fight inequality, beat poverty

fight inequality, beat poverty a quarterly newsletter from F.A.I.R. & Even It Up

Welcome to the 13th FAIR-EIU 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 Even It Up Campaign, in order to have a significant impact on reducing inequality globally. Simply put, FAIR is the programme side of the inequality equation, whilst Even It Up represents the campaign side. Both work together to enable us help reduce inequality as one Oxfam.

You can also see this in French and Spanish.

Happy reading!

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Argentina moves to implement the ‘Oxfam Tax’

In December 2020, Argentina has approved an extraordinary ‘big fortunes tax’ in the middle of a deep health and economic crisis.

The Argentine Congress passed the extraordinary “millionaire’s tax” law. It is an initiative that was born a few months earlier in response to the COVID-19 crisis,. It is a one-time tax that applies to about 10,000 people with net assets above 2.5 million US dollars, at a rate between 2 and 3.5 %.

The measure, expected be effective as soon as possible, aims to collect around 3.5 billion US dollars. The funds will be reinvested in policies to respond directly to the pandemic, such as social spending and the financial rescue of small and medium-sized companies, among others.

Since the very beginning, political parties in government and in public debates have explicitly referenced the Oxfam’s report “Who Pays the Bill”, published last August, when discussing the millionaire’s tax. Some media even called these tax measures “The Oxfam Tax”.

The initiative will hopefully gain momentum and be replicated in more countries in the Latin American region. Most recently, the new government of Bolivia passed an annual wealth tax as well. Governments from other countries in the region, like Chile and Peru, are also debating this idea of a one-off and temporary contribution from the better off in the country to contribute to cover the needs of the pandemic.

This measure is a very progressive direction in public policies, by collecting taxes among less than the richest 1% of the country and will provide more resources to face the crisis. These kinds of wealth taxes can be combined with other tools such as an excessive profit tax on large corporations (initial debate going on now in Brazil) or digital service taxes. Along with a reduction in the tax burden on the most impoverished households, these are vital measures that can help us to get out of the crisis and move public response to the pandemic in the right direction – to helping people survive and thrive.

A few reflections on this process from the team that contributed to this success:

It is necessary to set aside time to think together, discuss ideas and test. ‘Who Pays the Bill’ is the result of endless hours of conversations, discussions and initial versions.
Evidence and killer facts take time and a lot of effort. Technical experts’ time is critical and support needs to be provided.
The influencing process is not a “magic act”, it involves years of engaging with political stakeholders in the region, supporting (funding and participating) events and working with allies across the region. Oxfam has an asset there (a lot of people/organisations/policy makers/ identify Oxfam as an expert on tax/fiscal issues) that shouldn’t be lost.
Media / narrative work. Again, this takes time and human resources, in this case global support from Oxfam experts from a combination of profiles was critical.

For more information, reach out to Pablo Andres Rivero Morales.

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Oxfam’s Social Protection report

In December, Oxfam’s launched its report on social protection ‘Shelter from the storm’. The research shows that over 2 billion people have had no support from their governments in their time of need. The paper is based on comprehensive research done in partnership with Development Pathways, looking at the social protection responses of nations across the world to the Covid-19 crisis, including unemployment benefits and other ways in which governments have sought to support those hit economically.

For those who did get some support, it was not enough. The analysis shows that none of the social protection support to those who are unemployed, elderly people, children and families in low- and middle-income countries has been adequate to meet basic needs. 41% of that government support was only a one-off payment and almost all government support has now stopped.

Some countries have done dramatic things- particularly the richer nations. Yet there is a huge gap between what rich nations have spent and what poorer nations have managed to do. When it comes to additional cash poured specifically into social protection programmes, 28 rich countries have spent at the rate of $695 per person. In contrast, 42 low- or middle-income countries have spent from$28 down to as little as $4 per person.

