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development aid
Wealth of Global 1% Has Skyrocketed by Over $33 Trillion Since 2015: Report
"Governments should heed widespread demands to tax the rich—and match it with a vision to build public goods from healthcare to energy," said the executive director of Oxfam International.
Jun 26, 2025
An Oxfam report published Wednesday estimates that the richest 1% globally have seen their wealth surge by more than $33.9 trillion over the past decade, with just 3,000 billionaires accounting for $6.5 trillion of that increase.
The report, released ahead of June 30 development financing talks in Seville, Spain, argues that the international community's plan to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals agreed upon in 2015 has failed utterly as global inequality has continued to expand, efforts to end poverty have stagnated, and the climate crisis has spiraled further out of control.
"There is glaring evidence that global development is desperately failing because—as the last decade shows—the interests of a very wealthy few are put over those of everyone else," said Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International. "Rich countries have put Wall Street in the driver's seat of global development. It's a global private finance takeover which has overrun the evidence-backed ways to tackle poverty through public investments and fair taxation."
"It is no wonder governments are abysmally off track, be it on fostering decent jobs, gender equality, or ending hunger," Behar added. "This much wealth concentration is choking efforts to end poverty."
According to Oxfam's analysis, the roughly $34 trillion wealth increase enjoyed by the global 1% since 2015 would be enough to eliminate annual poverty "22 times over."
"It's time we rejected the Wall Street Consensus and instead put the public in the driving seat."
The report argues that "a new agenda is needed" to break free from the private profit-centered global development model that has allowed international crises to run rampant while letting the ultra-wealthy continue growing their massive fortunes unabated.
The upcoming conference in Seville, the report states, represents a key opportunity for countries that are willing to "work together to tackle extreme inequality" and "reject the 'Wall Street Consensus' around financing development."
"They can start by taxing the very wealthiest—a new global survey finds 9 out of 10 people support taxing the super-rich to raise the revenue needed to invest in public services and climate action," the report notes. "Reforms to the international financial architecture and restoring aid are also key."
The report comes as the world's wealthiest countries, including the United States under President Donald Trump, are making unprecedented cuts to development aid spending, a surefire way to reverse any recent progress toward reducing global hunger, poverty, and disease.
Behar said Wednesday that "trillions of dollars exist" to tackle such emergencies, "but they're locked away in private accounts of the ultra-wealthy."
"It's time we rejected the Wall Street Consensus and instead put the public in the driving seat," said Behar. "Governments should heed widespread demands to tax the rich—and match it with a vision to build public goods from healthcare to energy. It's a hopeful sign that some governments are banding together to fight inequality—more should follow their lead, starting in Seville."
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European Commission to Review But Not Suspend Development Aid for Palestine
"The suspension of the payments—punishing all the Palestinian people—would have damaged the E.U. interests in the region and would have only further emboldened terrorists," said the bloc's foreign policy chief.
Oct 09, 2023
Following Hamas' deadly weekend attack on Israel, which responded with an assault of the occupied Gaza Strip, the European Commission explained in a statement Monday that it is "launching an urgent review" of development assistance for Palestine but "as there were no payments foreseen, there will be no suspension of payments."
Some journalists and observers described the move as a "U-turn" or "backtrack" given comments earlier Monday by European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi—who, as Reuters noted, "was nominated for his post by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a staunch ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."
The commission—an executive arm of the European Union—is made up of commissioners from the 27 member states, including Várhelyi. He said on X, formerly Twitter, that "as the biggest donor of the Palestinians, the European Commission is putting its full development portfolio under review," with "all payments immediately suspended."
The Hungarian's comments about the €691 million ($730 million) program and related reporting provoked fierce condemnation. According to Politico, Jean Asselborn Luxembourg's foreign minister, "was the first senior European official to publicly break rank, criticizing Várhelyi's announcement."
Pointing to an upcoming emergency meeting, Asselborn told local media that "the decision on this is up to the member states and it is only on Tuesday that the foreign ministers from the 27 E.U. countries will meet to discuss it."
Reuters reported that Ireland, Portugal, and Spain also "publicly voiced alarm while other countries did so behind the scenes."
"The European Commission's decision to suspend all aid to Palestinians is a grave error," declared Ireland's Grace O'Sullivan, a Greens/European Free Alliance member of the European Parliament. "In light of the deteriorating situation in Gaza where E.U. funding supports hospitals, schools, and food program, we cannot and should not cut this lifeline for millions of people."
MSNBC journalist Mehdi Hasan said that "the collective blaming and punishment continues on both sides of the Atlantic."
Along with highlighting the official statement—which came hours after Várhelyi's initial remarks—Josep Borrell, a commission vice-president and high representative of the E.U. for foreign affairs and security policy, blasted the suspension idea on social media.
"The suspension of the payments—punishing all the Palestinian people—would have damaged the E.U. interests in the region and would have only further emboldened terrorists," asserted Borrell, who is Spanish.
