Tag: inequality - Page 7 - Oxfam Aotearoa

Group of Seven leaders meeting in Taormina, Sicily, this week should take the lead in fighting famine and immediately fund nearly half ($2.9 billion) of the UN’s urgent appeal to avoid catastrophic hunger and more deaths, urged Oxfam today. Without an immediate and sweeping response, this crisis will spiral out of control.

Further delay will cost more lives.

Deadly famine is already affecting 100,000 people in parts of South Sudan and threatens to extend to Yemen, Somalia and northeast Nigeria. Widespread famine across all four countries is not yet inevitable, but G7 leaders need to act now with a massive injection of aid, backed with a forceful diplomatic push to bring an end to the long-standing conflicts that are driving this hunger crisis.

Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said: “Political failure has led to these crises – political leadership is needed to resolve them. G7 leaders cannot walk away from Taormina without providing emergency funding and clear solutions to tackle the root causes: the world’s most powerful leaders must now act to prevent a catastrophe happening on their watch.

“Our world of plenty today faces an unprecedented four famines. If G7 leaders were to travel to any of these four countries, they would see for themselves how life is becoming impossible for so many people: many are already dying in pain, from disease and extreme hunger.”

If each G7 government contributed its fair share to the UN’s appeal for $6.3 billion for all four countries, Oxfam estimates that this would raise almost half of the total required. These UN appeals are still only 30 percent funded across the four countries.

No G7 country has provided its fair share of funding for all four countries.

G7 commitments to food security and nutrition
In 2015, the G7 committed to lift 500 million people out of hunger and malnutrition, yet 30 million people across the four countries are now experiencing severe hunger – 10 million of whom are facing emergency and famine conditions. The number of people experiencing acute food insecurity is estimated to have risen by about 40 percent over the last two years. G7 leaders should uphold the commitments they have made on hunger and malnutrition and give more importance to crisis prevention and supporting smallholder farmers’ resilience in order to reduce needs over time.

Conflict and famine
In addition to funding the UN appeal, G7 leaders should press for immediate ceasefires and inclusive peace processes, as well as for safe access to places where aid agencies are having trouble reaching people in need. Conflict has driven millions of people from their homes and communities, cutting them off from their fields, jobs, food, and markets.

In Yemen, countries including G7 members continue to supply weapons, munitions, military equipment, technology, or logistical and financial support for military action that is in contravention of the rules of war. In South Sudan, three years of conflict have displaced more than 3.5 million people – including 2 million children. Somalia also remains an active conflict where access is limited by Al Shabaab, as well as other parties involved in the conflict. Nigeria’s conflict has spread into neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon forcing 2.6 million people to flee and leaving nearly 11 million people in need of emergency aid.

Famine and hunger are the glaring symptoms of larger challenges that include climate, migration and inequality which must all be tackled together if progress is to be made.

Climate
Climate change is not a distant future threat: it is helping fuel a humanitarian disaster in Somalia and other countries in the Horn of Africa. There could be no stronger call to G7 leaders to take action on climate change than suffering on this scale. The G7 members must make it clear that they are committed to implementing the Paris Agreement. It is vital that the summit produces a clear and strong outcome on climate change action – no excuses.

Migration
When G7 leaders have chosen a symbolic place to meet in Sicily – Europe’s coast, where thousands of people have died trying to reach safety and security – it is reprehensible that they are set to overlook the suffering of refugees and migrants on their doorstep, and ignore the challenge of migration and forced displacement. Rich countries should lean into this challenge, exercise positive global leadership and compassion, and agree to concrete steps that protect the dignity and rights of people on the move.

Inequality
When one in 10 people go to bed hungry every night, famine represents one extreme end of the inequality spectrum and is in itself the result of the instability which inequality helps to drive. Oxfam is calling on G7 leaders to commit to the developing a fully fledged action plan to tackle growing inequality, in line with their commitment to the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals.

Notes to editors

1. Download Oxfam’s latest policy report on what governments need to do to avert the threat of global famine: https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bn-four-famines-190517-en.pdf

2. Oxfam will be attending at the G7 summit with spokespeople for interview on the ‘four famines’, inequality, climate and migration in English, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Chichewa/Nyanja and Tumbuka.

3. Oxfam will be presenting a number of stunts over the period of the summit on the themes of the 4 famines, climate and migration. The first will take place on the morning of Thursday 25 May and will be on the subject of the four famines, taking place near the International Media Centre in Giardini Naxos. Contact us for further details.

4. Oxfam can offer journalists the opportunity to visit some of our programs supporting migrants in Sicily. Contact us for further details.

5. The UN ‘four famines’ appeal was originally launched for a total of $5.6 billion http://interactive.unocha.org/emergency/2017_famine/index.php and was later revised up to $6.3 billion after the Somalia response plan was updated in earlier this month http://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalia-humanitarian-response-plan-may-2017-revision

6. There has been a rise of 40 percent in the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity over the last two years according to FEWSNET: http://www.fews.net/global/alert/january-25-2017

7. Oxfam’s fair share analysis: Oxfam calculates its fair share analysis by comparing data from the UN’s Financial Tracking System (FTS) and information received from G7 members with their national income. No G7 country has provided its fair share of funding for all four nations facing famine. (The FTS website may not have been updated with recent pledges.)

