Davos (Switzerland) (AFP)

The 2,153 billionaires of the globe now hold more money than 60% of the world population, denounces Monday the NGO Oxfam, stressing a concentration of wealth at the expense of women in particular, "on the front line" of inequalities.

"The gap between rich and poor cannot be resolved without deliberate policies to tackle inequality. Governments must ensure that businesses and the rich pay their fair share of taxes," said Amitabh Behar, head of Oxfam in India, and who will represent the NGO this year at the Davos Forum, quoted in a press release.

Oxfam's annual report on global inequality is traditionally published just before the opening of the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, a traditional meeting of the world's economic and political elite, and after a year 2019 marked by large movements of social protest from Chile to the Middle East, via France.

"Indecent inequalities are at the heart of fractures and social conflicts all over the world (...) They are not a fatality (but) the result of policies (...) which reduce the participation of the wealthiest in the solidarity effort through taxes, and weaken the funding of public services ", insists Pauline Leclère, spokesperson for Oxfam France, also quoted in a press release.

According to figures from the NGO, whose methodology is based on data published by the journal Forbes and the bank Credit Suisse but remains disputed by some economists, 2,153 people now have more money than the 4.6 billion poorest people on the planet.

In addition, the wealth of the richest 1% in the world "corresponds to more than double the accumulated wealth" of the least wealthy 6.9 billion, or 92% of the population of the globe, a concentration which "exceeds the understanding" , details the report.

"Women are at the forefront of inequality because of an economic system that discriminates against them and confines them to the most precarious and least paid occupations, starting with the care sector," insists Pauline Leclère.

According to Oxfam's calculations, 42% of women in the world cannot get paid work "due to an excessive burden of the care work that they are made to carry in the private / family setting", against only 6 % men.

However, between cleaning, cooking and collecting wood and water in the countries of the South, "the monetary value of unpaid care work provided by women aged 15 and over represents at least 10.800 billion dollars each year, or three times the value of the digital sector worldwide, "said the NGO.

In France, 7 billionaires own more than the poorest 30%, and the richest 10% of the French concentrate half of the country's wealth, notes Oxfam.

© 2020 AFP