Welcome to the 15th FAIR-Inequality Newsletter
This is a tool for sharing our work on inequality (both programmes and campaigns). FAIR enables us to scale up our influencing and programming on fiscal justice at the national level whilst aligning closely with the Inequality Advocacy and Campaigns work, in order to have a significant impact on reducing inequality globally. Simply put, FAIR is the programme side of the inequality equation, whilst the latter focuses on worldwide advocacy and campaigns. The two work together to enable us help reduce inequality as one Oxfam.
You can also see this in French and Spanish.
- Global developments and their impacts on revenue raising and spending
- Improving Social Accountability in Solomon Islands
- It's time to tighten the net: net zero climate targets
- Fighting inequality in El Salvador through analysis and advocating for a just economic recovery
- Not in this together: Women workers are losing out
- Gender inclusion in Community Development Committees in Nigeria
- Here is what you missed at The Festival to Fight Inequality, 2021
- Tax justice in Vietnam: fighting against tax avoidance and regressive taxation
- A campaign for the Peoples Vaccine – where we are now.
- How to share your work in the newsletter
We have changed! An update of the Inequality Advocacy and Campaigns team
Last year, like most of parts of Oxfam, OI went through a major restructuring process. One of the many changes included the birth of the Advocacy, Campaigns and Engagement Department in which the Inequality Advocacy and Campaigns team sit. The new team is collectively responsible for delivering ambitions under Just Economies and Climate Justice with strong integrations of Gender Justice and Accountable Governance as per the Global Strategic Framework. You can find the organogram of the team here. For more details on the changes reach out to Deepak Xavier, Head of Inequality, Advocacy and Campaigns.
The FAIR program is also undergoing changes. Stefan Verwer is no longer the FAIR program convenor, as he is now working on growing Oxfam’s supporter base in the Netherlands. For any questions about the FAIR Program, please reach out to Ivan Nikolic.
Happy reading!
Global developments and their impacts on revenue raising and spending
In these last few months, some major global developments took place that can have a big impact on countries’ revenue mobilization and spending decisions.
Global tax reform deal
In July, the G20 approved the OECD’s new framework for international corporate taxation, which has received the endorsement of 133 countries. The OECD agreement is a two-pronged global tax reform. Pillar 1 of the tax reform seeks to ensure that very large corporations pay more tax in countries where they have their sales by taxing companies’ profits that exceed the 10% profit margin and distribute it to markets where they have sales. Pilar 2 of the tax reform establishes a global minimum tax rate of 15%.
Oxfam has issued a response to the tax deal, pointing out why the deal is not sufficient in tackling tax avoidance and criticizing the sidelining of low-income country interests. The reactive highlights some of the shortcomings of the deal. The minimum rate of 15% will do little to end harmful tax competition, not least because of loopholes that will ensure that companies can keep paying below the 15%. And while the minimum tax is set to raise billions in new tax revenue, almost all of the new revenue will flow to rich countries under the proposal. Pillar 1 is equally problematic, as it will only apply to as few as 78 companies and will force countries to remove taxes on digital companies and restrict their options to tax multinationals. Kenya and Nigeria are among those countries that have refused to endorse the OECD deal, and Oxfam will continue to help them push for a fairer and more ambitious deal leading up to the G20 summit in October where negotiations will continue.
For a more detailed explanation of Pillar 1 and 2 and their implications, have a look at this blog posted on Equals.
Special Drawing Rights
In August, the IMF Board of Governors approved a $650 billion Special Drawing Rights (SDR) issuance. Countries all over the world will be receiving a portion of this SDR according to their quota in the IMF, meaning they will be receiving important resources that can be spent without any prior condition and without increasing their debt.
You can find Oxfam’s reaction to the approval of the SDR here.
