Analysing Drivers
What is behind inequality? Tackling inequality requires grasping its underlying causes: the factors that can result in unequal outcomes in society. These drivers of inequality may be global, such as global trade, or national, such as the level of public investment in education. They vary across countries and contexts, so you will need to focus on those that are most relevant for you.
Useful tips before you get started
Identifying and analysing the causes of inequality relevant for your context may be a hard task. You can find here some practical tips that others have found useful.
Use the toolkit to inform your driver analysis:
The Oxfam toolkit suggests broad categories of possible drivers to give you a template for analysis. For example: unequal outcomes in relation to survival and health are caused by – amongst other factors - ‘unequal access to quality and timely healthcare’. You can review these driver categories and find those relevant for you to unpack further. You can also add others that are missing. Also remember that one driver might be relevant to inequalities across multiple domains and inequalities in one domain might driver inequalities in other. These links will become clear in your analysis.
Setting your historical context
We encourage you to do a historical, context-setting exercise before analysing national drivers. Inequality is strongly path-dependent and current inequality patterns are determined by a country’s history. It is wise to ensure teams and taskforces have the opportunity to reflect collectively on their own historical context, and the factors underlying current expressions of inequalities, privilege and exclusion.
How to approach your analysis?
We suggest a “cascade exercise”. Once you have prioritized the domains and drivers you want to go through, for each domain you can pose a broad question, such as “why do some people have access to premium, high quality healthcare services when others have little or no access to quality healthcare?”, and repeatedly ask why. We know this depends on multiple factors. Chart the answers to identify the many causal roots.
Many resources are available to help answer these questions, including statistical analysis or reviewing other types of existing evidence on drivers.
Many resources are available to help answer these questions, including statistical analysis or reviewing other types of existing evidence on drivers.
Global and regional drivers of inequalities
There are many potential global and regional drivers of inequalities. The MIF selects ten that Oxfam believes have an impact on inequalities in many countries and, thus, may be relevant for your context too. Find out more in the additional resources.
The 10 broad global and regional drivers suggested are:
The 10 broad global and regional drivers suggested are:
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Dominant narratives, and corresponding policies, that justify and perpetuate inequality
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Values, norms, practices and structures that perpetuate discrimination and intolerance, especially against women
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Financialisation, the power of capital and global elites
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The rise and power of global corporations and the lack of effective regulation
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Lack of financial transparency and ineffective global tax governance
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Skewed structure of global trade
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Climate change and environmental degradation
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Conflict, global displacement and international migration policies
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Skewed technological development, scientific progress and innovation
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Lack of effective global governance
National drivers
The Oxfam toolkit provides a number of possible driver categories by domain. These are the major factors often underlying inequalities. For each of these driver categories, a set of guiding questions is provided to enable an in-depth analysis of the causes of advantage and disadvantage. The options are comprehensive but not exhaustive. If anything is missing, make sure you add it as relevant for your context!
Remember … Political capture matters
In terms of inequality, it is possible to have “too much” as well as “too little” of something. Too much influence by some individuals and groups can have a negative effect on other people’s capabilities.
There are growing concerns that extreme wealth inequality has led to political capture by elites, which may be an underlying driver of inequalities across many areas of life. Oxfam has developed a specific methodology to help you unpack how political capture happens.
There are growing concerns that extreme wealth inequality has led to political capture by elites, which may be an underlying driver of inequalities across many areas of life. Oxfam has developed a specific methodology to help you unpack how political capture happens.
Concluding your diagnostic
Once you have assessed inequalities by domain and analysed the multiple drivers of the inequalities observed, we suggest you prepare a summary of your findings. No programme or campaign can tackle all of the drivers of inequality effectively. The following questions can help guide your reflections and decision-making:
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Did your analysis result in the identification of any ‘major drivers’ – drivers that significantly overlap and drive negative outcomes across domains?
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Which drivers, if tackled effectively, do you think would lead to the most transformative impacts?
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Which of the drivers that you have analysed do you feel are the most relevant and important in your context?
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Did your analysis result in the identification of any drivers that Oxfam has not traditionally sought to address, but are important and relevant in your context?