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From Private Profit to Public Power: Financing Development, not Oligarchy

Oxfam has published a new briefing paper: “From Private Profit to Public Power: Financing Development, Not Oligarchy”

Wealthy governments are making the largest cuts to life-saving development aid since aid records began in 1960. Oxfam analysis finds that G7 countries alone, who account for around three-quarters of all official aid, are cutting aid by 28% for 2026 compared to 2024. Whilst critical aid is cut, the debt crisis is bankrupting governments – 60% of low-income countries are at the edge of a debt crisis – with the poorest countries paying out far more to repay their rich creditors than they are able to spend on classrooms or clinics. Only 16% of the targets for the Global Goals are on track for 2030. 

Oxfam’s new analysis examines the failures of a private investor-focused approach to funding development. A decade-long effort by major development actors to recast their mission as one of supporting powerful Global North financial actors has led in fact to a host of harms and at the same time only mobilized paltry sums. The analysis also looks at the role of private creditors, who now outpace bilateral lenders by five times and account for more than half the debt owed by low- and middle-income countries, in exacerbating the debt crisis with their refusal to negotiate and their punitive terms. 

Read report here. 

New wealth of top 1% surges by over $33.9 trillion since 2015 – enough to end poverty 22 times over, says Oxfam

 

  • Oxfam condemns “private finance takeover” of development efforts, as over 3.7 billion people remain in poverty ten years after the Sustainable Development Goals were agreed. 

  • New Oxfam analysis unveils “astronomical rise in private wealth”. Between 1995 and 2023, global private wealth grew by $342 trillion – 8 times more than public wealth,  

  • Oxfam analysis also shows governments are making the largest cuts to life-saving aid since aid records began. Aid cuts could cause 2.9 million more children and adults to die by 2030, from HIV/AIDS causes alone. 

  • Results of a new global survey show 9 out of 10 people support paying for public services and climate action through taxing the super-rich. 

  • Oxfam urges new strategic alliances to address inequality; urgently revitalize aid and tax the super-rich; and assert new “public-first” approach over private finance. 

The world’s richest 1% increased their wealth by more than $33.9 trillion in real terms since 2015, reveals new Oxfam analysis ahead of the world’s largest development financing talks in a decade, in Seville, Spain. This is more than enough to eliminate annual poverty 22 times over at the World Bank’s highest poverty line of $8.30 a day. The wealth of just 3,000 billionaires has surged $6.5 trillion in real terms since 2015, and now comprises the equivalent of 14.6% of global GDP.

Oxfam’s new briefing paper, “From Private Profit to Public Power: Financing Development, Not Oligarchy”, launches today ahead of the June 30 fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, hosted by Spain and joined by over 190 countries.  

Wealthy governments are making the largest cuts to life-saving development aid since aid records began in 1960. Oxfam analysis finds that G7 countries alone, who account for around three-quarters of all official aid, are cutting aid by 28% for 2026 compared to 2024. Whilst critical aid is cut, the debt crisis is bankrupting governments – 60% of low-income countries are at the edge of a debt crisis – with the poorest countries paying out far more to repay their rich creditors than they are able to spend on classrooms or clinics. Only 16% of the targets for the Global Goals are on track for 2030. 

Oxfam’s new analysis examines the failures of a private investor-focused approach to funding development. A decade-long effort by major development actors to recast their mission as one of supporting powerful Global North financial actors has led in fact to a host of harms and at the same time only mobilized paltry sums. The analysis also looks at the role of private creditors, who now outpace bilateral lenders by five times and account for more than half the debt owed by low- and middle-income countries, in exacerbating the debt crisis with their refusal to negotiate and their punitive terms. 

“Seville is the first major gathering of countries worldwide at a time that life-saving aid is being decimated, a trade war has started, and multilateralism being fractured – all in the backdrop of the second Trump administration. There is glaring evidence that global development is desperately failing because – as the last decade shows – the interests of a very wealthy few are put over those of everyone else,” said Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International. 

What the World Bank described as a “billions to trillions” paradigm shift has been a boon for wealthy investors – the richest 1% own 43% of global assets – but now faces overwhelming evidence of failure, even according to former champions. Alarmingly, there is new momentum behind the idea of diverting the little aid that remains to private financial actors. 

“Rich countries have put Wall Street in the driver’s seat of global development. It’s a global private finance takeover which has overrun the evidence-backed ways to tackle poverty through public investments and fair taxation. It is no wonder governments are abysmally off track, be it on fostering decent jobs, gender equality, or ending hunger. This much wealth concentration is choking efforts to end poverty”, said Behar. 