According to UN figures, as of May 18, only 30 percent of the $6.3 billion needed has been received. Country by country, this means that Nigeria is only 21 percent funded; Somalia, 33 percent; South Sudan, 42 percent; and Yemen, 21 percent.

G7 leaders must commit to fund their fair share for each country, while pressing other donors to do their part, in order to prevent more people from dying of hunger. These contributions alone would mean $492 million for Nigeria, $703 million for Somalia, $764 million for South Sudan, and $964 million for Yemen.

G7 must also commit to increase aid for longer term solutions that build resilience and improve food security and nutrition, in order to prevent further crises from escalating into disasters.

Only one G7 leader (UK) has provided its fair share for Yemen, two (UK and Canada) for South Sudan, two (UK and Germany) for Somalia and two (Canada and Germany) for Nigeria.

The United States Congress commitment of $990m to address famine in the four countries is welcomed, but this must be urgently translated into aid on the ground if the impact of famines is to be reduced.

View or download Oxfam’s fair share analysis here: http://oxf.am/ZERG.

8. About 30 million people are are experiencing alarming levels of hunger in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen – 10 million of them are facing emergency and famine conditions. (10 million people are at IPC4 and 5, and a further 20 million people are at IPC3.)

• South Sudan: 4.9 million people dangerously hungry (IPC Phases 3-5, including 100,000 already in famine)
• Yemen: 17 million people dangerously hungry (IPC Phases 3-4)
• Somalia: 3.2 million people dangerously hungry in Somalia (IPC Phases 3-4)
• Nigeria: 4.7 million people dangerously hungry in northeast Nigeria (IPC Phases 3-5)

9. Climate change is helping to fuel a humanitarian disaster in East Africa where 13 million people are dangerously hungry and Somalia is on the brink of famine: https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/mb-climate-crisis-east-africa-drought-270417-en.pdf

10. Oxfam is responding directly and with local organizations across the affected countries delivering food and other essential aid including cash so that people can buy from local markets. It is striving to ensure people have clean water to be used for drinking, cooking, washing and sanitation and to fight waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera. We are also helping vulnerable communities, focusing especially on women, to stay safe and access aid in these unstable circumstances.

The richest ten per cent of New Zealanders are wealthier than the rest of the population combined as the gap between rich and poor continues to widen.

Oxfam New Zealand’s Executive Director Rachael Le Mesurier said the numbers are a staggering illustration that the wealth gap in New Zealand is stark and mirrors a global trend that needs to be addressed by governments in New Zealand, and around the world, in order to win the fight against poverty.

“Extreme wealth inequality is deeply worrying. Our nation is becoming more divided, with an elite who are seeing their bank balances go up, whilst hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders struggle to make ends meet,” said Le Mesurier.

Figures for the top one per cent are even more striking. According to the most recent data, taken from the 2013 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook, 44,000 Kiwis – who could comfortably fit into Eden Park with thousands of empty seats to spare – hold more wealth than three million New Zealanders. Put differently, this lists the share of wealth owned by the top one per cent of Kiwis as 25.1 per cent, meaning they control more than the bottom 70 per cent of the population.

New Zealand’s wealthiest individual, Graeme Hart, is ranked number 200 on the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires, with US$7 billion. That makes his net worth more than the bottom 30 per cent of New Zealanders, or 1.3 million people.

The news comes ahead of the G20 meeting of Deputy Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Melbourne this weekend, which New Zealand will join at the invitation of Australia, the chair for 2014. Last year the G20 countries endorsed a plan to crack down on multinational corporate tax dodging by taking, “the necessary individual and collective action.”

Le Mesurier said, “Our government says it is significant New Zealand has access to these meetings and praised the G20 as a key vehicle for tackling the world’s economic challenges. Have we taken the necessary individual steps to stop corporate tax dodging in our country and are we well-placed to contribute to this urgent collective action in Melbourne? It’s a fair question.”

In January Oxfam released a landmark report showing half of the world’s population – 3.5 billion – own the same wealth as the 85 richest people. By March the number dropped to only 66 people. Oxfam’s report warned that inequality is creating a vicious circle where wealth concentrated in the hands of a few is used to buy political influence and rig the rules in favour of a small elite. This year US President Barack Obama, the World Economic Forum, the OECD, the Pope, and the heads of the IMF, the World Bank and the UN have all called for action to address inequality, recognising it as bad for growth and the driver of serious social ills.

Child poverty is emerging as a major New Zealand election issue. A new book by Jonathan Boston and Simon Chapple, Child Poverty in New Zealand, explores the nature of the problem and the solutions, while all political parties are touting their strategies for reducing it.

“Extreme inequality is a sign of economic failure. New Zealand can and must do better. It’s time for our leaders to move past the rhetoric,” said Le Mesurier.

“By concentrating wealth and power in the hands of the few, inequality robs the poorest people of the support they need to improve their lives, and means that their voices go unheard. If the global community fails to curb widening inequality, we can expect more economic and social problems.”