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The 1,000 richest people on the planet recouped their COVID-19 losses within just nine months, but it could take more than a decade for the world’s poorest to recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic, reveals a new Oxfam report today. ‘The Inequality Virus’ is being published on the opening day of the World Economic Forum’s ‘Davos Agenda’. 

Oxfam’s Nicolas Mombrial said:

When the G20 meets in Seoul in November 2010, it has a big choice to make.

The G7 have made a stuttering start on climate but have largely neglected the plight of people living in poverty, said Oxfam at the close of the annual leaders’ summit in Germany today.

Last year poor people around the world endured the consequences of the food and energy price crisis.

Extreme wealth evokes images of both deserving entrepreneurs and fat cats. This paper explores whether the meritocracy argument stands up as a defence of extreme wealth. 

Despite millions of people being pushed into hunger and poverty, 143 countries — including 94 developing nations — are implementing policy measures that undermine governments’ capacity to provide healthcare, education and social protection.   

At the end of the G20 Summit in Rome, Italy, Oxfam panned the lack of bold and effective action from the world leaders at such an important moment in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Responding to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) updated NDC Synthesis Report, Oxfam France’s Advocacy Manager Armelle Le Comte said: “This confirms we are still dangerously off track from limiting global warming to the vital 1.5°C limit. The climate clock is ticking ever closer to midnight and COP26 now needs to be a planetary crisis meeting. Governments need to agree to revise their climate plans more regularly to get us back on track. Remedial action is desperately needed now —there is no later or better time."

The study builds on existing literature on levels and trends of inequality in Uganda to gather evidence on how inequality manifests itself and how it affects different people across different social, political and economic strata.