New Oxfam analysis shows that between 1995 and 2023, global private wealth grew by $342 trillion – 8 times more than global public wealth, which grew by just $44 trillion. Global public wealth – as a share of total wealth – actually fell between 1995 and 2023.  

Oxfam is urging governments to rally behind policy and political proposals that offer a change in course by tackling extreme inequality and transforming the development financing system:  

  • New strategic alliances against inequality. Governments must band together in new coalitions to oppose extreme inequality. Countries such as Brazil, South Africa and Spain are offering leadership to do so internationally. A new ‘Global Alliance Against Inequality’ supported by Germany, Norway, Sierra Leone and others sets an example for nations to back.  
  • Public-first approach – reject the Wall Street Consensus. Governments should reject private finance as the silver bullet to funding development. Instead, governments should invest in state-led development – to ensure universal high-quality healthcare, education and care services, and explore publicly-delivered goods in sectors from energy to transportation.  
  • Total rethink of development financing – tax the ultra-rich, revitalize aid, reform debt architecture, and move beyond GDP indicators. Global North donors must urgently reverse catastrophic cuts to lifesaving aid and meet the 0.7% ODA target as minimum. Governments must back efforts for a new UN debt convention, and support the UN tax convention, building on Brazil’s G20 effort to tax high-net-worth-individuals.   

“Trillions of dollars exist to meet the global goals, but they’re locked away in private accounts of the ultra-wealthy. It’s time we rejected the Wall Street Consensus and instead put the public in the driving seat. Governments should heed widespread demands to tax the rich – and match it with a vision to build public goods from healthcare to energy. It’s a hopeful sign that some governments are banding together to fight inequality – more should follow their lead, starting in Seville”, said Behar. 

Notes to editors

Oxfam’s media briefing note, “From Private Profit to Public Power: Financing Development, Not Oligarchy” can be downloaded here.  

Oxfam’s analysis of the historic cuts to development aid and their impact on the poorest can be found here. The modelling on HIV/AIDS deaths was published in the Lancet HIV. 

The study that surveyed global opinion on taxing the super-rich was commissioned by Greenpeace and Oxfam International. The research was conducted by first party data company Dynata in May-June 2025, in Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Kenya, Italy, India, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, the UK and the US. The survey had approximately 1200 respondents per country, with a margin of error of +-2.83%. Together, these countries represent close to half the world’s population. See the results here. 

The cost of ending poverty is based on the annual cost of ending poverty in 2024 for one year, for the over 3.7 billion people living below the $8.30 a day poverty line, according to World Bank data. The increase in wealth of the 1% since 2015 would be more than enough to meet this cost 22 times over. Another way of expressing this is that the total amount is more than enough to completely end poverty for 22 years. This is only indicative, as the cost of ending poverty would likely fall over the next 22 years anyway as the numbers living in poverty reduce, and the value of the wealth would increase as it would not be spent all at once. But nevertheless this comparison indicates the extent to which more wealth, which is being greatly concentrated in the hands of a few, could be directed to ending poverty instead of further inflating the fortunes of the richest. For further information on the calculations see the media briefing paper. 

Contact information

Media at Oxfam Aotearoa: [email protected]

Oxfam reaction to OECD preliminary data on aid spending in 2024

In response to the publication today of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) preliminary data on Official Development Assistance (ODA) for 2024, Oxfam International’s Aid Policy Lead Salvatore Nocerino said:

“Today’s figures lay bare an ugly truth: even before this year’s devastating cuts to aid, rich countries had already begun to renege on their moral obligations to the world’s most vulnerable communities. Not only had they been reducing aid, but also spending a significant share of it within their own borders to cover refugee costs.

“Only a handful of countries, including Luxembourg, New Zealand, Spain and South Korea, maintained or increased their aid budgets in 2024, and are expected to do the same this year.”

“New Zealand’s good standing in these latest OECD figures owes a lot to to our climate finance commitments,” said Oxfam Aotearoa’s Clinate Justice Lead Nick Henry.

Henry continues, “New Zealand has taken a world leading approach by providing all our funding for climate action as grants rather than loans. But with the climate finance commitment running out at the end of this year, the government needs to renew this essential lifeline for our Pacific neighbours.”

Nocerino insists, “If governments keep slashing aid, more children will go to bed hungry, more people will die from diseases we’ve long known how to prevent, and millions more will be pushed even deeper into poverty.