Yet some developing countries have also done very positive things. The governments of South Africa and Bolivia have already shown that a lot can be done by providing unemployment benefits, child support and pensions on a nearly universal and long-term basis.

But for most countries the response has been insufficient. The paper gives an overview of the responses of 126 countries, building on the work by Ugo Gentilini at the World Bank in collating country efforts. It also and goes into some depth with five case studies, which show the huge range in the adequacy of government responses.

The paper carefully lays out the powerful arguments for investing in Universal Social Protection for all. It lays out the significant economic benefits and the major impact it has on poverty and inequality. Finally, it supports the call for a Global Fund for Social Protection, calling on governments to commit an additional 2% of their GDP into social protection programs and ensure minimum income security for children, the elderly, mothers, and people living with disability.

Summaries of the report are available in Spanish, French and Arabic. An annex to the report has also been launched about governments’ responses to the Covid-19 crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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Disability inclusion in Timor Leste’s state budget 2021

Oxfam in Timor-Leste’s accountability and transparency project, Open The Books, works with local partners to advocate for inclusive budgeting and social accountability in Timor-Leste. Last November, the team had a huge win in their disability inclusive budgeting campaign. Not only did the campaign go viral on Facebook by reaching over a quarter of Timor Leste’s internet users (!), the Ministry of Public Works passed a regulation that requires all new offices and commercial buildings built to be accessible and meet the needs of persons with disabilities. This was one of the key campaign asks.

The campaign aimed to raise decision-makers’ awareness and understanding of the needs of people with a disability in order to include them in the preparation and passing of the 2021 state budget proposal. This one-pager tells you more about how the campaign was adjusted to the context of a global pandemic and how the campaign strategy adapted to a new government that was established mid-2020.

The team in Timor Leste also contributed to this 'New Normal’ publication, which documents learnings from India, the Philippines and the Pacific on getting governments to spend more & better for inclusion of all persons with disabilities. It tells you more about the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and what CRDP compliant budgeting entails. It further highlights the importance of budget advocacy on this topic and shares experiences and lessons learned from a number of countries. All in all, it’s a very useful resource for those interested in disability & state budget influencing.

For more information, reach out to Annie Sloman.

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Fair Tax Monitor launch in Morocco

In January 2021, Oxfam in Morocco launched their Fair Tax Monitor report. The Fair Tax Monitor report studies the fairness of the Moroccan tax system. It provides an in-depth analysis of the Moroccan tax system and makes key proposals in the context of the Covid-19 health crisis that has plunged tax revenues and increased social spending.

This study is set in a particular context, that of the post-Covid-19 world, and aims to contribute to the public debate by presenting elements on the nature and role of the tax system. In addition, the study is part of Oxfam's local and international advocacy activities through concise, accurate and evidence-based analyses. Oxfam’s approach aims to contribute to a shared reflection on the problems of social injustice and inequality for which the tax system is both one of the causes and one of the solutions.

A set of four videos explains the FTM analysis of the tax system in a simple and straightforward way, to make the content of the report understandable and accessible to all citizens. These videos (in Arabic) were met with positive feedback on Facebook.

The objective is to assess the progressiveness of the Moroccan tax system and analyze its impact on social, economic and gender inequalities. There is a focus on public spending in the social sectors, particularly health and education.

Oxfam in Morocco aims, through this new report on fiscal policy, to rekindle the debate between political, economic and social actors in order to initiate the change projects that must be at the heart of the reform of the development model and the political programs of the next elections. The research offers a number of recommendations for progressiveness and fairness of the fiscal system, such as the introduction of new tax brackets for the income tax, raising the minimum tax threshold and a revision of the VAT rates.

These recommendations were also reiterated in the conclusion of a webinar about the post-Covid recovery in Morocco, with speakers from academia, civil society, the OECD and the IMF. You can watch the webinar on Facebook.