The SDR issuance provides an opportunity for Oxfam and other civil society organizations to influence how these funds will be allocated. Check out this blog to learn more about what the Special Drawing Rights are, how they work, and what avenues there are to engage. If you are interested to engage on SDRs in your country or region, or if you have any questions, reach out to Nadia Daar and/or Nabil Abdo.
Improving Social Accountability in Solomon Islands
Oxfam in Solomon Islands works together with the SISAC coalition (Solomon Islands Accountability Coalition). The SISAC coalition is made up of ten civil society organizations who work for social justice and are committed to support CSOs and citizens to improve social accountability in Solomon Islands hold the government to accountable.
After running a campaign in 2020 to advocate for quality and accessible health care, Oxfam and Forum solomon Islands (one of the SISAC members) continued to support three communities to improve local health services. The health campaign had attracted attention from service providers and government officials to the state of the clinics in the three rural communities. The campaign gathered support from the provincial and national government and the public, increasing the pressure on the government to ensure there is commitment in terms of budget to support the health clinics.
To hold the government at national and provincial level accountable to these commitments, Oxfam and Forum Solomon Islands conducted workshops in the three communities and trained community members on the Community Scorecard approach (CSC). The Community Scorecard is a participatory tool for the assessment, planning, monitoring and evaluation of services. It brings community members – ‘service users’- and service providers together to jointly analyze service delivery. The tool increases community participation, accountability and transparency. In the case of the three communities in Solomons Islands, the focus was on the provision of quality health services.
(CSC) The Community Scorecard is a participatory tool for the assessment, planning, monitoring and evaluation of services. It brings community members – ‘service users’- and service providers together to jointly analyze service delivery. The tool increases community participation, accountability and transparency. In the case of the three communities in Solomons Islands, the focus was on the provision of quality health services.
The CSC series of workshops by Oxfam and Forum Solomon Islands led to empowered community facilitators, and an increased understanding of community roles and responsibilities towards health facilities and service providers roles & responsibilities. A safe space was created for the community members to have a dialogue with relevant authorities, such as the provincial health service. Different peer groups were established to represent the intersectional interest of different groups, such as the elderly, women, youth and people with disabilities. This was key because the different groups faced different challenges when accessing health services.
In February 2021, the billboard with the scorecard (which captures the agreements made between the community and service providers) was put up. Community members have since followed up with service providers to monitor the services and identify solutions and areas for improvement. For more information on this work, reach out to the focal point for Forum Solomon Islands International Mr. Inia Barry, one of the key SISAC members, and Julia Fationo Cutforth, Oxfam in Pacific, Solomon Islands office
It's time to tighten the net: net zero climate targets
Climate change is having severe impacts on the land on which people rely to feed their families. Extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, changing rainfall patterns and rising temperatures mean drier and less fertile lands where fewer crops survive each planting season, poorer soil health, increased water scarcity and a less nutritious harvest overall. Currently, over 820 million people experience hunger, with climate change being a key driver of food insecurity. What is more, many millions live in rural areas and rely on land and agriculture for their livelihoods, making them susceptible to climate impacts on land.
According to the Oxfam’s recently published Brief, Tightening the Net, Net zero climate targets – implications for land and food equity, the devastating impacts of the climate crisis on small-scale farmers is one of the major drivers of hunger and food insecurity. The report has been widely shared according to this brief media report and continues to be a key referencing point.
Many governments and companies are adopting net zero climate targets as they recognize the urgency of the climate crisis. Without clear definition, however, these targets risk being reliant on using vast swathes of land in low-income countries to capture carbon emissions, allowing the biggest emitters to avoid making significant cuts in their own emissions.
Net zero should be a pathway to real and transformative climate action and not greenwash. Carbon emissions need to be reduced now, and land-based climate solutions must centre ‘food-first’ approaches that help achieve both zero emissions and zero hunger
You can read the summary of the brief here and access the full report here where Oxfam clearly highlights what should be done to avert the pending climatic disaster.
For more information, reach out to Oxfam’s Nafkote Dabi or Aditi Sen.
