oxfam recommends that governments urgently:   Claw back the gains made by billionaires by taxing this huge new wealth made since the start of the pandemic through permanent wealth and capital taxes.   Invest the trillions that could be raised by these taxes toward progressive spending on universal healthcare and social protection, climate change adaptation, and gender-based violence prevention and programming.   Tackle sexist and racist laws that discriminate against women and racialized people and create new gender-equal laws to uproot violence and discrimination. All sectors of society must urgently define policies that will ensure women, racialized and other oppressed groups are represented in all decision-making spaces.   End laws that undermine the rights of workers to unionize and strike, and set up stronger legal standards to protect them.   Rich governments must immediately waive intellectual property rules over COVID-19 vaccine technologies to allow more countries to produce safe and effective vaccines to usher in the end of the pandemic.   Bucher said: "There is no shortage of money. That lie died when governments released $16 trillion to respond to the pandemic. There is only a shortage of courage and imagination needed to break free from the failed, deadly straitjacket of extreme neoliberalism. Governments would be wise to listen to the movements —the young climate strikers, Black Lives Matter activists, #NiUnaMenos feminists, Indian farmers and others – who are demanding justice and equality”.   http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/ten-richest-men-double-their-fortunes-pandemic-while-incomes-99-percent-humanity   Unparalleled action needed to combat unprecedented inequality   Ever widening inequalities are tearing our world apart. This is not by chance, but by choice. “Economic violence” is perpetrated when structural policy choices are made for the richest and most powerful people. This causes direct harm to us all, and to the poor, women and girls, and racial and minority groups.   Inequality contributes to the death of at least one person every four seconds. But we can redesign our economies to be centered on equality. We can claw back extreme wealth through progressive taxation; invest in powerful, proven inequality-busting public measures; and boldly shift power in the economy and society.   If we are courageous, and listen to the movements demanding change, we can create an economy where inequality no longer kills. Where nobody need live in poverty, to sustain billionaire's wealth.   http://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/inequality-kills-the-unparalleled-action-needed-to-combat-unprecedented-inequal-621341/   Jan. 2022   Rising to the Challenge: The case for permanent progressive policies to tackle Asia’s coronavirus and inequality crisis   Asia remains in the grip of a coronavirus crisis that is supercharging already high levels of inequality. While the richest and most privileged can protect their health and increase their wealth further, the pandemic is putting the lives and livelihoods of the region's poorest and most vulnerable people at risk. Women, poor and low-skilled workers, migrants and other marginalized groups are being hit hardest. But it is not too late to turn the tide. Governments must make this the moment to implement permanent progressive policies that put the needs of the many before the profit and extreme wealth of the few.   http://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/rising-to-the-challenge-the-case-for-permanent-progressive-policies-to-tackle-a-621343/   Dec. 2021   Responding with Equality: The case for combating extreme inequality to tackle crises, strengthen democracy and foster a fairer future in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic   For decades, our flawed economic and governance systems have allowed inequality and social exclusion to grow to extreme and dangerous levels, and now coronavirus has driven an even greater wedge between the haves and have nots.   Without immediate action, the pandemic could cause the biggest spike in inequality ever seen, and further destabilize the democratic systems we need to ensure a recovery for all. Governments must take action to tackle the inequality and climate crises, rein in extreme wealth and monopoly power, and deliver universal public services and social protection.   http://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/responding-with-equality-the-case-for-combating-extreme-inequality-to-tackle-cr-621339/ http://ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Report-Taxing-Extreme-Wealth-What-It-Would-Raise-What-It-Could-Pay-For.pdf http://inequality.org/great-divide/global-billionaire-pandemic-wealth-surges/ http://bit.ly/3FQKuyA http://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/pandora-papers-caps-off-2021-with-consequences-felt-around-the-globe/   http://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/crumbling-economies-must-tackle-tax-evasion-to-tackle-coronavirus-crisis-experts-warn/ http://taxjustice.net/2021/11/16/losses-to-oecd-tax-havens-could-vaccinate-global-population-three-times-over-study-reveals/ http://socialeurope.eu/tax-abuse-its-costing-the-earth http://www.factipanel.org/press-release/un-panel-end-financial-abuses-to-save-people-and-planet http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/civil-society-call/   http://www.developmentpathways.co.uk/news/shelter-from-the-storm-the-global-need-for-social-protection-in-times-of-covid-19/ http://srpoverty.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/UNSREP-COVID-19-Report-Looking-back-to-look-ahead.pdf http://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/why-all-countries-should-contribute-ending-global-poverty http://policydialogue.org/files/publications/papers/Austerity-the-New-Normal-Ortiz-Cummins-6-Oct-2019.pdf http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/statement-against-IMF-austerity-English-1.pdf Visit the related web page