The commission said in its statement that it "unequivocally condemns the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel over the weekend," and "in addition to the existing safeguards, the objective of this review is to ensure that no E.U. funding indirectly enables any terrorist organization to carry out attacks against Israel."
"The commission will equally review if, in light of the changed circumstances on the ground, its support programs to the Palestinian population and to the Palestinian Authority need to be adjusted," the group added. "The commission will carry out this review as soon as possible and coordinate with member states and partners any follow-up action necessary."
The commission also noted that "this review does not concern humanitarian assistance provided under European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations," which European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič similarly stressed on social media.
"While I most strongly condemn the terrorist attack by Hamas, it is imperative to protect civilians and respect [international humanitarian law]," the Slovenian said. "E.U. humanitarian aid to Palestinians in need will continue as long as needed."
Meanwhile, according to The Associated Press, "the E.U.'s most populous member, Germany, and its neighbor Austria, said they were suspending development aid for the Palestinian areas for the moment."
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Life and Death on the Line as Rich Nations Evade Climate Obligations
Bloc of developing countries says wealthy UN member states are trying to shift financial obligations onto World Bank, IMF
Oct 22, 2015
A bloc of developing nations said Thursday that rich nations are blocking efforts to reach a consensus on financial climate pledges in Bonn, Germany, this week as the upcoming United Nations climate talks approach. This move could derail the entire process.
The Group of 77 (G77) and China, a coalition of nations and alliances that represent more than 80 percent of the world's population, said wealthy UN member states were shirking their financial responsibilities to help developing nations stave off the impacts of climate change and attempting to shift those obligations onto institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to AllAfrica, the latest blueprint of climate pledges reportedly omits key mechanisms included in previous drafts, such as financing for poorer countries and accountability for wealthier ones.
"When you take out the issues of others, you disenfranchise them and disempower those who suffer the most," said G77 chair and South Africa climate envoy Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko.
Mxakato-Diseko said that with the COP21 talks approaching quickly and no more chances to negotiate after the Bonn session ends this week, those roadblocks could mean the difference between life and death for frontline nations.
"It's a matter of life or death...and we are deadly serious," Mxakato-Diseko told journalists in a media briefing on Thursday. While the G77 had agreed on financial positions, she said, "developed countries have not negotiated, in the hope that it will be sorted [out] external to the agreement, where we are weakest."
Mxakato-Diseko continued, " Legally binding financial mandates for wealthy nations must be included in the agreement to guarantee that frontline countries receive funds to address the impacts of climate change. Otherwise, we are left to the whim of charity, the whim of individual countries to decide if and when [to pay], depending on the circumstances."
According to a recent report by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), several sources, including government funds, private institutions, and development banks, raised $62.8 billion in 2014 to stock up the climate war chest. Developed nations previously swore to mobilize $100 billion by 2020 to help frontline countries adapt to the impacts of global warming, such as sea level rise.
But on Thursday, the G77 said those figures were not accounted for and that the fine print included 'development aid' as a form of financial contribution, which raises "serious and valid concerns over the way that $62 billion figure was arrived at," said Angolan diplomat Giza Gaspar Martins. "It accounts for credit guarantees, loans that must be repaid."
Because the World Bank and IMF are private institutions not bound by the COP21 climate agreement, delegates say there is no way to guarantee that those funds will ever reach developing nations.
The World Bank is "a competitor with developing countries for finance to give to us on unregulated conditions," while the IMF "has no status in the agreement," Mxakato-Diseko said. "Beneath the darkness, where there is no scrutiny from civil society, the hope is that our will be bent so much that we are tired, we give up, and then the issue is resolved by external announcements" to the UN climate process.
Gurdial Singh Nijar, a spokesperson for the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) coalition--which includes Argentina, China, India, Iran, and Vietnam, among others--told journalists that the new draft "completely ignored the submissions of G77 on finance."
"We demand that the text be balanced for negotiations to commence," Nijar said.
Harjeet Singh, policy manager for ActionAid's humanitarian organization, explained the G77's position: "If your house goes up in flames, you first put the fire out. Developing countries are already fighting climate change fires and demanding strategies and money to deal with its impact. For rich nations with the money, technology, and skills, the devastation of climate change is not a pressing issue."
"The current climate talks reflect the contrasting order of priority of issues between developed and developing nations," Singh said. "Rich nations need to recognize the crisis is here and now. The money to prepare for and deal with climate impacts must be at the center of the deal in Paris."
The G77's call follows a report released Monday that found the U.S. and other wealthy nations' climate pledges to limit greenhouse gas emissions were not enough to prevent an average surface temperature warming of 2degC, the agreed threshold to prevent irreparable global warming and extreme weather events.
The success of COP21, said Mxakato-Diseko, will be judged by "what will be contained inside" the final accord.
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