Search results

Ahead of the G20 Summit in Rome, Italy, Oxfam calls on G20 leaders to take urgent action to dramatically scale up manufacturing and access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world, promote a fair economic recovery, fight hunger, lower dangerous greenhouse gas emissions, and help the poorest countries adapt to the climate change already happening.

Runaway inequality has created a world where 62 people own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population combined, according to an Oxfam report published today ahead of the annual gathering of the world’s financial and political elites in Davos.

People seeking safety are trapped at borders across Eastern Africa due to COVID-19 measures.    

As many as 12,000 people could die per day by the end of the year as a result of hunger linked to COVID-19, potentially more than could die from the disease, warned Oxfam in a new briefing published today. The global observed daily mortality rate for COVID-19 reached its highest recorded point in April 2020 at just over 10,000 deaths per day.

The cost of vaccinating the world against COVID-19 could be at least five times cheaper if pharmaceutical companies weren’t profiteering from their monopolies on COVID-19 vaccines, campaigners from the People’s Vaccine Alliance said today.

Oxfam’s new report, ‘The Inequality Virus’, reveals that the wealth of the ten richest men has increased by half a trillion dollars since the pandemic began - more than enough to pay for a vaccine for all and prevent anyone on Earth from falling into poverty because of the virus.  We have received lots of great questions about the report − here’s our answer to the 10 most frequently asked questions.

“The growing split among G7 leaders is bad news for millions of women and men around the world struggling for a better life," said Oxfam International executive director, Winnie Byanyima.

The human and economic cost of COVID-19 has been staggering, in terms of lives lost, human suffering, and economic damage. As we mark two years since the official pandemic was declared, we still have a chance to gain the upper hand on the virus, but only if everyone, everywhere has access to vaccines and treatments.

Africa is facing a crisis of extreme inequality which is undermining growth, preventing poverty eradication and contributing to insecurity. This briefing paper shows that COVID-19 has deepened this crisis, and that the responses of African governments and international financial institutions are making little difference as debt burdens grow and austerity kicks in.

Rising inequality poses a dire threat to continued prosperity in Asia, where an estimated 500 million people remain trapped in extreme poverty, most of them women and girls.