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Governments and aid agencies have to tackle the politics and power at the heart of the increasing effects of climate change, rising inequality and people’s vulnerability to disasters according to a new report published today by international agency Oxfam.

We need to transform our economies to deliver universal health, education and other public services. To make this possible, the richest people and corporations should pay their fair share of tax. This will drive a dramatic reduction in the gap between rich and poor and between women and men.

Poor countries are being forced to cut back on their economic crisis-response spending too soon. Education and social protection budgets are particularly badly affected. Oxfam is calling on the IMF to take steps to reverse this trend.

The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic could push half a billion more people into poverty unless urgent action is taken to bail out developing countries, said Oxfam today.

An average of 189 million people per year have been affected by extreme weather-related events in developing countries since 1991 – the year that a mechanism was first proposed to address the costs of climate impacts on low-income countries - according to a new report published today.

The International Finance Corporation has little accountability for billions of dollars’ worth of investments into banks, hedge funds and other financial intermediaries, resulting in projects that are causing human rights abuses around the world.

Rich and poor countries alike have exacerbated an explosion of economic inequality since the outbreak of the pandemic from 2020, reveals new research by Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI). 

The Covid-19 pandemic will not be defeated unless it’s defeated in all countries. In developing countries, where public health spending is often severely constrained, significant debt cancellation will be necessary to deal with the double whammy of health and economic crises.

In response to the selection today of Ajay Banga as President of the World Bank for a five-year term beginning 2 June, Katie Malouf-Bous, interim Head of Oxfam International’s Washington DC Office, said: "The true test of Ajay Banga starts now: to reorient the World Bank to tackle the extreme inequality that robs billions of people of economic security and dignity. We need huge new investments in development but we need them to be publicly-led and purposed to lift people out of poverty —and we need guardrails around private finance that has run riot for too long."

Oxfam welcomes today’s announcement by the World Bank Group on a new Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition before the UN Climate Summit in New York. The Summit is meant to build political momentum towards a post-2020 climate agreement in Paris in 2015, with governments on the hook to make meaningful commitments to reduce their emissions and to deliver climate finance to the poorest, most vulnerable countries. Placing a…