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There is growing consensus among policymakers, institutions and movements that GDP is not fit for purpose as the pre-eminent economic metric. Alternatives are urgently needed to facilitate the transition to a new economic model that supports a radically more equal, kinder, greener and feminist world in the present, while offering redress for historical damage and inequalities., However, despite growing experimentation, most efforts are insufficiently bold and remain mostly on paper, with only a few notable but relatively small-scale and still-developing exceptions., To dismantle GDP, different social movements will need to coalesce around key metrics that prioritise far greater equality, and align with feminist and decolonial values while challenging the systems of power and narratives that are holding GDP in its dominant place. Only in this way are alternatives likely to deliver the economic transformation needed to put people and planet first., Les responsables politiques, les institutions et divers mouvements s’accordent de plus à plus à dire que le produit intérieur brut (PIB), en tant que principal indicateur de la santé économique, n’est pas un outil satisfaisant. Il est urgent de trouver des alternatives pour la transition vers un nouveau modèle économique favorisant un monde radicalement plus égalitaire, bienveillant, vert et féministe et proposant des mesures de réparation des dommages causés par le passé et des inégalités qui en découlent. Toutefois, malgré de nombreuses expériences, la plupart de celles-ci manquent d’ambition et ne sont pas appliquées, à l’exception de rares propositions en cours de développement, notables mais d’envergure relativement restreinte. Pour détrôner le PIB, divers mouvements sociaux devront travailler à la création d’indicateurs clés qui privilégieront l’égalité, intégreront les valeurs féministes et décoloniales et remettront en question les systèmes de pouvoir et les discours qui perpétuent l’utilisation du PIB. C’est la seule manière pour ces alternatives d’entraîner la transformation économique indispensable pour protéger la planète et les êtres humains avant tout.

Este documento esboza una propuesta de agendas de trabajo para promover el debate sobre cómo reconfigurar el pacto social por vías institucionales en América Latina y el Caribe, fortaleciendo así los sistemas democráticos de la región y hacer frente a privilegios. Estas cuestiones son esenciales en el contexto actual de pandemia y de crisis políticas. Cruzando datos estadísticos y con los estudios de caso de financiación de partidos (Perú), desarrollo turístico (República Dominicana), telecomunicaciones (Argentina) y acceso al agua (El Salvador), este documento establece la relación entre captura de políticas públicas, desigualdad y desafección con la democracia. Los casos demuestran cómo el lobby, las puertas giratorias y las campañas mediáticas son los principales mecanismos con los que las élites ejercen influencia abusiva para alejar del interés general decisiones políticas cruciales., This paper sets out a proposed working agenda to reconfigure the social pact in Latin America and the Caribbean in a way that strengthens democratic systems and tackles extreme inequality of money and power. In the current context of pandemic and political crises, this is a critical issue for the region. Analysing case studies on party financing (Peru), tourism (Dominican Republic), telecommunications (Argentina) and access to water (El Salvador), we show how political capture is undermining democracy and driving greater inequality, putting privilege for the few ahead of rights for the many. These cases demonstrate how lobbying, revolving doors and media campaigns are wielded by elites to push crucial policy decisions away from the public interest.