Fighting inequality in El Salvador through analysis and advocating for a just economic recovery
Last June, Oxfam in El Salvador and FUDECEN launched its multidimensional inequality report. The report called ‘Not one step back: let's close the gaps of multidimensional inequality in El Salvador’ (available here in Spanish) offers an analysis of multidimensional inequalities in El Salvador in the five year period between 2014 and 2019. The analysis was conducted with the use of the Multidimensional Inequality Framework
Some of the key findings of the report:
- The 110 wealthiest people in El Salvador own more (€7350 million) than the government has to spend within its entire 2021 general budget (€6110)
- A large majority (84%) of private schools have access to internet, whereas this is the case for only 28% of public schools.
- The morbidity rate of the richest 20% has remained the same, while it went up by five points for the poorest 20%.
Along with the launch of the report, a set of seven stories was published on the website. Each story shares the personal experiences of families and individuals in El Salvador and how different forms of inequalities manifest themselves. The stories highlight forms of activism and key issues affecting inequalities, such as migration, access to healthcare and education, and job opportunities.
Advocating for tax and gender justice in COVID-19 economic recovery
To contribute to tax policies and economic recovery plans that include a gender perspective, Oxfam in El Salvador, FUDECEN, two women rights organizations (IMU and the Alliance for the Defense of Rural Women Rights) worked together in advocacy processes toward the IMF and the central government to push for specific conditions of transparency, citizen participation, gender justice and tax justice as a part of the measures put in place to respond to the pandemic. A series of videos about this project have been launched to share insights on how the government, CSOs and international financial institutions (IFIs) can work to favor economic recovery and tax justice with a gender perspective.
One of the main challenges faced is that tax policies and economic recovery plan are often designed without taking into consideration gender inequalities. At the same time, women’s organizations, especially at the local level, don’t usually engage with IFIs. Therefore, among other activities, IMU conducted a course for 60 women local leaders in different regions of the country where they addressed IFIs and their impact in the country. It remains a challenge to enable a dialogue between IFIs and women’s rights organizations, which is why it is important for these organizations and for local leaders to better understand the mandate, structure and impacts of IFIs and to have IFI actors on their agenda as a key stakeholder to influence.
For more info, reach out to Victor Aguilar.
Not in this together: Women workers are losing out
While inequality of power and value was already deeply unfair before the pandemic, it has now reached shocking proportions. COVID-19 has cost global workers $3.7 trillion in lost income, and women and young workers have been hardest hit, as they are often found in the most insecure and lowest-paid jobs. Few places reveal this trend more clearly than supermarket supply chains
In fact, during the pandemic, a new report shows that publicly listed supermarkets distributed 98% of net profits to their shareholders via dividends and share buybacks. Meanwhile, workers and producers, especially women, across the globe – the people we call ‘essential’ or ‘frontline’ workers – have seen their incomes stagnate or even fall, while their rights continue to be violated
In June this year, the Behind the Barcodes/Price Campaign launched its 3rd campaign spike with a new report, Not In This Together: How Supermarkets Became Pandemic Winners while Women Workers Are Losing Out. This comes after the last two years of powerful spikes with the reports ‘Ripe For Change’ and ‘Workers’ Rights in Supermarket Supply Chains’ that pushed for action for workers’ rights, transparency and accountability.
This year’s report found that exploitation and discrimination of workers and farmers in food supply chains remains pervasive and systemic, especially for women who are concentrated in the lowest-paid, most precarious work, making them particularly vulnerable to crises like COVID-19. It also found inequality was exacerbated during the pandemic with listed supermarkets seeing their total dividends distributed to shareholders increase by 123% while workers lost out.
After the global spike release, countries continued to release their own national reports, statements and reactions regarding local workers’ rights in various sectors of the food chain supply. The campaign had success in its collective efforts by seeing the 3 of the biggest Dutch supermarkets, Lidl, Jumbo and Albert Heijn responding to our gender justice asks. Here is an update of the all the highlights from national teams working on this diversified campaign from Oxfam Brazil, India, Thailand, Pakistan, Germany and Novib.
