Tag: Inequality

SDG 10 reduce inequalities
Building resilience, SDGs

Reducing inequalities: how should we measure and monitor SDG Goal 10?

By Francesco Savoia, Research Fellow, Università degli Studi di Milano, Ioannis Bournakis, Associate professor, SKEMA Business School, Mona Said, Professor, The American University in Cairo, and Antonio Savoia, Reader, University of Manchester; Nonresident Senior Fellow, UNU-WIDER

The inclusion of income redistribution in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as part of SDG Goal 10 aiming to reduce inequality within and among countries, reflects an increasing realisation that addressing inequalities is intrinsically important, as well as instrumental to human development and to a number of other development outcomes through a variety of channels. But how should we measure and monitor progress in reducing inequalities? Here we argue that looking at the sub-national level may be important.

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Development Matters
Jharkhand, India -Group of Indian school girls in class
Gender, Women and Girls, New social contract

Spiralling gender inequality is not inevitable: here’s how we can fix it

By Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director, Oxfam International

The more we listen to women’s rights leaders across the world, the harder it is to ignore the reality that we have been witnessing profound and staggering setbacks to gender equality.

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Development Matters
New social contract

To recover from the crisis, tax the wealth of multimillionaires like me

By Djaffar Shalchi, Entrepreneur and Founder of Millionaires for Humanity, a network of wealthy people who advocate for raising taxes on wealthy people

As the world reels from the COVID-19 crisis, countries desperately need to finance health for all, the economic recovery, and poverty reduction. And as the world grapples with the social tensions generated by rising inequality, countries desperately need to find a way to rebuild social cohesion. The great news for 2022 is that there is a way: tax the wealth of multimillionaires to help fund the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

I know – because I am one of the multimillionaires who would have to pay a wealth tax.

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Latin America and the Caribbean, New social contract

How’s life in Latin America? Deepening inequalities and hard-won gains at risk

By Romina Boarini, Director of the OECD WISE Centre (Centre for Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity) and Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir, Director of OECD Development Centre

The Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region has experienced considerable gains in well-being over the past two decades, according to the new report How’s Life in Latin America? Measuring Well-being for Policy Making by the OECD Centre on Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE) and the OECD Development Centre. The eleven countries studied in the report – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay – have experienced many improvements in quality of life since the early 2000s such as increased life expectancy, reduced child and maternal mortality, and better access to drinking water. The number of people in absolute poverty (i.e. those whose income is not enough to meet basic needs such as food or shelter) has declined – from 1 in 3 in 2006 to 1 in 5 by 2019 – and the share of the population with an upper secondary education has risen from 34% to 46%.  

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Development Matters
Latin America and the Caribbean, New social contract

¿Cómo va la vida en América Latina? Se agudizan las desigualdades y peligran los logros alcanzados

Por Romina Boarini, Directora del Centro para el Bienestar, Inclusión, Sostenibilidad e Igualdad de Oportunidades de la OCDE y Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir, Directora del Centro de Desarrollo de la OCDE

La región de América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) ha experimentado un aumento considerable del bienestar en las últimas dos décadas, según el nuevo informe ¿Cómo va la vida en América Latina? Medición del bienestar para la formulación de políticas públicas, elaborado por el Centro de Bienestar, Inclusión, Sostenibilidad e Igualdad de Oportunidades (WISE) y el Centro de Desarrollo de la OCDE. Los once países estudiados en el informe – Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, México, Paraguay, Perú, República Dominicana y Uruguay – han experimentado muchas mejoras en la calidad de vida desde principios de la década de 2000, como el aumento de la esperanza de vida, la reducción de la mortalidad infantil y materna y un mejor acceso al agua potable. El número de personas en situación de pobreza absoluta (es decir, aquellas cuyos ingresos no son suficientes para satisfacer necesidades básicas como la alimentación o la vivienda) ha disminuido – de 1 de cada 3 en 2006 a 1 de cada 5 en 2019 – y la proporción de la población con educación secundaria superior ha aumentado del 34% al 46%. 

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Green transition

Can ecological modernisation bring about a just transition?