The 2022 Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index is the first detailed analysis published looking at governments’ policies and actions to fight inequality during the first two years of the pandemic. This fourth edition of the CRI Index reviews the spending, tax and labour policies and actions of 161 governments during 2020–2022., COVID-19 has increased inequality worldwide, as the poorest people were hit hardest by both the disease and its profound economic impacts. Yet the CRI 2022 Index shows clearly that most of the world’s governments failed to mitigate this dangerous rise in inequality. Despite the biggest global health emergency in a century, half of low-and lower-middle-income countries saw the share of health spending fall during the pandemic, half of the countries tracked by the CRI Index cut the share of social protection spending, 70% cut the share of education spending, while two-thirds of countries failed to increase their minimum wage in line with gross domestic product (GDP). Ninety-five percent of countries failed to increase taxation of the richest people and corporations. At the same time, a small group of governments from across the world bucked this trend, taking clear actions to combat inequality, putting the rest of the world to shame., See also the CRI Index website: www.inequalityindex.orgThe Index has been audited by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. Read more here., L’indice de l’engagement à la réduction des inégalités (ERI) 2022 est la première analyse détaillée publiée portant sur les politiques et les actions des gouvernements pour lutter contre les inégalités au cours des deux premières années de la pandémie. Cette analyse passe en revue les politiques et actions de 161 gouvernements en matière de dépenses, de fiscalité et de travail sur la période 2020-2022., La COVID-19 a creusé les inégalités dans le monde entier, les plus pauvres étant les plus durement touché·es par la maladie et ses profondes répercussions économiques. Pourtant, l’indice ERI 2022 montre clairement que la plupart des gouvernements du monde n’ont pas réussi à atténuer cette dangereuse augmentation des inégalités. Alors qu’il s’agit de la pire urgence sanitaire que le monde ait connue depuis un siècle, la moitié des pays à revenu faible et intermédiaire de la tranche inférieure ont vu la part des dépenses de santé diminuer pendant la pandémie. La moitié des pays suivis par l’indice ERI ont réduit la part des dépenses de protection sociale, 70 % ont revu à la baisse la part des dépenses d’éducation, tandis que deux tiers des pays n’ont pas augmenté leur salaire minimum en fonction du produit intérieur brut (PIB). 95 % des pays n’ont pas augmenté l’imposition des personnes et des sociétés les plus riches. Dans le même temps, quelques gouvernements dans différentes parties du monde se sont démarqués de cette tendance en prenant des mesures claires pour lutter contre les inégalités, couvrant de honte le reste du monde.

By examining Latin American and Caribbean fiscal policies from a gender perspective, this discussion paper suggests that further study is necessary of the biases, both explicit and implicit, of fiscal systems that serve to reinforce traditional roles of women in society., Many modern fiscal policies are based on the idea that there is a male breadwinner in every home, and that he is the one interacting economically with the market and the state. These fiscal policies may therefore be reinforcing a gendered division of labour between women and men, fostering inequalities and operating as obstacles to the development and realization of women’s potential., Currently only available in Spanish.

This paper aims to contribute to a constructive and deep debate on how to increase equality and justice in Paraguay's taxation system. To this end, it submits a proposal for debate: to increase tax revenues through a temporary tax on the export of soybeans together with other revenue measures (e.g. improving tax revenues on land, implementing a robust Personal Income Tax, more effectively combating tax evasion, rationalizing tax exemptions, eradicating unfair subsidies, revising in depth the social security system, etc.). It also proposes the adoption of actions to increase the effectiveness of public expenditure; and finally, it proposes to take into consideration further measures intended to deal with the non-technical limitations that are obstacles on the road to a more egalitarian society in Paraguay.

[This paper was previously published under the title Progressive Taxation: Towards fair tax policies.] In order to be able to find enough resources to ensure public services, such as education and health for all, poor countries need to raise more tax, and raise tax in ways that are progressive and fair. Tax policy in developing countries has been heavily influenced by the IMF and national elites. This has had a negative impact in many cases, with a focus on indirect regressive taxation like VAT, and extensive tax incentives for companies. There is an urgent need for poor country governments to achieve an increase in progressive and redistributive taxes.

The unprecedented turmoil in the world's financial markets has resulted in a significant loss of trust in the global financial system. Financial institutions and the market as a whole have been criticised for short-termism, for lacking transparency, and for not being properly accountable to regulators or to wider society. The credit crisis has also raised wider questions about the proper role of investors in society, both in terms of the specific investments that they make and the manner in which they use their influence to ensure that the positive social and environmental impacts of their investment activities are maximised, and the negative impacts minimised. Oxfam sees that the current crisis offers the opportunity to rethink the contribution that investors can make to eradicating global poverty. Oxfam believes that investors have a critical role to play in poverty alleviation, through supporting economic growth, building infrastructure, and helping to create a vibrant, entrepreneurial private sector. Oxfam also believes that investors can play a wider role through encouraging companies to attain higher standards of corporate responsibility performance. However, the influence of investors (or of investment more generally) has not been unambiguously positive. For example, concern has been expressed about the negative consequences for development of volatile capital flows (as seen in the 1997 Asian financial crisis), the negative social and environmental impacts of many large infrastructure projects, the emphasis of investors on short-term profit rather than the creation of long-term successful and sustainable businesses, and the downsides of trade and investment liberalisation. It is in this context that Oxfam has launched a new project, 'Better Returns in a Better World'. The project's objectives are: to analyse the role that institutional investors can play in poverty alleviation; to encourage investors to take account of poverty issues in their investment decisions; and to identify the key barriers to long-term investment in developing countries. This discussion paper is the first part of the project. It has three objectives. The first is to make a case for why investors are of critical importance to the development agenda. The second is to provide an analytical framework for the project. The third is to identify some of the core questions that the project will seek to explore.