Join in and take action! For more information on this contact Rachel Colbourne and Jacques-Chai Chomthongdi.
Gender inclusion in Community Development Committees in Nigeria
On the 23rd of September 2020, the women of Obodo-Ugwa, Delta State, took their seats for the first time at the Community Development Committee (CDC) meeting where issues of rural governance and development were deliberated.
Up until that day, men dominated these meetings and made social & economic decisions on behalf of women. Cultural and traditional norms prevented women from joining meetings that men presided over. If women had concerns, they were expected to tell their husbands or male representatives in the household.
Obodo-Ugwa
Obodo Ugwa Ogume is a small village with a population of about 3000 people in Delta State. It is an oil exploration site and this has affected the community by causing environmental degradation, ill health, poisoned water, and polluted farm crops.
OXFAM Nigeria and Connected Development (CODE) advocated for the responsiveness of Oil companies to host communities in the Delta State. One strand of their advocacy work was to stimulate gender inclusion in local extractive governance to spur inclusive and effective community development.
Women Participation and Community Development
Recognising the importance of women’s participation in politics, the economy and in social and cultural aspects of life, CODE and OXFAM intensified efforts to advocate for gender inclusion and gender-responsive public services in the community so that women could have a seat at the table.
OXFAM and CODE organised town hall meetings and advocacy calls where key stakeholders from the oil & gas sector, such as regulators and oil explorers and community chiefs and leaders, deliberated on a way to include women in governance structures.
Two weeks before the inauguration of a new community development committee, CODE was invited to witness the result of its advocacy. Community elders now seek to include women in CDC meetings and have elected women to also take up executive roles.
Obodo-Ugwa now has its first female vice president of the CDC and a female finance manager. CODE believes that the recognition of women’s participation will have far-reaching impacts in building the community into an inclusive society.
“Women do not sit with men at village meetings except when they are summoned. This is a dream come true! Seeing my fellow women as not just members but executives on the Community Development Committee gives me joy! Ehn ehn, now we can say what our needs are without discussing first with our husbands. The village market that they are building was because women complained of long-distance travel to buy food items. I am glad this happened in my time.” - Obodo Ugwa resident Veronica Obi
As traditional norms and value systems in rural areas especially are still limiting the participation of women in community development, CODE, during its advocacy activities in grassroots communities mainstreams gender-responsiveness and gender equality in its interactions and engagements to ensure communities are informed of the importance of including women in decision-making processes.
For more info, reach out to Henry Ushie.
Here is what you missed at The Festival to Fight Inequality, 2021
Deeply concerned about the impact of inequality and inspired by people’s collective struggles to build a more equal, more sustainable world, the Fight Inequality Alliance organizes the annual Festival to Fight Inequality.
Covid-19 has supercharged inequalities: while billionaire´s wealth rises dramatically, austerity is imposed on health, education, and social protection systems across the world. The pandemic is rooted in an already broken system based on extreme inequality like racism, oppressive patriarchy, the climate crisis, and many more. The wealthiest people on earth are increasing their fortune during this pandemic more than in the last 15 years, while millions suffer from hunger, joblessness, and lacking or non-existent public health systems.
The Festival to Fight Inequality, a space for the growing inequality movement to reconnect and recharge around these struggles and solutions, has never been more crucial.
What happened?
As global physical gatherings are still impossible, the 2021 Festival to Fight Inequality was virtual. More than two thousand diverse and passionate activists from all over the world came together to reflect, imagine, and inspire each other towards a better post-pandemic world.
It was a two-day affair, with almost thirty sessions carefully planned and presented by a myriad of knowledgeable speakers from all over the world. All the sessions had simultaneous translations into five different languages: no easy task, and a huge Kudos to the organizing team!
