Our political leaders, business titans and best economists continue to say they want answers to this slippery little thing, inclusive growth. It will be a big issue again this week at the World Economic Forum, which has asked me to be one of its six co-chairs. Davos is a good place to focus people’s attention.

Oxfam calculates that by next year, for the first time, the wealth of the richest 1% of the world’s population will overtake that of the remaining 99%. This is shocking proof, if more were needed, that away from all the theory and hot air about inclusive growth, our current system is wired to do exactly the opposite: to enrich the most powerful. Either we fix this now in a controlled way or it will fail later, with unknowable but probably chaotic consequences. Political instability and violence should give us greater reason now to tackle inequality, poverty and exclusion, rather than fresh excuses not to.

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Inclusive growth should allow the poorest people in our societies to gain a greater share of the pie at the expense of the richest. Inclusive growth should result in more and better paid jobs, and good quality services for everyone, particularly in health and education. It should entail supporting developing countries to find new competitiveness in goods and services so they can seize a bigger slice of the benefits of globalised trade. It means policymakers actively discriminating in favour of small and micro-businesses where most people work – the petty traders, street-level manufacturers, pastoralists, home enterprises, small-holder farmers, fisher-folk and the like.

It’s perhaps easy to be bamboozled or even bored by economic science. But these are not economic issues to resolve: at their core they are political. And political dynamics are informed by, and help to inform, the public and corporate behaviours that drive our day-to-day world. While we must understand and appreciate the need to treat all countries differently, in order to achieve the reforms that will spark inclusive and sustainable growth in our world, we do need the same end result: good governance at the top. The power of ordinary people is perhaps the most important force needed to achieve this.

Inclusive growth should allow the poorest to gain a greater share of the pie at the expense of the richest

Corporations exist, in large part, to make profit and as a result they are active in lobbying for policies that may ultimately distort inclusive growth, such as legislation to limit competition, transparency and tax burdens. In a new report that Oxfam is publishing before Davos, we tallied the lobbying efforts of the biggest companies in the ultra-profitable financial and pharmaceutical sectors. In 2013, in the US alone, the financial sector spent more than $400m on lobbying. In 2012, it spent $571m on the US election campaign. The pharmaceutical industry spent $487m. In Europe, the financial sector spent $150m lobbying EU institutions. I believe that public pressure should be a powerful force on politicians and regulators to enact rules that will bring big business into line. At Oxfam, we are also getting particularly interested in the need to revamp international tax systems to ensure that the richest individuals and corporations pay their fair share.



To reach the most marginalised people in our societies it is crucial to have effective welfare systems. Major improvements in this area are necessary. Inclusive economic growth must also be environmentally sustainable. While technological innovations are important to help reduce the cost of the world having to shift its production and consumption patterns, these new advances must be made accessible to poor people and developing countries too – not just to the rich elites. Good far-sighted policies can ensure that green growth becomes inclusive growth too.

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I believe that the new economic and development policies necessary for the emerging world must be driven by emerging countries themselves. Economist Dr. Joel Ruetlooked at successful experiments in inclusive growth in Ethiopia, Thailand and Brazil. He notes that Brazil forced down inequality levels by national cash-transfer programmes, in return for parents keeping their children in school and in receipt of regular medical attention. In Ethiopia, the government oversaw the doubling of agricultural production by the smart use of foreign investment and an improved distribution of national income. Meanwhile, Thailand halved its poverty levels between 2001 and 2006 through targeted support for agriculture and food security. Dr Ruet sees encouraging trends in Vietnam, Ghana, Chile, Mali and Colombia, too.

I was recently on a public panel with Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, chief executive of EL Rothschild and chair of the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism. She said: “Extreme inequality isn’t just a moral wrong. It undermines economic growth and threatens the private sector’s bottom line. All those gathering at Davos who want a stable and prosperous world should make tackling inequality a top priority.” I agree. By many measurements, the world is making tremendous progress in tackling global poverty and we can celebrate this. But inequality is acting as a brake; we must counter it before these gains are reversed.

Winnie Byanyima is executive director at Oxfam International.

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