2. Page 2
STRUCTURE
• Oxfam’s Global Campaign on Inequality (Even It Up)
• Projects within the Global Inequality Campaign
• Campaigning and policy work on inequality in the CIS region
• Other programme and policy work in the CIS region
4. Page 4
Even it up CAMPAIGN
• Global campaign to tackle
extreme and growing economic
inequality launched on October
29, 2014
• Key campaign message:
Extreme inequality is
threatening to undo much of
the progress made over the
past 20 years in tackling
poverty. But the situation is not
inevitable - it's the
consequence of political and
economic choices. Things don't
have to be this way.
• 38 countries engaged in the
launch (CIS region: Armenia and
Russia)
7. Page 7
“In far too many countries the benefits of
growth are being enjoyed by far too few
people. This is not a recipe for stability
and sustainability” Christine Lagarde
“Extreme disparities in income are slowing
the pace of poverty reduction and
hampering the development of broad based
economic growth” Kofi Annan
EXTREME INEQUALITY HURTS US ALL
10. Page 10
SOLUTIONS TO INEQUALITY
• Making governments work for citizens and tackle extreme
inequality
• Promoting women’s economic equality and women’s rights
• Paying workers a living wage and closing the gap with
skyrocketing executive reward
• Sharing the tax burden fairly
• Closing international tax loopholes and filling holes in
international tax governance (priority 2015)
• Achieving universal public free services for all by 2020
• Changing the global system for R&D and for pricing of medicines
• Implementing universal social protection floor
• Targeting development finance towards reducing inequality and
poverty and strengthening the compact between citizens and
their governments
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OTHER PROGRAMMES
• Advocating for minimum wage
through our Behind the Brands
campaign
• Mobilising Progressive Domestic
Resources for Quality Public
Services in Vietnam and Kenya
(3 year pogramme funded by the
Finnish government)
24. Page 24
RUSSIA IN ECSN BRICSAM PROJECT
• National inequality trends analysis and
policy analysis carried out joint with Russian
chapter of the Global Call Against Poverty
(GCAP)
• Joint advocacy work with GCAP on
inequality issues during the Russian
presidency in G20 in 2013 and in BRICS in
2015
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ARMENIA: THE EVEN IT UP CAMPAIGN
• Oxfam Armenia has initiated research on socio-economic
issues in the country, including possible inequalities.
• The launch of the campaign focused on translating global
messages into the national context: inequality is a political
decision, it is not unavoidable.
• We are open to cooperation with a wide range of partners as
we work to define the long-term campaign.
27. Page 27
Oxfam in Eurasia (CIS)
• Oxfam works in Russia (advocacy office), the Caucasus
(Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) and Tajikistan. There are
also extensive programs across Asia and the Middle East.
• Oxfam is a campaigning organization – we deliver
programmes in humanitarian and development assistance,
but we also actively advocate on behalf of the poor, including
on inequality, rights in crisis/humanitarian, gender justice,
climate change and food security, and related issues.
• We work closely with partners – civil society organizations,
universities, local and national authorities.
• Civil society space and accountability.
28. Page 28
Caucasus:
food security and gender justice
• Regional food security advocacy: improving regional food
security and empowering the rural poor, especially women.
• Advocating for pro-poor legislation (smallholder farmers).
• Gender-sensitive national strategies: contribution of women to
food production.
• EU DCFTA, and regional issues.
• Political representation (esp. at regional/municipal level).
• Access to justice – incl. domestic violence, land rights and
economic empowerment.
29. Page 29
Tajikistan and inequality
• Inequality between urban and
rural.
• Focus on the rural poor,
especially women.
• Access to safe, drinking water.
• Water management policies.
• Economic justice and
empowering rural women.
• Representation in decision-
making, non-discrimination and
access to justice work.
(Why now? – Slide 2)
Over the past year we have seen this issue continue to be taken up by diverse leaders across the political spectrum. Leaders as diverse as the Pope, Christine Lagarde, President Obama and billionaires like Warren Buffett have spoken out about the dangers of growing and extreme inequality. There is increasing recognition that inequality is not just ‘bad’ (unfair) in itself but also makes fighting poverty much more difficult, impacts growth, social cohesion and the environment. The rapid rise of extreme economic inequality is holding back progress in the fight against poverty. The poorest people are paying the price for the gap between the rich and poor.
Taking into account that I have limited time, I am not going to go into detail about all the negative implications that high and growing levels of economic inequality have for our societies. You could find this arguments both in UNDP’s report Humanity Divided and in Oxfam’s report the executive summary of which I brought with me. While caring for all those reasons, Oxfam - as an organisation that has traditionally been focusing on poverty reduction (and in this our mandates with UNDP are in many ways similar) – is first and foremost concerned about inequality as a barrier to poverty reduction.
There has been a growing bank of research, by the WB and IMF among others, which has demonstrated that the rapid rise of extreme economic inequality is significantly hindering the fight against poverty. It’s becoming increasingly clear that we cannot combat poverty if we dont also combat extreme inequality. New research from Oxfam has shown that in countries like Kenya, Indonesia and India, millions more people could be lifted out of poverty if income inequality were reduced. If India were to stop rising inequality, and instead hold inequality levels static, by 2019 they could lift 90 million people out of extreme poverty. Reducing inequality by 10 points, the equivalent of a 36 percent reduction, could almost eliminate extreme poverty altogether, by lifting up a further 83 million people.