The icing on the cake was the concluding session. The Festival to Fight Inequality Concert was the most innovative, disruptive, inspiring, not to mention fun session of the Festival. So far, the concert has 4000 views on YouTube and 5.3K views on Facebook. By far it's the session that attracted the public the most. Beyond the numbers, it shows that ludicrous, diverse, and inspiring-driven activities are a great compliment and a channel to reach broader audiences.
You can access all the other sessions from the Festival on this YouTube playlist
The process
The Festival content was organized and prepared by the alliance members. It was centred around learning, sharing, inspiring, and growing a wider activists base around the people’s recovery. Many movements and organizations that partnered and participated in the festival are new to the alliance. The festival provided an opportunity to bring these movements and organizations into the alliance and grow it's mobilization base.
What the plan is
Systemic change is urgent. We stand for a just, equal, and sustainable future for all. No more vaccines apartheid, no more Pharma greed, no more austerity. We came together to demand Universal public services, global social protection, decent jobs, fair distribution of care, and basic income for everyone. It is time for clear, bold, and decisive policies. It is time to Tax the rich!
Billionaires have pocketed more than they could ever spend in a lifetime on the backs of workers who have suffered and perished during the COVID-19 pandemic. The time for change is now, more than ever.
For more information on the festival, reach out to Pablo Andres Rivero Morales
Tax justice in Vietnam: fighting against tax avoidance and regressive taxation campaign update
Tax justice is at the heart of Oxfam in Vietnam’s efforts to improve governance that addresses inequality and reduces poverty in Vietnam. Oxfam in Vietnam has been advocating for progressive revenue mobilization by tackling corporate tax avoidance practices and working in alliances to collectively push forward for fairer taxation.
Advocating for improvements to Vietnam’s Decree 20 related to transfer pricing
In 2016, Oxfam began advocating for a more robust country-by-country reporting mechanism of multinational corporations (MNCs), initiated by frequent reports of tax avoidance and transfer pricing misuse. The advocacy by Oxfam and its partners led the government of Vietnam to increase the level of transparency under Vietnam’s Decree 20. Oxfam reviewed the draft decree and made recommendations to the General Tax Department. The Decree defines which companies must provide details of their transactions across the globe to Vietnamese tax authorities. It includes an article on country-by-country reporting, which was improved following Oxfam’s recommendation to require all MNCs, regardless of their existing tax treaties with Vietnam, to file country-by-country reports directly with Vietnam’s Tax Bureau, the General Tax Department (GTD). Read more in this case study.
Working in an alliance to advocate for fair taxation
In 2017, Oxfam in Vietnam supported the establishment of the Vietnam Alliance for Tax Justice (VATJ), which has three official members: Vietnam Institute for Economic Policy Research (VEPR) as a think-tank, the Center for Education Promotion and Empowerment of Women (CEPEW) and EPH, a youth-led group.
In 2017, the Ministry of Finance proposed a VAT increase, which would disproportionately affect the poor. The proposal faced criticism from the business sector, economists, and civil society. The VATJ assessed the economic and social impact of the proposal and shared the results of the assessment in a workshop, which attracted broad media coverage. Until now, the proposal has not been revived. Read more in this case study. For the full case study, which was supported by the International Budget Partnership, reach out to Huong Nguyen
Capital gains tax avoidance: ConocoPhillips case
Oxfam in Vietnam has also supported the Government of Vietnam in tackling capital gains tax avoidance. In 2012, the American oil company ConocoPhilips sold its oil license from Vietnam through a UK-based holding company to the Franco-British Perenco. This resulted in a sale between two UK-based companies with no taxable presence in Vietnam. In response, Vietnam argued that ConocoPhilips should pay tax on the profit gained from the sale of the license. ConocoPhilips tackled the tax claim in court. Thanks to a publication about the court case and tax avoidance by investigative journalists from Finance Uncovered, the US oil giant not only backed down from the lawsuit it had filed against the Government of Vietnam, but also paid $ 80 million in taxes.
