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Economic inequality has reached extreme levels. From Ghana to Germany, Italy to Indonesia, the gap between rich and poor is widening. In 2013, seven out of 10 people lived in countries where economic inequality was worse than 30 years ago, and in 2014 Oxfam calculated that just 85 people owned as much wealth as the poorest half of humanity., Extreme inequality corrupts politics and hinders economic growth., It exacerbates gender inequality, and causes a range of health and social problems. It stifles social mobility, keeping some families poor for generations, while others enjoy year after year of privilege. It fuels crime and even violent conflict. These corrosive consequences affect us all, but the impact is worst for the poorest people., In Even it Up: Time to end extreme inequality Oxfam presents new evidence that the gap between rich and poor is growing ever wider and is undermining poverty eradication., If India stopped inequality from rising, 90 million more men and women could be lifted out of extreme poverty by 2019., This report delves into the causes of the inequality crisis and looks at the concrete solutions that can overcome it. Drawing on case studies from around the world the report demonstrates the impact that rising inequality is having on rich and poor countries alike and explores the different ways that people and governments are responding to it., The world has woken up to the gap between the rich and rest. From Spain to South Africa, and Peru to Pakistan, people are already demanding a world that is fairer. This report supports a new campaign to join this growing movement to end extreme inequality and Even it Up.

Has development thinking become too narrow and specialised? Does it fail to draw on learning from outside the realm of development studies about how social change happens? This report presents an overview of approaches used to explain social change from a wide range of academic perspectives, from history, politics and economics to psychology and geography. These are summarised in a useful table, which presents a series of questions as a flexible tool for thinking about how change happens. The author argues that current development thinking uses only a narrow range of approaches to change and the result is that most development strategies are limited. There is a need for broader thinking about how change happens, so that we can be more creative in devising strategies and more adept at facing the huge challenges that confront our societies and planet.

Oxfam’s Global Leaders Empowered to Alleviate Poverty (LEAP) program ran for four years from 2011, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its main purpose was to promote political leadership for global development. The global reach and the range of partnerships involved in the LEAP project enabled Oxfam to identify and demonstrate improvements in practice across six areas: How to influence policy Effective tactics The global balance in practice The role of Civil Society in global development policy Public support for global development issues How the project developed - identity, strategy and priorities, The external and independent evaluation of the first three years of LEAP focussed on two main areas of work: Oxfam’s relative contributions to policy advocacy outcomes; and how, and how far, Oxfam’s linking of global, national and local advocacy for policy change can show measurable added value., The evaluation concludes that LEAP offered Oxfam and its partners increased influence on policy processes and outcomes, as well as increased advocacy capacity across a range of issues. It identifies three strands from the project for future action: Improving and making the case for aid to fight hunger and poverty Increasing G20 and BRICSAM leadership on global poverty Making the US a global development leader, For each strand the report outlines internal and external issues: Which factors facilitated and hindered the success of the project? What strategies were most and least effective? Did ‘linking to global’ add value and amplify voices in and from the Global South? How far did the project encourage staff from Oxfam and external stakeholders to reflect on the development and management of the project? What were challenges of coordinating staff, partners, governments, policies and projects?, The LEAP Final Evaluation research was carried out in Brazil, France, Haiti, India, Mexico, Spain, South Africa, the United States and in Pan African (AU) and European (EU) institutions., The Management Response to LEAP Evaluation paper offers specific feedback on the Global LEAP project (as of February 2015) from the LEAP Project Director and from Oxfam America’s Vice-President of Policy and Campaigns., For a full list of LEAP Evaluation files and translations, scroll down below this record and click on the file.