“Governments must urgently reverse these cuts and start taxing the super-rich, whose wealth has grown unchecked. In a world as interconnected as ours, diseases and climate disasters know no borders. These cuts are reckless and short-sighted, and will drive us all towards greater harm.”

Notes to editors

The OECD’s preliminary data shows that ODA totalled $212 billion in 2024, a significant drop from $223 billion in 2023. Last year’s ODA fell $237 billion short of meeting the longstanding commitment of allocating 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) to aid for low- and middle-income countries. Oxfam has calculated that in the 54 years since this promise was made, rich countries have failed to deliver a total of $7.5 trillion in aid.

In 2024, 13.1 percent was spent on domestic refugee reception.

According to Forbes’ 39th Annual World’s Billionaire List published on 1 April, billionaires are worth a record $16.1 trillion, $2 trillion more than in 2024.

Contact information

Rachel Schaevitz at [email protected]

Amitabh Behar named Oxfam International’s Executive Director

Oxfam International is pleased to announce the appointment of Amitabh Behar as its new Executive Director. Behar is a respected global civil society leader, with three decades of experience and extensive work on human rights, economic inequalities, governance accountability, philanthropy, democracy and social justice. He was selected following a competitive recruitment process.

Behar joined Oxfam in April 2018 as the Chief Executive of Oxfam India. More recently, he served as Oxfam International’s Interim Executive Director.

“Behar is a thoughtful and creative feminist leader, with an in-depth understanding of the causes and complexities of poverty, inequality, discrimination and suffering. We are confident in his ability to convene our confederation, alongside our partners, to deliver our vision for a just and equal world,” said Dr. Aruna Rao, the Chair of the Oxfam International Board of Directors.

Behar said: “I embark on this new chapter acutely aware of the global and interconnected challenges we face in our world today. We require urgent action built on new solidarities, new imaginations, and new dreams to deliver a more equal and sustainable future for all.

“Oxfam carries a rich legacy rooted in working with communities while advocating for systemic change. I am eager to channel our collective energies, boldness, resources, and partnerships in support of peoples’ power for the good of majority of the global population.”

Behar has made valuable contributions to Oxfam’s transformation of its own confederation, decolonizing its decision-making and strengthening its collective structure and policies. He has been widely recognized for his work on people-centric advocacy, governance accountability, social and economic equality, and citizen participation.

Prior to Oxfam, Behar was Executive Director of the National Foundation for India and Co-Chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. He has also served as the Vice-Chair of the Board of CIVICUS and the Chair of Navsarjan (Ahmedabad) and President of Yuva in Mumbai. He currently serves on the boards of several other organizations, including the Global Fund for Community Foundation and the Norwegian Human Rights Fund.

Contact: Rachel Schaevitz, [email protected]

G20 must tackle the “cost of profit” crisis causing chaos worldwide, says Oxfam

G20 countries are receiving US$136 million every day in debt repayments from the world’s poorest countries at a time when up to 828 million people are facing hunger.

The “cost of living” crisis is more accurately a “cost of profit” crisis – of rising billionaire wealth and corporate mega-profits – that is driving up poverty, hunger, indebtedness and deprivation around the world, Oxfam says, as the G20 Summit begins in Bali.

“If the G20 are serious about tackling this looming global economic catastrophe they need to put their own houses in order. That’s where the real cause of this crisis lies,” said Oxfam’s G20 Lead Joern Kalinski.

“In reality we are facing a ‘cost of profit’ crisis. The richest are getting richer, while ordinary families and the poorest countries are being squeezed dry,” said Kalinski.

Since the start of the pandemic, poor countries have had to shell out US$113 billion to their rich G20 country creditors, during a time that four times more people died of Covid in poorer nations than in rich ones.

In 2021, on average, poor countries were forced to spend 27.5 percent of their budgets on debt repayment – four times more than on health and 12 times more than on social protection. Even the public climate finance they are getting from rich nations, including many in the G20, are 71 percent loans.

Meanwhile the G20’s biggest corporations are making record profits. BP made £7.1 billion, their biggest profits in 14 years, and BNP Paribas € 2.76 billion in just the past three months. Nine out of ten of the biggest fossil fuel companies are headquartered in G20 countries. US corporations are seeing their biggest profit margins since 1950 and have been accused of ‘greedflation’; driving higher inflation through price hikes.

The G20 is home now to 89 percent of all the billionaire wealth in the world – at around US$10 trillion. This has grown by US$1.88 trillion, creating 287 newly-minted pandemic billionaires, since 2020. Energy and food billionaires are currently getting richer by a half-a-billion dollars a day.