You can read the report here in French and here in English. If you have any questions, reach out to Asmae Boulamti. For more information about the Fair Tax Monitor, visit https://maketaxfair.net/

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Influencing the creation of care systems in Colombia

By Ana Isabel Arenas, Mesa Intersectorial de Economía del Cuidado (Intersectoral Care Economy Roundtable) and Laura Gómez, Oxfam Colombia

If care work would be recognized and remunerated, it would be one of the most relevant economic activities in the world economy and in the country. Despite its importance, our societies still have a long way to go to achieve the recognition of care as a right, to guarantee its universality for the entire population, and to ensure that responsibility is taken by different actors involved in the provision of care work, so it is not driven by women.

The development of strategies for the recognition, reduction and redistribution of care work and the remuneration of caregivers requires the implementation of measures and strategies that strongly address unpaid care work and care for people who require support, such as children and the elderly who are ill or have disabilities. These care systems must take into account the provision of services and the type of care required, and respond to the complexity of diverse contexts. For these systems to be viable, their financing must be guaranteed.

For this reason, the Intersectoral Roundtable on the Economy of Care is conducting research on the financing of care systems, especially on unpaid care work, both at the national level and at subnational level in the regions. The results of this work will be used to promote advocacy processes aimed at the creation of care systems as public policy, which will make it possible to:

reduce the role of families as carers, in order to transform dynamics that make families over-responsible for care
depatriarchalize it: ensure that within families care work is not attributed mainly to women, which is often the case due to the dynamics of the current gender division of labor; and
de-commodify it: in other words, ensure that not only people with the ability to pay can access care services.

Thus, the Roundtable seeks for the State seeks to guarantee the universality of care for the entire population. As Colombia is a multiethnic and multicultural country, there is a need for contextualized public policies at both the national and regional levels. The results of the research on possible alternatives for financing unpaid care work in the care system could be used in the regions by the regional care economy and feminist economy roundtables that are being strengthened in several departments, as well as by women's and feminist organizations that have an advocacy agenda around care.

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Davos 2021: the inequality virus

This year our report “The Inequality virus” examined the intersections of inequality and the pandemic with gender and race.

This year’s feature stat was that the wealth of the 10 richest people (men) has grown by half a trillion dollars since the pandemic started.

That is more than enough to ensure no one on the planet falls into poverty because of the virus and to vaccinate everyone from Covid-19!

It took 9 months for billionaire fortunes to return to pre-pandemic levels, but it’ll take the world’s poorest over a decade to recover economically.

You can find a great 10-tweet summary here from Gabriela, covering Oxfam’s messaging at Davos 2021. In a nutshell, once more Oxfam highlighted that we have a profoundly unfair economic system, a system that's enabling a super-rich elite to amass unimaginable fortunes, while making it harder for billions of people in poverty to put food on the table - or get treatment when they're sick.

Visit the Davos page on our website for a summary of this year’s killer stats and the 5 steps we need to take to rebuild a more equal world after Covid-19.

The virus has made us reflect on what matters, and we've learned that the real essential workers are nurses, bus drivers and supermarket workers - not hedge fund managers or corporate lawyers.

The story of Heba Shalan, a nurse in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, highlights the importance of essential workers, who need to be valued more - not only during this pandemic, but in the new normal after the pandemic too. Gabriela’s graphic says it all. We call for economies that care for people.

Right: Heba Shalan, nurse & mother of five (photo: Marwas Sawaf, Oxfam, 2020)

Oxfam also drew attention to the gender and racial impacts of the inequality and COVID-19 crisis. This graphic explainer on race, gender and COVID-19 got nearly 25,000 organic views on OI’s Instagram alone in the first 48 hours.

Throughout the Davos week, we’ve seen a significant increase in direct engagements with our supporters on Instagram. Check our Instagram account to get a taste of some of the amazing feedback we’ve been receiving!

