Exclusive: Winnie Byanyima Speaks about Inequality in Africa and Next Steps at UNAIDS

By Crystal Orderson Reprint | | Print |

In this Voices from the Global South podcast, IPS takes you to Cape Town, South Africa where Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam's outgoing director talks exclusively to IPS about taking up the post executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and about Oxfam's recent inequality report.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Sep 5 2019 (IPS) - While the 28th World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa is being held in Cape Town, South Africa this week, the international aid and development charity Oxfam released its latest report: A tale of two continents: fighting inequality in Africa. 

The report says that while the richest Africans get ever richer, extreme poverty on the continent is rising. Africa is the second-most unequal continent in the world, and home to seven of the most unequal countries.

Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam’s outgoing executive director, who is taking up the post executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, says many countries in Africa are doing very little to reduce inequality. Crédito: Marianela Jarroud/IPS

Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam’s outgoing executive director, who is taking up the post executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, speaks exclusively to IPS Correspondent Crystal Oderson on the main issues the report highlights, some of the key recommendations.

“What we see is that a few people at the top, rich people at the top are running away with the benefits of [Africa’s] growth and that millions are stuck in poverty,” she told IPS.

Byanyima spends her last month as Oxfam’s head.