SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 10: REDUCED INEQUALITIES

 

In today’s world, we are all interconnected: problems and challenges, be they poverty, climate change, migration, or economic cri­ses are never just confined to one country or region.

Understanding that development is not sustainable if people are excluded from opportunities, services, and the chance for a better life; SDG 10 calls on the international community to “reduce inequality within and among countries”.

Inequalities based on income, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, class, ethnicity, religion, and opportunity continue to persist across the world, within and among countries.

Inequality threatens long-term social and economic development, harms poverty reduction, and destroys people’s sense of fulfillment and self-worth.

Inequalities often stem from divisions along group lines that are socially constructed and sustained because they establish a basis for unequal access to valued outcomes and scarce resources.

Discriminatory laws and practices perpetuate these inequalities and limit the potential for minorities and other excluded groups to realize their full potential.

This, in turn, can breed crime, disease, and environmental degradation.

Global inequality affects us all, no matter who we are or where we are from.

Persons with disabilities are the world’s largest minority.

Women and girls with disabilities face double discrimination.

We cannot achieve sustainable development and make the planet better for all if people are excluded from opportunities, services, and the chance for a better life.

We can ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of income if we eliminate discriminatory laws, policies, and practices.

Reducing inequality requires transformative change.

Greater efforts are needed to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and invest more in health, education, social protection and decent jobs, especially for young people, migrants, and other vulnerable communities.

Leaving no one behind – Reducing inequality and ensuring the inclusion of all regardless of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status is at the heart of the pledge that “no one will be left behind”.

While some progress is being made on a country-by-country basis, within-country inequality has seen a global rise over the past three decades.

Rural people are disproportionately affected by poverty with the poverty rate three times higher than in urban areas.

Some groups including those in rural areas (e.g. family farmers), women, young people, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and others have persistently clustered at the bottom.

Increasing wealth and income at the bottom – as well as increasing access to non-income opportunities and achieving greater equality of outcomes – requires knowing who the poor and deprived are, where they live, and the nature of the barriers they face in accessing opportunities and making the most of them.

The most pronounced inequalities occur when rurality intersects with other forms of marginalization, resulting from variables such as gender, ethnicity, and age; as well as disproportionate exposure to food insecurity, violence, and climate pressures.

Provision of basic services and guarantees of minimum social protection can help in this regard, but provision does not automatically ensure access/use so more attention and understanding of barriers is needed to ensure equality of opportunities and outcomes.

While ideals of fairness and social justice generally resonate across societies and groups, individuals by nature may see incentives to maintain distinctions and protect advantageous positions in the face of scarce resources, perceived erosion in living standards, uncertain prospects, or rapid social change.

Rapidly changing technologies; climate-related shocks, disasters, and crises; the globalization of information, business, and social networks; the decreasing bargaining power of workers; conflicts and many other trends can exacerbate such tendencies, but can also open up space for new alignments and forward-looking cooperation within and among countries.

Migration is also a concern for within-country inequalities: Rural out-migration can be a means of income diversification, as well as an adaptation mechanism to slow environmental stressors such as severe water scarcity.

However, it is not often an option for the poorest, who face the greatest constraints to mobility.

Financial flows and global patterns of taxation are also a key part of the picture in evaluating options to reduce inequality.

The global financial landscape is highly integrated with assets and liabilities stretched across borders.

In many cases, this integration has supported investments in infrastructure, economic activity, and social welfare in lower-income countries with the potential to reduce inequalities.

But vast sums of international reserves have also accumulated and could be released for productive purposes.

The impact of inequality on social and economic development is clearly recognized and understood; it has a significant influence on economic growth, poverty reduction, social and economic stability, and sustainable development.

The major concentration of money in economically well-off segments, which are a relatively small proportion of the entire population, encourages consumption patterns that suit only their requirements.

 

Commodities become expensive for poor people as the commodities of their choice are less available due to their limited purchasing power, making their livelihoods more and more expensive and unsustainable.

Inequalities further reduce opportunities and social mobility, including inter-generational mobility, and thereby pose serious issues.

Inequality is a much broader concept than poverty, as it focuses on the

entire population and not just poverty.

Within countries, it is important to empower and promote inclusive social and economic growth.

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