A quick round up of just some of the additional country teams social media support: Oxfam in Uganda, Oxfam in Peru, Oxfam in Malawi, Oxfam in the Pacific, Oxfam in WAF, Oxfam in Morocco, Oxfam in Bangladesh, Oxfam in Ghana

Oxfam KEDV (Turkey) has posted some great nationalized graphics to their Instagram

Oxfam in Indonesia with a beautiful and compelling graphic to highlight one of their national stats

Here are a few examples of social media presence Oxfam Colombia’s during the Davos week!

Here’s a great little graphic from Oxfam America on the number of Black women who have lost their jobs during the first few months of the pandemic.

Our Davos EQUALS podcast is out and we’ve heard more than once that it’s “the best one yet”. Please have a listen, leave a review and retweet when you have a moment. You can find all 27 past episodes here. They include interviews with best-selling author Anand Giridharadas, Managing Director of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva, legendary activist Lidy Nacpil in the Philippines, Professor Darrick Hamilton about racism in the economy, and many more!

The briefing from the UN Secretary General at the WEF (Day 4) referred to our work.

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People’s Vaccine

The issue of vaccine inequality is the issue of our times. The fight for everyone to have the hope and the freedom from fear that being vaccinated means. Oxfam is at the heart of this fight, as chair of the People’s Vaccine Campaign. The next few months will be vital in this struggle, as the rich world rushes to vaccinate its people, whilst the developing world continues to see many die from the disease as well as continued hunger and poverty caused by this crisis.

Oxfam is playing a leading role in the global push for a “People’s Vaccine” (PV), a crucial campaign of our time to bring an end to this deadly pandemic for all, save lives and livelihoods and avert huge new inequality. Oxfam is a founder member of the ever-growing People’s Vaccine Alliance that brings together over 40 organizations and activist groups around the world from Amnesty and MSF to Club de Madrid to Yunus Centre and the Africa Alliance, with the PV call enlisting the support of current and former world leaders and the UN Secretary-General.

‘A Covid-19 vaccine must be seen as a global public good, a People’s Vaccine’ --UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres

What is the campaign fighting for?

The core objective of the campaign is to demand an end to the monopoly ownership of successful Covid-19 vaccines by a handful of pharmaceutical corporations so we can scale up manufacturing and get safe, effective, and affordable vaccines free of charge to everyone on the planet.

The exclusive rights and intellectual property of pharmaceutical corporations over successful covid-19 vaccines are artificially rationing supply and driving up prices. They hold all the power on how many vaccines get made, who gets to buy them and at what price. Too few vaccines are being made and rich countries are pushing their way to the front of the queue. Many people will die as a result and the end of this crisis will be delayed for all of us.

You can sign the petition today, and share it with your networks.

How can you learn more about the People’s Vaccine Campaign and the issues behind it?

One fun way to learn more about the People’s Vaccine is to listen to our recent EQUALS podcast on the topic which gives a good summary.
Alternatively, you can watch this short explainer video.
You can watch our health policy lead, Anna Marriott, laying out our evidence and research here on CNN.
And see here for some very useful and accessible FAQs on the People’s Vaccine website.

What has been happening so far?

A few highlights from recent weeks and months:

Recalling our first big media hit with the original People’s Vaccine letter signed by over 140 current and former leaders, economists and other influentials in May last year first covered exclusively by the Financial Times.
We gained traction in the media in September with our research showing a handful of rich countries representing just 13% of humanity had bought up more than half the world’s total vaccine supply.
Then made global headlines in December showing that 9 in 10 people in poor countries will be without a vaccine in 2021, while rich countries have enough doses to vaccinate their people 3 times over – with media from CNN to the BBC to outlets around the world covering this in depth. This has crucially shifted debate onto how big pharmaceutical monopolies are holding back supply, and how this is self-defeating for the world.

