Jobs and Migration Help Address South Asia Inequality

Jobs and migration are supporting substantial upward mobility across and within generations in a South Asia that is a land of extremes of side-by-side extravagant wealth and appalling poverty, a World Bank report said.

“Addressing Inequality in South Asia” was launched in Islamabad on Thursday at a conference organized by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE). The report shows that the gaps between rich and poor look moderate based on standard measures that focus on consumption per capita. But the picture is more mixed when considering inequality along non-monetary dimensions of well-being, such as child mortality or stunting.

“This report shows that the standard measures, such as the Gini index, do not go far enough in capturing the nature and extent of inequality in South Asia,” said Rachid Benmessaoud, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan. “High inequality in human development outcomes calls for greater efforts in providing access to basic services, such as health care and education, especially for the most disadvantaged population groups.”

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Copyright: Source: World Bank