Oxfam urges the G20 to acknowledge the consequences that this shocking inequality is visiting on ordinary citizens the world over in the form of mass hunger, death and worsening poverty.

In Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya historic levels of drought mean that one person will likely die of hunger every 36 seconds between now and the end of the year as the worst-hit areas hurtle towards famine. Women and girls, who are often the main food producers, primary caregivers, and stewards of household nutrition, are at higher risk of hunger.

The Ukraine war is an additional layer to existing problems. While 828 million people face hunger, the world’s main food traders made record profits and food and agribusiness billionaires increased their collective wealth by US$382 billion (45 percent) over the past two years. The United Nations has appealed for US$17.1 billion in humanitarian food security assistance for 2022 but so far donors have only given US$7 billion.

Globally progress in fighting poverty has halted, according to the World Bank, with poverty increasing during COVID-19 for the first time in decades. Inequality has grown too; with the poorest seeing their incomes decline twice as much as the richest.

“Austerity is the exact wrong reaction – a textbook blunder – that is ripping away social safety nets and beating people down into poverty,” Kalinski said.

Recent Oxfam research on inequality shows that despite the worst health crisis in a century, half of all poor countries have cut their share of health spending. Almost half of all countries cut their budget share going to social protection, 70 percent cut their share going to education and two-thirds failed to raise their minimum wage in line with economic growth. Over the next five years, three-quarters of all countries globally are planning further cuts totaling US$7.8 trillion dollars.

143 of 161 countries Oxfam surveyed froze tax rates on their richest citizens, and 11 countries even lowered them. Corporate tax dodging also continues on an industrial scale with an estimated one trillion dollars of corporate profits shifted to tax havens in 2019.

The G20 must tackle the root causes of hunger: extreme inequality and poverty, human rights violations, conflict, climate change and food and energy price inflation. Oxfam says the G20 must develop an economic and social rescue plan that protects the rights of the poorest people and tackles extreme inequality. This means:

  • Championing systematic strategies to tackle inequality and monitoring progress by rejecting austerity, boosting inequality-busting public spending, making tax more progressive, and increasing workers’ rights and pay
  • Widescale debt relief and significant debt cancellation for the poorest countries
  • Increasing taxes on windfall profits, wealth and corporations
  • Issuing more Special Drawing Rights, and allocating more to the poorest countries
  • Boosting inequality-busting aid
  • Delivering on climate finance, especially for the most vulnerable countries
  • Committing to enhancing pandemic preparedness and building more resilient systems.

To halt the worsening hunger crises the G20 must:

  • Urgently mobilise financial resources into humanitarian emergencies
  • Address the root causes of hunger crises including climate change, conflict, poverty and inequality, human rights violations and food price inflation
  • Ensure that blockades, economic sanctions and military activities in all countries do not hinder the free, safe and reliable transport of food and agricultural supplies, especially in conflict-affected areas
  • Rebalance the power in food supply chains to create a more sustainable and just food system.

 Notes

  •  “G20 countries are receiving US$136 million every day in debt repayments from the world’s poorest countries”: Oxfam calculations based on World Bank International Debt Statistics database: Principal repayments plus interests paid by low and lower-middle income countries to G20 countries in 2022 divided by 365 days.
  • “Since the start of the pandemic, poor countries have had to shell out US$113 billion to their rich G20 country creditors”: Oxfam calculations based on World Bank International Debt Statistics database: Sum of principal repayments plus interests paid by low and lower-middle income countries to G20 countries in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
  • “The G20 is home now to 89 percent of all the billionaire wealth in the world – at around US$10 trillion. This has grown by US$1.88 trillion, creating 287 newly-minted pandemic billionaires, since 2020”: Oxfam calculations based on Forbes billionaire list from 18 March 2020 and 31 October 2022.

IMF must abandon demands for austerity as cost-of-living crisis drives up hunger and poverty worldwide

87 percent of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) COVID-19 loans are requiring developing countries that have been denied equal access to vaccines and are facing some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises to adopt tough, new austerity measures that will further exacerbate poverty and inequality.

New analysis by Oxfam finds that 13 out of the 15 IMF loan programs negotiated during the second year of the pandemic require new austerity measures such as taxes on food and fuel or spending cuts that could put vital public services at risk. The IMF is also encouraging six additional countries to adopt similar measures.

In 2020, the IMF deployed billions in emergency loans to help developing countries cope with COVID-19, often with few conditions or none at all. Recently, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva urged Europe not to endanger its economic recovery with “the suffocating force of austerity”. Yet, over the past year, the IMF has gone back to imposing austerity measures on lower-income countries.