We united a group of survivors of COVID-19 from around the world in support of a PV, who are urging that nobody go through what they went through.
It was inspiring to see different countries taking up the issue to fight for a People's Vaccine – for example Oxfam in Cambodia bringing together a range of allies getting together over 1.5 million people in support of this cause.
Oxfam America have brought together over a hundred leaders – including, politicians, economists and leaders from public health, faith-based, racial justice, and labor organizations – from Chelsea Clinton to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich – to call on (then) President-elect Biden to support a People’s Vaccine (and we are seeing encouraging signals from Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden).
Oxfam Novib won a unanimous motion in the Dutch parliament calling on the government to make a case within Europe to urgently appeal to pharmaceutical companies to share their knowledge with the WHO’s Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (our key ask).
We continue to lobby governments at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to support a resolution by South Africa and India to suspend intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines for the duration of the vaccines. Avaaz secured a million signatures on this issue in December and we are working with them to redouble efforts in the coming couple of months.

Most recently with Health Action International we lobbied World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros to do more to support the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool – crucial to ending corporations secrecy on a vaccine – he has since then come out very clearly in favour of the need to waive patents and share technology on vaccines.
The People’s Vaccine Alliance urged governments and the pharmaceutical industry to scale up production. It said they should remove the artificial barriers to tackling the global supply crisis, including by suspending intellectual property rules, sharing technology and ending monopoly control, so that everyone, everywhere has access to the vaccine as quickly as possible. Read more in our press release here.

What is coming next?

The next few months will be crucial – as rich countries continue to vaccinate themselves, developing countries will have barely any vaccines. The global system of vaccine apartheid will be most dramatic. The shortages of supply, themselves in part a result of pharmaceutical monopolies and profits will continue to make themselves felt. Now is the moment to push hardest for a breakthrough on this issue.

Monopolies are causing “artificial rationing” in COVID-19 crisis as 3 biggest global vaccine giants sit on sidelines.

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Closing of the Finance 4 Development project

The five-year Finance for Development (F4D) under the global Strategic Partnership Programme in partnership between Oxfam Novib and SOMO ended in December 2020. The programme was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs with specific focus on strengthening the power of civil society organizations to promote fiscal and financial justice, monitor government spending and hold the private sector and international institutions to account.

Finance 4 Development was implemented in eight countries: Morocco, Egypt, Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Pakistan, Cambodia and Vietnam. To reflect on the past five years of fiscal justice work under the F4D project, country teams have taken part in evaluations, reflection workshops and story gathering.

In December 2020 Oxfam in Pakistan and partners have come together to reflect on the project. One of the success stories that has been captured is the successful lobby for a reduction of the General Sales Tax in Islamabad from 17,5% to 7,5%, which you can read about here. For more success stories, about influencing models built by the Tax Justice Coalition in Pakistan and the health campaign on medicine prices, check this folder.

In Niger, there has been a strong focus on youth engagement and on influencing civic space within their fiscal justice work. Interventions took place at local level with community groups (citizen participation cells), who have been active in civic education and raising awareness among taxpayers. Oxfam and partners also monitored public spending at local level and advocated extractive and multinational companies & government for more transparency in fiscal conventions, and on the other hand, for the government to make effective and regular the retrocession of 15% of mining royalties for the development of communes and regions. At national level, Oxfam and partners advocated for fair taxation and the elimination of tax incentives, despite facing challenges of corruption and limited civic space. Colleagues from Niger and Pakistan have shared some of the highlights of the F4D project in this FAIR-Even it Up Forum call.

In this track record case study, you can read more about the impact that Oxfam in Uganda and their partners have made with their fiscal justice work. Part of this work has been the launch of a Fair Tax Monitor report, engagement with the IMF and the World Bank, and citizen engagement around the mobile money tax. When the government introduced a new tax law on mobile money in 2018, civil society organizations in Uganda coordinated a civil society response, highlighting the negative impacts on people’s lives and economic activity. Oxfam and partners organized many protests across the country, with people coming together to rally against the tax. In July 2019, after a second wave of citizen action and campaigning, the government amended the tax law: lowering the tax rate on withdrawing money and scrapping the tax charges for depositing and transferring money altogether.

