New and Old Inequalities in the Era of Sustainable Development Goals
March 10-11 2016
International development assistance is at a turning point. As the world transitions from a period marked by efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the world’s poorest countries to a new period that focuses attention on all countries and is defined by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), increasing concern is being paid to matters relating to inequality and fairness. Development assistance up until now has tended to avoid issues of distribution, even though these issues have often been highly politicized in developing countries going back to colonial times, particularly in Latin America.
Various factors are contributing to this shift. With many, including the World Bank, now suggesting that the end of extreme poverty as defined by income may be in sight as a result of progress made toward achieving the MDGs, there is concern not only for those who might be left behind, but also the myriad forms of poverty and social exclusion that are not reducible only to income. These are often the same factors that define inequality and make it so important. Particularly in the countries that have benefitted most from positive economic trends since the turn of the century, the so-called "middle income countries," distributional issues are increasingly coming to the fore as the commodities boom driven by double-digit growth rates in China comes to an end, exposing the vulnerability of the newly non-poor to economic cycles that might send them back into poverty because of weak social safety nets. Perceptions that leaders appear disconnected from the plight of the average person seem to be growing around the world, but particularly in contexts characterized by high levels of political corruption and impunity as elites (both economic and political) sometimes appear to be above the law.
Recent international trends in the post MDG era have also highlighted the complex interconnections between poverty and global inequality, as the growing problems created by climate change, epidemic and pandemic disease and political instability clearly cannot be satisfactorily addressed by nations acting alone. More than ever before, addressing inequality requires redefining the geographic boundaries in the distribution of resources and opportunities, both across and within countries, rich and poor. Ironically, debates that were seen as being ideologically-driven during the Cold War, post-colonial period are increasingly becoming mainstream: Who will pay the inevitable costs associated with finding durable solutions to all of these challenges? Who should pay given long histories of global inequality—the most vulnerable or those who benefitted most from development processes that often contributed to these problems historically?
Conference Objectives: As world enters into the SDG era, it is important to begin to disentangle these various issues in order to develop a more practical framework for achieving desired outcomes. The conference will contribute to this by convening a diverse group of experts that include university researchers, people from the non-profit, private and public sectors, local and transnational civil society actors, and the international development community. The following transversal questions will guide the discussion:
- How should inequality be understood in relation to development?
- What are the principal dimensions of inequality (e.g., poverty, gender, age, identity) and how have they changed?
- What are the consequences of enduring global inequality for developing and developed countries?
- What are the interconnections between global inequality and global threats (health, environment, security)?
- What are the possible solutions moving from the local to the international?
