Reports

Inequality is rampant across the global economy, and the agro-food sector is no exception.

At the top, big supermarkets and other corporate food giants dominate global food markets, allowing them to squeeze value from vast supply chains that span the globe, while at the bottom the bargaining power of small-scale farmers and workers has been steadily eroded in many of the countries from which they source.

The result is widespread human suffering among the women and men producing food for supermarkets around the world. From forced labour aboard fishing vessels in Southeast Asia, to poverty wages on Indian tea plantations and hunger faced by workers on South African grape farms, human and labour rights abuses are all too common in food supply chains.

In an era of gross global inequality and escalating climate change, this business model is increasingly unsustainable. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Governments, food companies, small-scale farmers and workers, and citizens around the world can all help to rebalance power in food supply chains and ensure they more fairly reward those producing our food. The supermarket sector is ripe for change.

There is no justifiable reason that the human and labour rights of women and men supplying supermarkets cannot be respected. There is no moral excuse for anyone producing our food to go hungry. This report launches Oxfam’s new campaign to expose the root causes behind human suffering in food supply chains and to mobilise the power of people around the world to help end it, starting with a focus on the role of supermarkets.

Download file:

Ripe For Change – Oxfam 2018 – Summary.pdf

Ripe For Change – Oxfam 2018 – Full Report.pdf

Ripe For Change – Oxfam 2018 – Methodology.pdf

Last year saw the biggest increase in billionaires in history, one more every two days.

This huge increase could have ended global extreme poverty seven times over. 82% of all wealth created in the last year went to the top 1%, and nothing went to the bottom 50%.

Dangerous, poorly paid work for the many is supporting extreme wealth for the few. Women are in the worst work, and almost all the super-rich are men. Governments must create a more equal society by prioritising ordinary workers and small-scale food producers instead of the rich and powerful.

Read report here.

Climate change is already forcing people from their land and homes, and putting many more at risk of displacement in the future.

Supercharged storms, more intense droughts, rising seas and other impacts of climate change all magnify existing vulnerabilities and the likelihood of displacement, disproportionately affecting low-income countries, women, children and indigenous peoples.

Read full report here.

In 2015, the leaders of 193 governments promised to reduce inequality as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Without reducing inequality, meeting the SDG to eliminate poverty will be impossible. Now Development Finance International and Oxfam have produced the first index to measure the commitment of governments to reducing the gap between the rich and the poor.

The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index uses a new database of indicators covering 152 countries, which measures government action on social spending, tax and labour rights – three areas found to be critical to reducing inequality.

This first version of the CRI Index is work in progress, and DFI and Oxfam welcome comments and additions. We find that there is an urgent need for coordinated global investment to significantly improve the data on inequality and policies to reduce it, and much greater concerted action by governments across the world to reduce the gap between rich and poor.

Download file:
CRI Index – Summary.pdf

CRI Index – Report.pdf

CRI Index – Methodology.pdf

Big business is able to take advantage of loopholes in global tax laws and avoid tax on a massive scale.

This deprives governments around the world of the money they need to tackle poverty and inequality. It means there is less for them to invest in healthcare, education and jobs.

This report examines the failings of the global tax system that facilitate mass tax avoidance. It looks at one example of a multinational company (MNC) that Oxfam thinks is not paying its fair share and gives an overview of its practices in New Zealand.. It calls on the New Zealand government and business to implement the reforms that are needed to stop MNCs from avoiding paying their fair share of tax in the future.

Download file:

Oxfam NZ Report – Making Tax Vanish in New Zealand.pdf

Oxfam GB Report – Making Tax Vanish – July 2017.pdf

Women’s economic empowerment could reduce poverty for everyone.

In order to achieve it, we need to first fix the current broken economic model which is undermining gender equality and causing extreme economic inequality.

The neoliberal model has made it harder for women to have better quality and better paid jobs, address inequality in unpaid care work, and women’s influence and decision making power is constrained.

To achieve women’s economic empowerment, we need a human economy that works for women and men alike, and for everyone, not just the richest 1%.

Download file:

bp-an-economy-that-works-for-women-020317-en-summ.pdf

bp-an-economy-that-works-for-women-020317-en.pdf