Reducing Inequality for Sustainable Development

Inequality has been discussed in the context of the formulation of the post-2015 development agenda. Pursuing greater equality and equity at the global level accords with one of the principles recognized by Member States in the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The World Economic and Social Survey 2014 seeks to contribute to the current debate through a discussion of current trends in the evolution of inequality and through a discussion of alternative ways to reduce inequality. It seeks to inform a discussion on how Governments and other stakeholders can reduce inequality, which instruments may be deployed and what historical and recent successes in reducing inequality can teach us about the scope for — and the challenges to — reducing inequalities within a wide range of countries and contexts. The Survey emphasizes that policy frameworks to reduce inequality would need to be designed and implemented in accordance with country-specific circumstances.

The most recent Report on the World Social Situation (2013), entitled Inequality Matters, underscored that high and persistent inequality within countries represents a serious challenge in social terms, affecting the well-being not only of those at the bottom of the income distribution, but also of those at the top. Inequality limits opportunities for social mobility, including intergenerational mobility. Furthermore, there is cumulative evidence that group (or horizontal) inequalities are associated with loss of social cohesion, fertile ground for political and civil unrest, instability and heightened human insecurity.

The Survey focuses on four key areas in which policies can have a significant impact in reducing inequality: the environment, employment, redistributive policies, and global measures affecting climate change, taxation and migration. While the impact of inequality on the economic and social dimensions of sustainable development have been the subject of extensive research, the link between inequality and the environment has received less attention.