Agenda 2030: Inequality - the New Threat to Global Development
On September 26, 2016, the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI) arranged a discussion on inequality and global development. When the world agreed on new sustainable development goals (SDG) in the United Nations a year ago the basis for the Agenda 2030 was ”leaving no one behind”.
Decreasing inequality also became a much debated goal in itself. How has the world delivered on this goal so far? Why does it seem so hard to reach and what happens if it doesn't succeed?
While inequality has been decreasing between countries as many poor countries are growing fast and catching up, the main problem is now the inequality within countries. Big groups of poor people have not benefitted from the growth and development. This is the case not only in developing countries but to a large extent also in rich countries. Economic inequality, rather than poverty itself, is increasingly being pointed out as a threat to global development.
Discussants:
Jesper Roine, Associate Professor of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) and Deputy Director at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE). He has published widely on income and wealth distribution.
Paula Lucci, research fellow with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) programme on growth, poverty and inequality. She has extensive experience on the SDGs, urban poverty and inclusive growth. She has also worked for the public sector in Argentina and Mexico.
The discussion was chaired by Victoria Veres, associate on UI's Global Politics and Security programme and the author of "FN:s globala mål: Världen går i otakt and FN:s nya utvecklingsmål: Har världen gjort läxan?".