'One per cent of the world’s richest individuals have more wealth than the other 99'

This astounding finding was published by Oxfam just days ahead of this year's World Economic Forum in Davos. The report also revealed that 62 of the world’s richest individuals, 53 of whom are men, control the same wealth as the world’s bottom 3.6 billion.

Representatives from Oxfam will be attending Davos this week to press world leaders to make the changes outline in the report. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich

“We need to address the distribution of income if we’re really going to address the issue of extreme poverty,” Deborah Hardoon, one of the co-authors of the report, told RFI.

Unless there is a pro-poor growth within the next 15 years, The World Bank predicts that the battle against extreme poverty will continue to have failed with nearly half a billion people remaining on income levels below $1.90 a day.

Oxfam is calling on policymakers to hold the world’s wealthiest accountable for certain practices that only increase the gap. Among those practices are using off shore havens as a means to avoid paying taxes.

An analysis of 200 companies, including the world’s biggest and the World Economic Forum’s strategic partners, found that 9 out of 10 companies have at least one tax haven.

“You have this crazy situation where the wealthiest people pay a lower tax rate than a nurse does or a cleaner does, who are paying the taxes that they’re due to pay,” said Hardoon.

“These loopholes don’t need to exist. What we need to see is a crackdown on these provisions that allow individuals and companies to avoid paying their taxes.”

The report also highlighted the fact that women experience a greater burden of income inequality than men.

According to the IMF, countries with higher levels of income inequality also show gender inequality across health, education, labor market participation and representation.

Many historically female-dominated professions, like domestic care, continues to go unpaid entirely.

Even the very highest incomes tend to be exclusively held by males – 445 of the 500 world’s richest individuals are men.

“We still have an awful long way to go before we really achieve gender parity,” said Hardoon.

“All over the world we see that women bear the burden of domestic care duty and go unpaid for that extra contribution.”

Representatives from Oxfam will be attending Davos this week to press world leaders to make the changes outline in the report.