Oxfam in Vietnam had repeatedly pointed out loopholes in existing fiscal regulations which enable tax avoidance to the Government of Vietnam. With the results of Finance Uncovered's investigations in hand, Oxfam and other partners were able to further increase the pressure on ConocoPhillips and get the Government of Vietnam to close the loopholes. Eventually, the Government of Vietnam has revised the Tax Administration Law in 2019. Among the revisions, there is an improved regulation on capital gain tax to close tax avoidance loopholes.
For more information, please refer to the evaluation of Oxfam in Vietnam’s Finance 4 Development program (page 90) or reach out to Huong Nguyen.
A campaign for the Peoples Vaccine – where we are.
Last year, Oxfam co-founded the People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA) in response to anticipated barriers to people’s access to the Covid-19 vaccine. The goal of the campaign is to demand an end to the monopoly ownership of successful Covid-19 vaccines, therapeutics and medical technology by a handful of Big pharmas so that we can scale up manufacturing for safe and effective vaccines and therapeutics to everyone on the planet.
Oxfam has been operating as a Secretariat for the alliance and since the launch, the alliance has grown strongly and has presence across the world. Currently the alliance has brought together over 70 organizations and activist groups around the world.
This rapidly moving global campaign has been running since May 2020. Some recent updates include:
- There have been two major online campaigns in the past few weeks with one targeting pharmaceutical companies and the other gaining attention with the Tokyo 2020 olympic games. #EyesOnPharmaGreed action generated a great deal of attention, reaching over 8 million people online, with over 21,000 interactions and nearly 14,000 shares including various EU politicians and new organisations. It was led by the Fight for Inequality Alliance (FIA) who shared and made it happen. It helped to bring attention to EU and Merkel’s ties with BigPharma and set up the next action point that focused on the Olympics. This was the #StopPlayingGames campaign led by Public Citizen. The campaign demanded that global leaders stop playing games with people’s lives, and commit to vaccinating the world. During the Opening Ceremony, Prof. Muhammad Yunus talked about PVA's efforts for global vaccination during his acceptance speech for the Olympic Laurel.
- With COVID surges in low-income countries, the issues of tech transfer and increase distributed manufacturing capacity remain key to quickly ramping up production and saving lives. As Malawi receives its first dose of JJ in early august 2021 with only 0.2 % of its people vaccinated, the US vaccinated 50% of its population. Health officials and activists are urging Biden to use the Defense Production Act to share vaccine recipes, require technology transfer of Moderna and Pfizer, and urgently accelerate production and access.
- The distribution of the existing vaccine supply remains profoundly unequal. COVAX donations are still too little. Rich countries continue to hoard vaccines for their “third” doses, while WHO’s DG had to explain why this is a bad idea in a Time’s article - echoed by the Lancet - calling for a moratorium on COVID booster until low-income countries get vaccinated.
- Pharmaceutical companies continue to make profits while failing to share their recipes, despite several solicitations of collaboration to produce vaccines by manufacturers across the world. No wonder, the Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, the Fight Inequality Alliance and the Patriotic Millionaires have called for a one-off tax on $5.5 trillion COVID profits of the world’s richest to pay for the world to be vaccinated.
Have a look at this previous update on what the campaign has been able to achieve. To support the People’s Vaccine Campaign, visit the website and have a look at what action you can take. This campaign moves fast! For the most recent updates, check out the @Peoplesvaccine on Twitter.
For more details on the Peoples Vaccine Campaign please contact Victoria Harnett or Max Lawson
Newsletter stories: we want YOU!
Do you want to share about your work in the next edition of the FAIR-EIU newsletter? Please get in touch with Paola and Fatuma. We’d love to hear from you!
Credits:
photos: Oxfam & credited individuals with Oxfam