One in five people in the UK lives in poverty. They suffer not just from low incomes, but from discrimination and prejudice. Their voices are rarely heard, especially by those in power. This paper describes a unique experiment to bring the voices of those living in poverty to the attention of the UK government as part of the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion. ‘Get Heard’ was one of the largest projects of its kind ever undertaken in the UK and is viewed as a model of good practice within the European Union. The paper explains how the project worked, and draws out the lessons learned for the future.

Paraguay's tax system does not provide the resource base to eradicate poverty in the country, and has done little or nothing to achieve a more equal distribution of income and wealth. Two major taxation reforms over the last decade have done little to alleviate the fiscal injustice that is generated partly by the low tax reciprocity of the soy agribusiness - Paraguay's main export crop. Meanwhile, programmes to support small-scale farming receive a level of public financing accounting for just 5 per cent of public expenditure. With one of the highest levels of unequal land ownership in the world, labour informality at very high levels and poor environmental regulation of soy producers, the livelihoods and ecosystems of Paraguay's small-scale producers are at risk. There are serious loopholes in Paraguay's tax system that must be addressed in order to deliver a fairer, progressive taxation system that will allow the country to meet its social objectives.

Behind the official statistics, farmers, manufacturing workers, migrant workers, waste-pickers, and women working unpaid in the home all over the world are asking the same question: 'What hit us in 2009?'. Oxfam's research on the global economic crisis in 12 countries, involving some 2,500 individuals, is combined in this report with the findings of studies by a range of universities, think tanks, and international organizations. The report reveals the depth and complexity of the impacts of the global economic crisis, and the vulnerabilities and resilience of poor people and countries worldwide. Oxfam's research presents a diverse picture, with pockets of export-dependent workers and industries in countries like Ghana and Indonesia devastated, even as national economies seem to be weathering the storm. While householders spoke of having increasing trouble putting food on the table, they did not make neat conceptual distinctions between rising food prices, the economic crisis, or the impacts of climate change on their harvests. While this crisis has shown that governments' spending on health and education certainly increases poor people's resilience to shocks, so too does fiscal space, which may imply greater restraint in public spending during boom periods. This is a delicate balance, and one that is best struck by accountable national governments, rather than being imposed by technocrats in Washington, London, or Frankfurt. The crisis has highlighted social protection as a development issue, and the importance of managing risk and volatility at all levels. It is not enough to pursue economic growth now, and social welfare later - the two must come together in pursuit of improved well-being. Poverty is not just about income, or lack of it; it is about fear and anxiety over what tomorrow may bring. This crisis will not be the last, but if one of its lessons is that reducing vulnerability and building resilience are the central tasks of development, then future crises may bring less suffering in their wake.

The collapse of the Soviet Union led to difficult times for the independent state of Georgia, as it made the transition from a centralised to a market economy, and from a communist to a democratic system. People had no experience of making decisions, even at local level, or of participating actively in local government. Since 2002, Oxfam GB has worked with the Association of Disabled Women and Mothers of Disabled Children with initial support from the Association of Young Economists of Georgia, to implement budget-monitoring projects in Zugdidi District, one of the poorest regions of the country. This paper shows how this process helped communities build the confidence to work directly with local government officials to build a new kind of civil society.

President Hastings Banda held office in Malawi from 1964 to 1994. He discouraged any kind of participation in political decision-making, often under pain of death or imprisonment. Today, 15 years later, people in Malawi are still afraid to speak out. They do not have the experience or structure to engage effectively in local advocacy work. This paper shows how the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), supported by Oxfam, set about building confidence and economic literacy in local communities. Through learning about budget monitoring, ordinary men and women were able to begin to engage with those in power on order to improve their communities. If elections happen as proposed in 2009, these people will be in a good position to bring about real change on the ground.