“This epitomizes the IMF’s double standard: it is warning rich countries against austerity while forcing poorer ones into it. The pandemic is not over for most of the world. Rising energy bills and food prices are hurting poor countries most. They need help boosting access to basic services and social protection, not harsh conditions that kick people when they are down”, said Nabil Abdo, Oxfam International’s Senior Policy Advisor.

  • Kenya and the IMF agreed a US$2.3 billion loan program in 2021, which includes a three-year public sector pay freeze and increased taxes on cooking gas and food. More than 3 million Kenyans are facing acute hunger as the driest conditions in decades spread a devastating drought across the country. Nearly half of all households in Kenya are having to borrow food or buy it on credit.
  • 9 countries including Cameroon, Senegal and Surinam are being required to introduce or increase the collection of value-added taxes (VAT), which often apply to everyday products like food and clothing, and fall disproportionately on people living in poverty.
  • Sudan, where nearly half of the population is living in poverty, has been required to scrap fuel subsidies which will hit the poorest hardest. The country was already reeling from international aid cuts, economic turmoil and rising prices for everyday basics such as food and medicine before the war in Ukraine started. Over 14 million people need humanitarian assistance (almost one in every three people) and 9.8 million are food insecure in Sudan, which imports 87 percent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.
  • 10 countries including Kenya and Namibia are likely to freeze or cut public sector wages and jobs, which could mean lower quality of education and fewer nurses and doctors in countries already short of healthcare staff. Namibia had fewer than six doctors per 10,000 people when COVID-19 struck.

New analysis by Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI) also published today reveals that 43 out of 55 African Union member states face public expenditure cuts totaling US$183 billion over the next five years. If these cuts are implemented, their chances of achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals will likely disappear. In 2021, an Oxfam review of IMF COVID-19 loans showed that the Fund encouraged 33 African countries to pursue austerity policies in the aftermath of the health crisis. The pandemic has not ended but these policies are already taking shape across Africa.

The analysis also shows that African governments’ failure to tackle inequality ― through support for public healthcare and education, workers’ rights and a fair tax system ― left them woefully ill-equipped to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. The IMF has contributed to these failures by consistently pushing a policy agenda that seeks to balance national budgets through cuts to public services, increases in taxes paid by the poorest, and moves to undermine labor rights and protections. As a result, when COVID-19 struck, 52 percent of Africans lacked access to healthcare and 83 percent had no safety nets to fall back on if they lost their job or became sick.

“The IMF must suspend austerity conditions on existing loans and increase access to emergency financing. It should encourage countries to increase taxes on the wealthiest and corporations to replenish depleted coffers and shrink widening inequality. That would actually be good advice”, said Abdo.

 

Notes to editors

Download Oxfam and DFI’s “Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index: Africa”. Our analysis of the IMF’s COVID-19 loans during the first year of the pandemic is also available for download.

Oxfam estimates that over a quarter of a billion more people could crash into extreme levels of poverty in 2022 because of COVID-19, rising global inequality and the shock of food price rises supercharged by the war in Ukraine. For more information, download Oxfam’s brief “First Crisis, Then Catastrophe”.

The IMF negotiated 22 COVID-19 loans with 23 countries between 15 March 2021 and 15 March 2022. 15 are loan programs that came with a full suite of conditionality or policy requirements, six are conditionality-free emergency financing and one is a Flexible Credit Line that does not usually include conditionalities. The IMF’s USUS$1.4 billion (SDR 1,005.9 million) disbursement to Ukraine was not included in Oxfam’s analysis, as it intended to help meet urgent financing needs and mitigate the economic impact of the war.

In December 2021, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva told Euronews that the European Union should not put economic recovery in danger with “the suffocating force of austerity”.  The IMF’s own research shows austerity worsens poverty and inequality.

Photographs and video from East Africa are available. As many as 28 million people across East Africa at risk of extreme hunger. West Africa is facing its worst food crisis in ten years, with over 27 million people suffering from hunger.

According to Sudan’s latest household survey (2014), 44 percent of the population lives in poverty. However, this data does not reflect the impacts of the recent economic decline, high inflation and recent flooding. The IMF estimates that the ongoing economic crisis, exacerbated by COVID-19, will likely have significantly negative effects on living conditions and poverty.

According to the World Food Program, 9.8 million people in Sudan are food insecure. 14.3 million are estimated to need humanitarian assistance in 2022 — the highest in the past decade.

According to the World Bank, Namibia had 0.59 doctors per 1,000 people before the pandemic began.

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