The track record case study also includes some key lessons learned from this work, including the importance of a strong evidence base, linking the local to regional and global levels and how citizen-led campaigns can open up and expand the space for debate on fiscal policy.

In Egypt, a consortium of partners and allies, including CESR, SJP, and CEWLA, have co-created the Egypt Social Progress Indicators (ESPI); comprehensive, rights-based matrix of indicators that measure progress on socioeconomic wellbeing in Egypt. Using an innovative methodology that operationalizes human rights norms into measurable benchmarks for socioeconomic justice, ESPI provides quantitative and qualitative data on issues of economic policy, labor, urbanization, education, health, as well as food water and agricultural land, with a crosscutting gender analysis. ESPI findings have allowed partners, stakeholders, and allies to challenge the IMF and government claims that austerity-based economic reforms in Egypt are a success, leaving the story of the negative impacts of the reforms largely untold. The ESPI provides alternative indicators that tell the story of average and marginalized Egyptians that are often left behind, and provides actionable recommendations for improvements.

The collective work done by ESPI consortium throughout the years has continued to provide both substantive and institutional support for the project partners to help sustain their fight against inequality. This has been a crucial achievement, especially in the increasingly difficult political climate in Egypt that continues to silence critical voices. As one of the partners put it:

“ESPI provides a reasonably easy to use evidence base for our advocacy, which has helped make it more credible, and facilitated collective work at the regional and international levels. This is crucial to the effectiveness and sustainability of civil society work, especially in a closed political climate and a shrinking civic space, as is the case in Egypt.”

Within the F4D project in Vietnam, there has been a strong focus on citizen engagement and tax incentives. During the project's five years of implementation, Oxfam and the Vietnam Alliance for Tax Justice (VATJ) have conducted many tax studies in Vietnam, serving as the basis for recommendations for tax policies. These include the Fair Tax Monitor Report in 2017; a case study of capital gains tax avoidance with the sale of the oil license by ConocoPhillips to Perenco, and the elaborate study on corporate tax incentives in the ASEAN region.

Community members share their stories about monitoring state budget spending

Civil society led coalitions have been taking an active role in empowering citizens to raise their voice to influence policies on transparency and equity of budget spending. Through trainings, dialogues and community meetings, citizens participated in state budget formulation and oversight. Public debates were generated on social media and the issue of tax justice was brought up in policy discussions in the National Assembly. Have a look at this leaflet for more key results and lessons learned.

In Nigeria, the project started at a time when fiscal transparency and accountability mechanisms were not functioning successfully and tax systems, budget processes and proceeds from the extractives sector were not serving the poor and vulnerable, especially women and youth. By strengthening the capacity of civil society organizations, increasing citizens' voice, building strong and wider alliances, Oxfam in Nigeria and their partners were able to promote participatory budget systems, fair taxation and fair natural resource governance.

Partners, budget and tax monitor groups and subnational tax justice & governance platforms were able to influence the passage of the national tax policy, the reintroduction of the Petroleum Industry Bill by the parliament that was dropped by previous assemblies. The project also saw the launch of the Fair Tax Monitor report, established the various dimensions of inequality in Nigeria with the presentation of the national inequality report with a call for government to make a commitment to reducing inequality and provided support to the government to ensure adequate management of public finance with a roadmap of implementation. The project came to a head with an end line documentary that demonstrates the impact of the intervention in the life of communities using human angle stories. With budget and tax alliances built to monitor and participate in budget preparation, implementation and campaign against the negative impact of the activities of big crude oil companies in host communities towards an environment free of pollution, and ensuring that oil rent works for the marginalized and the poor.

Write to Judith van Neck if you want to get in touch with any of the F4D focal points in the F4D countries.

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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 Judith or Rebecca. We’d love to hear from you!

Appreciate

Credits:

photos: Oxfam & credited individuals with Oxfam