Register via Zoom: bit.ly/4nq4aPT 

Background 

In 2024, Oxfam published a Corporate Inequality Framework (CIF) that captures companies’ contributions to inequality. This framework was used to assess 200 of some of the largest publicly listed US companies. It is the first time that all the pathways through which companies are contributing to inequality have been collected in a single space. In a crowded landscape with many fragmented and issue-specific standards, this framework has the potential to bring greater attention and visibility to the link between corporate practice and rising inequality and the threats this also poses to the impact investing field.  

This framework has been used to raise the salience of inequality within the investor community and with policymakers. Together with Rights CoLab, Oxfam published a briefing paper, “The Investor Case for Fighting Inequality: How Inequality Harms Investors and What Investors Should Do About It” that presents the argument for why investors should consider inequality in their risk calculations when making investment decisions. 

On September 17, Fair Finance Asia (FFA) in collaboration with Oxfam, aims to introduce this framework to its network of over 90 civil society organizations (CSOs) as well as key stakeholders in the regional financial sector. This is a highly opportune intervention particularly with the launch of new initiatives focused on the inequality lens, such as the Taskforce on Inequality & Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD). Going forward, the FFA network aims to build on the outcomes of this session and mobilize stronger and meaningful Asian CSOs engagement with the TISFD and other key inequality related initiatives. 

Objectives 

The session aims to clarify the links between financial institutions and companies’ overall contributions to inequality and to underscore the material risks inequality poses to long-term investors. The goal is to encourage investors to address their own and their investee companies’ contributions to inequality. This would be undertaken by:  

• Providing education and building awareness with investors; and  

• Shaping the narrative and agenda around inequality in line with the regional context.  

The session also aims to contribute to a broader initiative that would encourage Asian financial and private sector stakeholders to better understand how they contribute to inequality by mainstreaming the topic also among policymakers. To accomplish this, we will focus on achieving the following outcomes:  

• Investors address their own and investee companies’ contributions to inequality, including through corporate engagement;  

• Companies understand the importance of addressing their contributions to inequality and take meaningful mitigation steps;  

• Investors advocate for accountable capitalism including support for alternative models such as worker and community ownership; and  

• Public sector stakeholders understand the mechanisms by which the private sector drives inequality and take steps to address it through regulation and/or legislation. 

Read FFA’s work with TISFD here.