(LF.10) Reduced Inequalities

In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. If these Goals are completed, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030.
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries.

• If the distributions of income, means-tested transfers, and federal taxes follow CBO's projections, income inequality will be greater in 2021 than it was in 2016.
• High growth over the past decade has been based on unsustainable resource exploitation; addressing the resulting growth in inequality and environmental cost will be critical to ensure social stability and to ensure strong sustainable growth in the coming decade.
• The increase in inequality observed in the last 30 years is a serious threat to France's social contract.
• America's pluto-populist president is peddling a tax plan that will further increase economic inequality at a time when income and wealth gaps are already widening.
• A failure to give the world's poorest women control over their bodies could widen inequality in developing countries and thwart progress towards global goals aimed at ending poverty by 2030.
• Under French leadership the G7 group of the 7 largest advanced economies plus the European Union will focus in 2019 on fighting inequality, including poverty induced by climate change.
• Leadership might require companies to take positions and advocate for change on global inequality - including in-work poverty.
• Achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals - which include clean water, clean energy, sustainable cities, climate action, responsible consumption, reduced inequality and more - could open a market opportunity of $12 trillion by 2030.
• The next decades offer an opportunity to address African urban poverty and inequality and shape development priorities to ensure that urbanisation helps foster well-functioning, liveable and sustainable cities.
• In Africa and in the LDCs, eradicating poverty by 2030 will require both double-digit GDP growth and dramatic declines in inequality, illustrating the scale of the current challenges faced.
• The economic catch-up of Asia with the West will continue in the coming decades - thereby reducing global inequality among countries and among world citizens.
• Although GenX and Early Millennial retirees are expected to be better off than current retirees on absolute measures of income, they are expected to be worse off than current retirees on relative measures of inequality, poverty, and replacement rates.
• Interventions related to the road traffic environment for control and prevention of injuries will reduce RTIs, and may also reduce social inequalities.
• The adoption of digital technologies, coupled with better management practices, could add £100 billion to the UK economy and cut income inequality by 5 per cent.
• The most dangerous risks in the next decade are economic threats in the form of financial crises, high unemployment and an increase in income inequality.
• Rising inequality could be a factor behind sluggish growth in the U.S. economy in the wake of the financial crisis.
• Donor reforms in policies and practices could give real priority to measures that directly support poverty eradication, reduce inequality, and build resilience to climate change.
• If the Gini index in each country decreases by 1 percent per year, the global poverty rate could reduce to around 5.4 percent in 2030, equivalent to 100 million fewer people living in extreme poverty.
• The environmental crisis has sharply accelerated and economic development is not happening for too many people while inequality has reached dramatic levels, putting basic human rights at threat.
• The United Nations Independent Expert on debt and human rights recognised that Ukraine has progressed in its fight against illicit financial flows but warned that economic reforms without clear safeguards for human rights can further entrench inequality and poverty.
• Increasing income inequality could be turning some cities into centers of consumption for highly educated workers.
• Strategy 2030 will steer ADB's approach for addressing challenges in Asia and the Pacific such as rising urbanization and demographic shifts, and tackling the unfinished development agendas of eradicating poverty, reducing inequality, and closing infrastructure gaps.

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Last updated: 17 February 2020