Stop the redistribution from poor to rich
Speakers: Nabil Ahmed (Oxfam), Chenai Mukumba (Tax Justice Network Africa), Mai Buenaventura (APMDD)
Language: English
The recent Oxfam Report Inequality Kills states that the world's small elite group of 2.755 billionaires saw their fortunes grow more steeply during COVID-19 than in the previous 14 years. While the wealth of the richest increased, the incomes of 99% of the world's population declined. Prosperity flows from poor to rich.
The reversed redistribution logic of the welfare state means that: the wealth of the rich is skimmed off to improve the opportunities of the lower classes through community services such as free education, affordable health care, or accessible justice.
What we have seen in the last 40 years is that the incomes of the lower and middle classes are under pressure, while the increased profits are concentrated at the top of the pyramid: the 1%.
Can classic welfare state instruments such as progressive tax still be an answer in 2022? What place is there for welfare state solutions in a global perspective? Are there other solutions for the growing inequality and reverse redistribution? And what is needed to enforce those solutions?
Speakers
Nabil Ahmed
Nabil Ahmed is Head of Executive Strategy and Communications at Oxfam International, and a co-founder of the People’s Vaccine Alliance.
Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Nabil works to influence governments and the private sector to tackle economic, racial and gender inequality and the climate crisis. He previously worked in the private sector at Unilever and L’Oréal. A British national, he is a graduate of the University of Manchester and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA).
Chenai Mukumba
Chenai Mukumba leads the policy team and departmental unit at Tax Justice Network Africa. She has a Masters in International Relations and an undergraduate degree in Economic Science and International Relations. She has ten years of research, advocacy and management experience.
Previously, Chenai worked as the Director of the Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) International, Lusaka. Prior to that, she worked as a Policy Analyst at CUTS’ Centre for International Trade, Economics and Environment in India and at the World Trade Organization in the Agriculture and Development divisions.
She is passionate about contributing to the equitable growth and development of the African continent.
Mae Buenaventura
Mae Buenaventura currently works with the Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) as Program Manager of the Debt and Green Economic Rebuilding Program.
The Program she manages is tasked with advocacy and campaigning on the demand for debt cancellation, starting with illegitimate debts, and working for a just, democratic and equitable solution to the Debt problem.