By Giovanni Carrosio, Professor of Environmental Sociology at University of Trieste, member of Forum on Inequality and Diversity & Lorenzo De Vidovich, Research Fellow in Ecowelfare Studies at University of Trieste

Some 1.4 billion people in the world are affected by energy poverty. Fifty million of these people are European citizens. Being unable to or facing constraints in satisfying basic needs such as cooking, lighting and heating, affect people’s quality of life and social mobility by exacerbating other forms of inequality. Energy poverty can have negative impacts on the quality of and access to education, can worsen people’s health, and can more generally limit peoples’ means of improving their living conditions. However policies to combat climate change and drive the ecological transition are often socially blind and perpetuate social inequalities. The eco-welfare framework can be used as a policy tool to align the ecological transition with social justice.

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Education, Latin America and the Caribbean, New social contract

How Brazil’s schools are overcoming education inequalities through student-centred learning

By Camila Pereira, Director of Education, Lemann Foundation

With over 180,000 schools closed from March 2020 to August 2021, remote learning became the only option for Brazil’s 47 million students. Despite huge efforts by educators, public officials and families to support children while they were away from classrooms, a big impact on learning is expected. Brazilian education has long suffered from deeply entrenched inequalities and gaps that have been worsened by COVID-19. What solutions are needed for Brazil to overcome these inequalities?

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Covid-19, Français, Migration

Inégalités et migrations internationales : garantir des avantages pour tous dans l’après-pandémie

Par Jason Gagnon, Économiste du développement, Centre de développement de l’OCDE

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La pandémie de COVID-19 a bouleversé les migrations internationales. Selon les Nations Unies, on comptait 272 millions de migrants internationaux dans le monde en 2019, soit 3.5 % de la population mondiale, ce qui reflétait une augmentation constante au fil des ans. Cependant, depuis le début de la crise, les migrations ont considérablement diminué. En raison des restrictions, l’accueil d’étrangers dans les pays de l’OCDE a chuté de 46 %. Dans les pays du Conseil de coopération du Golfe (CCG), et dans de nombreuses autres régions du monde, les tendances vont dans le même sens. Et la baisse générale des flux migratoires devrait se poursuivre en 2021.

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Development Matters
Building resilience, Covid-19, Human Development, Migration

Inequalities and international migration: securing benefits for all post COVID-19

By Jason Gagnon, Development economist, OECD Development Centre

Lire ce blog en français

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned international migration on its head. According to the United Nations, there were 272 million international migrants in the world in 2019, reflecting a steady rise over the years, reaching 3.5% of the global population. However, since the start of the crisis, migration has decreased significantly. Due to restrictions, admission of foreigners to OECD countries has fallen by 46%. In the Gulf Co-operation Council countries, and many other parts of the world, the trends point in the same direction. The general fall in migration flows is likely to continue in 2021.

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Covid-19, New social contract, Policy

We know what policies can fix the COVID-19 inequality emergency. But only people power can win them

By Ben Phillips, Advisor to the United Nations, governments and civil society organisations, former Campaigns Director for Oxfam and for ActionAid, and co-founder of  the Fight Inequality Alliance. He is the author of “How to Fight Inequality”

This blog is part of a series on tackling COVID-19 in developing countries. Visit the OECD dedicated page to access the OECD’s data, analysis and recommendations on the health, economic, financial and societal impacts of COVID-19 worldwide.

COVID-19 did not create the inequality crisis. But COVID-19 is seeing inequality metastasise into the most socially dangerous global emergency since World War II.  The problem is clear. The OECD Secretary-General has rightly drawn the analogy with the Post-War reconstruction and Marshall Plan to illustrate the level of ambition needed. Opening the OECD conference on “Confronting Planetary Emergencies”, President Michael D Higgins of Ireland set out the need for a “radical departure” from “decades of unfettered neoliberalism” which have left people “without protection as to basic necessities of life, security and the ability to participate”. As he noted, “it is no longer sufficient to describe, however brilliantly, systemic failure. We must have the courage to speak out and work for the alternatives.”

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