Employees of the Eastern Industrial Zone, shoe manufacturing park at work in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sept. 5, 2017. The visit was organized by Oxfam International's Africa-China Dialogue (ACDP) and Wits Africa-China Reporting Project as part of the Media Workshop on Reporting Africa-China Engagements: Agriculture Developments, Climate Change, Industrialization, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Agenda 2063. (Sharon Tshipa/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Employees of the Eastern Industrial Zone shoe manufacturing park at work in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sept. 5, 2017. (Sharon Tshipa/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The advocacy group claims the growing disparity shows that the global economy values wealth over work.

By Katelyn Newman , Digital Producer, Staff Writer |Jan. 22, 2018, at 9:10 a.m.

Oxfam: World’s Richest 1 Percent Get 82 Percent of the Wealth

Employees of the Eastern Industrial Zone, shoe manufacturing park at work in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sept. 5, 2017. The visit was organized by Oxfam International’s Africa-China Dialogue (ACDP) and Wits Africa-China Reporting Project as part of the Media Workshop on Reporting Africa-China Engagements: Agriculture Developments, Climate Change, Industrialization, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Agenda 2063. (Sharon Tshipa/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Employees of the Eastern Industrial Zone shoe manufacturing park at work in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sept. 5, 2017. (Sharon Tshipa/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The gap in income inequality grew in 2017 as the super rich got richer while the poorest witnessed no change in wealth, the charity organization Oxfam claimed Monday in its latest report.

The advocacy group estimates that the world’s richest 1 percent reaped 82 percent of its wealth last year while the poorest half saw no increase at all. The reasons for the growing disparity boil down to tax evasion, firms’ influence on policy, erosion of workers’ rights and cost cutting, and it shows that the global economy values wealth over work, the organization stated.

Ethiopia

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Ethiopia is one of Africa’s poorest nations with half of its 77 million people currently living below the poverty line and its level of child malnutrition is the highest in the world. In Ethiopia Oxfam focuses on sustainable livelihoods, water and sanitation, agriculture, climate research, gender and humanitarian issues.

After more than three decades of civil war, Ethiopia has been drained of its scarce resources and deprived of its regular agricultural production. Drought and environmental degradation have been major issues forcing large numbers of people to leave their homes.

Drought crisis – Oxfam is responding

Ethiopia has suffered erratic and failed rains for the past 18 months and the situation has been made worse by this year’s super El Niño. We are currently responding to the drought crisis in 5 regions: Fafan, Jarar, Dollo, Korahe and Afder (Somali Region). We have helped approximately 750,000 people so far. (October 2017). You can help now.

Oxfam in Ethiopia

We have been working in Ethiopia since the early 1970’s to address the underlying causes of poverty and marginalization.

Sustainable livelihoods

We focus on improving food and income security through better access to production technology and sustainable markets, especially for women, and by facilitating private and public sector engagement to enable access to markets.

Public services

We work to ensure people have access to improved public services as well as supporting women to lead decision making in service development and management. We work closely with communities and local government to build their capacity to manage their own public services and support government and donors to make investments in water, sanitation and hygiene services transparently and effectively.

Disaster risk reduction

We work to improve community preparedness to disasters, with a key to focussing on gender in emergencies. We work to enable more people in disaster affected communities to access life-saving assistance and support to rebuild and protect their livelihoods. Oxfam influences key duty bearers to ensure timely responses to humanitarian crisis in accordance with humanitarian law and standards.

Supporting women

We push to change attitudes and beliefs on gender based violence, and to empower women to act as leaders and to support their access to economic opportunities.