Socioeconomic inequalities are continuing to widen around the world, in both middle-income and low-income countries. Yet we know today that these inequalities reduce well-being, slow the pace of poverty reduction, lead to a breakdown in the social link and to political instability and, in the long term, are coupled with weaker growth. This undermines both the development of countries and the effectiveness of Official Development Assistance.
To scale up international action on this issue, AFD has released a Policy Paper entitled “Reducing Inequalities: Proposal for the International Cooperation Agenda”, in which it proposes five priorities for international cooperation actors:
- More accurately measure inequalities;
- Develop social protection;
- Invest heavily in education;
- Promote a just transition;
- Combat gender inequalities.
The main concepts and development challenges related to inequalities, as well as how they are changing, both in middle-income and low-income countries, are analyzed in the paper.
-> A look back at the AFD conference on Inequalities and Social Cohesion in December 2018 with the synthesis in French and in English.