	Urgent action needed to reverse the devastating impact of COVID-19 on children and young people by United Nations Children’s agency   Dec. 2021   Urgent action needed to reverse the devastating impact of COVID-19 on children and young people. (UNICEF)   COVID-19 has affected children at an unprecedented scale, making it the worst crisis for children UNICEF has seen in its 75-year history, the United Nations Children’s agency highlights in a new report.   The report 'Preventing a lost decade: Urgent action to reverse the devastating impact of COVID-19 on children and young people', highlights the various ways in which COVID-19 is challenging decades of progress on key childhood challenges such as poverty, health, access to education, nutrition, child protection and mental well-being.   It warns that, almost two years into the pandemic, the widespread impact of COVID-19 continues to deepen, increasing poverty, entrenching inequality and threatening the rights of children at previously unseen levels.   UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore:   “The COVID-19 pandemic has been the biggest threat to progress for children in our 75-year history. While the number of children who are hungry, out of school, abused, living in poverty or forced into marriage is going up, the number of children with access to health care, vaccines, sufficient food and essential services is going down. In a year in which we should be looking forward, we are going backward.”   The report says at least 100 million additional children are estimated to now be living in multidimensional poverty because of the pandemic, a 10 per cent increase since 2019. Further, the report warns of a long path toward regaining lost ground – even in a best-case scenario, it will take seven to eight years to recover and return to pre-COVID child poverty levels.   At least 60 million more children are now in monetary poor households compared to prior to the pandemic. In addition, in 2020, over 23 million children missed out on essential vaccines – an increase of nearly 4 million from 2019, and the highest number in 11 years.   Even before the pandemic, around 1 billion children worldwide suffered at least one severe deprivation, without access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation, or water. This number is now rising as the unequal recovery furthers growing divides between wealthy and poor children, with the most marginalized and vulnerable hurt the most. The report notes:   At its peak, more than 1.6 billion students were out of school due to nationwide shutdowns. Schools were closed worldwide for almost 80 per cent of the in-person instruction in the first year of the crisis.   Mental health conditions affect more than 13 per cent of adolescents aged 10–19 worldwide. By October 2020, the pandemic had disrupted or halted critical mental health services in 93 per cent of countries worldwide.   Up to 10 million additional child marriages can occur before the end of the decade as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.   The number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years. An additional 9 million children are at risk of being pushed into child labour by the end of 2022 as a result of the increase in poverty triggered by the pandemic.   At the peak of the pandemic, 1.8 billion children lived in the 104 countries where violence prevention and response services were seriously disrupted.   At least 50 million children suffer from wasting, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, and this figure may well increase by 9 million by 2022 due to the pandemic’s impact on children’s diets, nutrition services and feeding practices.   Beyond the pandemic, the report warns of other threats to children that pose extreme threats to their rights. Globally, 426 million children – nearly 1 in 5 – live in conflict zones that are becoming more intense and taking heavier toll on civilians, disproportionately affecting children.   Women and girls are at the highest risk of conflict-related sexual violence. Eighty per cent of all humanitarian needs are driven by conflict.   Likewise, approximately 1 billion children – nearly half of the world’s children – live in countries that are at an ‘extremely high-risk’ from the impacts of climate change.   “In an era of a global pandemic, growing conflicts, and worsening climate change, never has a child-first approach been more critical than today,” said Fore. “We are at a crossroads. We must keep children first in line for investment and last in line for cuts. The promise of our future is set in the priorities we make in our present for our children.”   http://www.unicef.org/reports/unicef-75-preventing-a-lost-decade http://www.unicef.org/blog/what-store-children-2022 http://www.unicef.org/globalinsight/reports/prospects-children-2022-global-outlook http://www.unicef.org/appeals Visit the related web page
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