The solutions/key policy areas that we will be focusing on within this campaign include:
In its development programming work Oxfam for decades has been addressing some of those issues that I have listed on the previous slides. From our economic justice programme focussed on empowerment of small holder farmers (especially, women), to our essential services work on improvement of access to healthcare and education, to our work on governance and active citizenship, we have been striving to tackle many of the factors that keep people in poverty and perpetuate economic inequality (and in her presentation during the next session my colleague Anna will make an overview of the relevant programme work in the CIS region).
But while above-mentioned programmes and projects have been implicitly addressing some of the inequality factors, it is only recently that Oxfam started implementing projects directly focused on the problem of extreme and growing economic inequality.
One of such projects in the EC-funded programme on Empowering Civil Society Networks in an Unequal, Multi-Polar World, which is being currently implemented in BRICSAM countries, which stands for BRICS + Indonesia & Mexico.
Overall objective: Policy-making processes in global institutions are influenced by civil society networks of emerging economies to take account of the needs of poor and marginalised people. The specific objective of this program is to strengthen the collective capacity of multi-thematic civil society organization (CSO) networks across Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, South Africa and Mexico (collectively referred to as BRICSAM countries) to engage in multi-stakeholder dialogue and influence global policy-making fora, with a particular focus on issues of inequality.
This project aims to integrate civil society perspectives into global policy-making processes in three key ways, influencing: i) global governance structures by expanding the presence and formal role of civil society; ii) agenda setting (at national and global levels) by influencing the issues under discussion to include development and inequality; and iii) policy commitments made by these institutions.
The expected results of the project are:
Networks’ ability to represent their national constituencies reinforced;
Close linkages and coordination established, both physically and virtually, across the networks;
Networks have in depth understanding of inequality issues across the countries;
Networks are facilitated and provided with the skills jointly to engage with international institutions and in global fora.
Why focusing on BRICSAM? BRICSAM as agents of change in global development
The compass is now broken, no longer points to the traditional powers of the North: multi-polar
Interesting to note that declarations from the series of BRICS summits have consistently called for support for a´multi-polar, equitable and democratic world
New power relations at play – in global trade, in aid, new global development actors
South-South cooperation and trade
Increasingly influential role of new emerging powers in global institutions (eg. new head of WTO is Brazilian)
Civil Society in BRICSAM particularly well positioned to influence global policy making
Vital not to repeat the same models of the past
Many of the challenges our societies now face are both local and global in nature – trade rules, taxation, patents and control of markets and value chains, regulation of corporations, financial flows (particularly of the super rich)
a constant theme is…..INEQUALITY
Why focusing on BRICSAM? BRICSAM as the most unequal
Why focusing on BRICSAM?
With the exceptions of Mexico and Brazil, income inequality is increasing in all of the BRICSAM countries, as well as most of the other countries in the G20 (graph).
Yet Mexico and Brazil still remain among the more unequal countries, with the richest 10% of the population controlling over 40% of the national income.
National consultation
Community Outreach, education and mobilisation
Communication and member engagement
Pre and Post- Summit feedback sessions
Steering Committee Meetings
Cross-thematic working groups
Virtual Communication Forum
Visits/Secondments between networks
Assessment of trends/nature inequality
Analysis of policies to address inequality
Case-studies of existing policies that have reduced inequality
Joint research and dissemination
Capacity building master plan
Peer-to-peer learning sessions on key issues
Training in policy analysis, influencing and advocacy
Joint policy positions based on policy case examples and new research
Policy briefs
Advocate with national policymakers
Jointly engage with international institutions and global processes
In its development programming work Oxfam for decades has been addressing some of those issues that I have listed on the previous slides. From our economic justice programme focussed on empowerment of small holder farmers (especially, women), to our essential services work on improvement of access to healthcare and education, to our work on governance and active citizenship, we have been striving to tackle many of the factors that keep people in poverty and perpetuate economic inequality (and in her presentation during the next session my colleague Anna will make an overview of the relevant programme work in the CIS region).
But while above-mentioned programmes and projects have been implicitly addressing some of the inequality factors, it is only recently that Oxfam started implementing projects directly focused on the problem of extreme and growing inequality.
Oxfam Armenia is working with the Economic Development Research Centre to conduct socio-economic research on budgeting and related issues in the country.
We are linking the global message to the Armenian national context. Main statistics (national statistics) on inequality so far have been in focus, and the main message remains that inequality is not unavoidable – it is a political decision and is bad for development at the national level. We may focus on issues like taxation, tax dodging, or essential services – we are still at the onset of the long-term campaign. Still exploring what is relevant to the country context. We are open and looking to cooperate with a wide range of partners, including the UNDP.
In its development programming work Oxfam for decades has been addressing some of those issues that I have listed on the previous slides. From our economic justice programme focussed on empowerment of small holder farmers (especially, women), to our essential services work on improvement of access to healthcare and education, to our work on governance and active citizenship, we have been striving to tackle many of the factors that keep people in poverty and perpetuate economic inequality (and in her presentation during the next session my colleague Anna will make an overview of the relevant programme work in the CIS region).
But while above-mentioned programmes and projects have been implicitly addressing some of the inequality factors, it is only recently that Oxfam started implementing projects directly focused on the problem of extreme and growing inequality.