Even it Up: Big global campaign on inequality launched today

October 30, 2014
Today Oxfam launches Even It Up, its big new inequality campaign. For me, the most striking killer fact from the launch report: ‘The number of billionaires has doubled since the financial crisis, as inequality spirals out of control. In the same period, at least a million mothers have died in childbirth due to a lack of basic health services.’ Although
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Is doing something about inequality a choice between bash the rich v tackling poverty? Some thoughts for Blog Action Day

October 16, 2014
Today is Blog Action Day, and we’re all supposed to blog about inequality. Ricardo Fuentes (Oxfam Head of Research) & his team are even marking the day by kicking off a new inequality-themed blog, Mind the Gap – check it out. I’ve already done my more general call to arms for BAD, so here’s something more in keeping with this blog’s usual
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Why Inequality is a (very) Big Deal, and you need to get involved

October 3, 2014
I wrote this puff for Blog Action Day on 16th Oct – it appeared on Oxfam International’s site earlier this week. If you’re a blogger and want to join in the inequality theme, sign up here. A few years ago I was touring the US to promote my book, From Poverty to Power, which focuses on inequality and redistribution. Big
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What are the pros and cons of positive, negative and global (i.e. post North-South) campaigns?

October 1, 2014
Oxfam’s launching a big global campaign on inequality in October and as always, there are some fascinating internal meta-discussions about the pros and cons of different kinds of campaigns. A few years ago, we launched ‘Grow’, an attempt to run a campaign based on positive framing (a positive vision for the future of food, life and planet, with a focus
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The Pocket Piketty: a two page intro for non-bookworms

August 7, 2014
One of my main functions within Oxfam seems to be to review books to spare everyone else the effort. Last week, I was on Piketty duty. Batches of campaigns and policy types sat in suitable veneration around a copy of the giant tome, and I talked them through this two page ‘Pocket Piketty’. The Potted Piketty (longer summary here) From
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Piketty + Ninja Puffins: A Perfect Week

July 2, 2014
Spent last week on a remote Welsh island, Skokholm (if it sounds like Stockholm, I think that’s because the Vikings invaded it at some point). There was nothing to do except watch the achingly cute puffins arriving with beak-fulls of eels and try and dive down the burrows to their waiting chicks before the lurking gulls could grab them. One
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Please steal these killer facts: a crib sheet for advocacy on aid, development, inequality etc

July 1, 2014
Regular FP2P readers will be heartily sick of used to me banging on about the importance of ‘killer facts‘ in NGO advocacy and general communications. Recently, I was asked to work with some of our finest policy wonks to put together some crib sheets for Oxfam’s big cheeses, who are more than happy for me to spread the love to you
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20 million food parcels (and counting): what explains rising food poverty in the UK?

June 9, 2014
Oxfam works on poverty in the UK as well as elsewhere, and is pretty alarmed at what it is facing there. Here Krisnah Poinasamy, Economic Justice Policy Adviser for our UK programme, introduces a new report on hunger in the UK. Today, Oxfam and its partners released Below The Breadline, a shocking report, which estimates that 20 million meals were
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Is Brazil’s social/economic miracle running out of steam just as the World Cup arrives?

June 4, 2014
Is Brazil’s shambolic preparation for the World Cup a symptom of a deeper malaise? Oxfam researcher Katherine Trebeck (@ktrebeck) reflects on a recent visit I bandy about the term ‘economic model’ quite a lot, usually prefaced by the word ‘broken’ in reference to the UK’s purported economic recovery. But the UK is not alone in meriting a derogatory descriptor.  In a
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When is redistribution popular? When people first see social conflict rising, apparently. Useful new research.

May 30, 2014
This recent ODI paper by Laura Rodriguez Takeuchi made my head hurt (heavy on methodology, light on narrative, for my taste) but I think it’s worth persevering with. Analysing perception data for over 15,000 individuals in 40 countries, it arrives at two main findings: 1. Perceptions of social conflict have a strong influence on people’s demand for redistribution, even stronger
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Aid must change in order to tackle inequality: the OECD responds to Angus Deaton

May 14, 2014
Guest post from Jon Lomøy, Director of the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD) Official development assistance – or aid – is under fire. In The Great Escape, Angus Deaton argues that, “far from being a prescription for eliminating poverty, the aid illusion is actually an obstacle to improving the lives of the poor.” Yet used properly, “smart aid” can be very
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Q: How many people is one rich man worth? A: 6.3 million. Extreme Inequality in the UK

March 17, 2014
Following his uber killer fact paper (assets of world’s 85 richest individuals = 3.5 billion poorest) Ricardo Fuentes (@rivefuentes) turns his jaundiced but numerate gaze to the UK (and triggers another media splash – see end for links) Economic inequality is much talked about these days. Two documents have made a splash over the last month: first, an IMF paper
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