The latest stats on global inequality are bleak - but there’s a way to reverse them.
“Since 2020, while nearly five billion people throughout the world have been made poorer, the five richest men on the planet have become twice as wealthy and are now worth more than US$800 billion.”
- Bernie Sanders, US Senator
To coincide with Davos, an event in January where powerful and influential people gather together at a ski resort in Switzerland to discuss how to solve some of the world's most pressing challenges, Oxfam released its annual report on the growing gap between the very richest and the rest of us.
This year, Oxfam’s focus is on corporate power – and the ways in which trade systems play a huge role in embedding global inequality.
Here at Transform Trade, we are delighted to see trade issues at the heart of conversations around justice and an end to poverty. We know that eradicating poverty will not be possible without radical reforms to the way in which we do business.
One statistic in particular really stood out: “Just 0.4% of over 1,600 of the world’s largest and most influential companies are publicly committed to paying their workers a living wage and support payment of a living wage in their value chains.” (Oxfam, 2024)
This is clearly unacceptable – and what’s more, we know it doesn’t have to be this way.
Right now, global trade systems are set up to benefit a tiny minority of powerful individuals.
It’s not just wealth that concentrates in the hands of the few, but also power. Only 21% of humanity lives in the countries of the Global North, but these countries are home to 69% of private wealth and 74% of the world’s billionaire wealth. (Oxfam, 2024)
In the case of seeds, just two firms control 40% of the global seed market – meaning farmers across the world have limited say or control over access and cost of seeds. Monopolies like this enable companies to exert high levels of control over prices and how commodities are sold. These decisions are then almost exclusively driven by what makes the most profit for shareholders, rather than what benefits people and the planet.
Oxfam’s report states that ‘the largest 0.001 percent of firms earn roughly one-third of all corporate profits globally, and seven out of ten of the world’s biggest corporations have a billionaire CEO or a billionaire as their principal shareholder.’ (Oxfam, 2023) Practices like this further sharpen inequality - after all, when decisions are being made by the very wealthy, the outcomes will very much be in favour of the status quo.
Trade bodies like the WTO serve to reinforce these injustices systematically, as tariff systems favour rich countries. Smallholders, women farmers, and workers in supply chains have little, if any, voice in the development of these rules, even though they are subject to their ramifications.
But there is a better way of doing business.
Oxfam’s report, which you can read in full here, highlights not just the problems of the global trade system - but also the possibilities of alternative models: investing in the expansion of worker- and locally-owned co-operatives, social enterprises, and fair trade businesses.
A fairer way of doing trade isn’t just possible - it’s already happening.
Every day, we see hundreds of inspirational fair trade businesses across the world changing lives in their communities. We work alongside inspirational people who are fighting for a fair deal – demanding change to laws, policies, and practices which exploit the majority and harm people and planet. Alternative trade doesn’t just change individual lives - when trade is done right, it has the potential to change the future of whole communities.
Right now, producer groups around the world are at a huge disadvantage. They don’t have the resources, power or capacity to challenge global giants head on. But with a network of support behind them, they can do amazing things.
Take Sadhna, for example. An Indian fair trade fashion business, they employ women from marginalised communities, often for the first time a woman in the family has had an independent income.
“When I started [at Sadhna], girls were not allowed out of the house in my community. Now the mindset has changed. Sadhna is like a family.”
- Pushpa Tank, artisan
Organisations like Sadhna prove that equality and fairness can be built into a profitable businesses. Unlike conventional business models, Sadhna’s board is not made up of wealthy shareholders, but of the artisans who make the clothes they sell.
“When I first joined, I went to the Sadhna AGM. I noticed there were two women on stage who were artisans like me – the artisan trustees. I said to myself “One day I will sit there!” This year I did. I am now an artisan trustee.”
- Bindu Yadav
There’s no denying that the picture painted by the Oxfam report is bleak. But because of businesses like Sadhna, we know that alternative paths forward to radically reform the purpose and structure of trade exist. Building a just and equitable global trade system for good begins by collectively advocating for change and supporting the kind of enterprises that prioritise people and planet over profit.
