Reduced Inequalities

The problems related to the process of industrialisation such as biodiversity depletion, climate change and a worsening of health and living conditions, especially but not only in developing countries, intensify. Therefore, there is an increasing need to search for integrated solutions to make development more sustainable. The United Nations has acknowledged the problem and approved the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. On 1st January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda officially came into force. These goals cover the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. The Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals comprehensively addresses the SDGs in an integrated way. The Encyclopedia encompasses 17 volumes, each one devoted to one of the 17 SDGs. This volume addresses SDG 10, namely "Reduce inequality within and among countries", but also includes inequalities in income as well as those based on age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status within a country. The Goal also addresses inequalities among countries, including those related to representation, migration and development assistance. This volume contains the description of a range of terms, to allow a better understanding and foster knowledge about it. Concretely, the identified targets are: Progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average Empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality Improve the regulation and monitoring of global financial markets and institutions and strengthen the implementation of such regulations Ensure enhanced representation and voice for developing countries in decision-making in global international economic and financial institutions in order to deliver more effective, credible, accountable and legitimate institutions Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies Implement the principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, in accordance with World Trade Organization agreements Encourage official development assistance and financial flows, including foreign direct investment, to states where the need is greatest, in particular least developed countries, African countries, small island developing states and landlocked developing countries, in accordance with their national plans and programmes Reduce to less than 3 per cent the transaction costs of migrant remittances and eliminate remittance corridors with costs higher than 5 per cent Editorial Board Md. Mahmudul Alam, Olga Bialostocka, José Baltazar Salgueirinho Osório de Andrade Guerra, Narasimha Reddy Donthi, Ulla A. Saari, Daniele Vieira, Amanda Lange Salvia

The reduction of inequalities within and between countries stands as a policy goal, and deserves to take centre stage in the design of the Sustainable Development Goals agreed during the Rio+20 Summit in 2012.The 2013 edition of A Planet for Life represents a unique international initiative grounded on conceptual and strategic thinking, and – most importantly – empirical experiments, conducted on five continents and touching on multiple realities. This unprecedented collection of works proposes a solid empirical approach, rather than an ideological one, to inform future debate.The case studies collected in this volume demonstrate the complexity of the new systems required to accommodate each country's specific economic, political and cultural realities. These systems combine technical, financial, legal, fiscal and organizational elements with a great deal of applied expertise, and are articulated within a clear, well-understood, growth- and job-generating development strategy.Inequality reduction does not occur by decree; neither does it automatically arise through economic growth, nor through policies that equalize incomes downward via ill conceived fiscal policies. Inequality reduction involves a collaborative effort that must motivate all concerned parties, one that constitutes a genuine political and social innovation, and one that often runs counter to prevailing political and economic forces.

The world has never been richer than today. The distribution of our global wealth, however, is hugely biased. Since 1980, the gains were mainly captured by the rich: The top 1% obtained twice as much of the income growth as compared to the bottom 50%. Nevertheless, within economics, debates about inequality have remained rather marginal, despite long-term research by renowned scholars such as Tony Atkinson. Within the public arena, concerns about inequality emerged as a result of a number of developments: First, the global financial crisis in 2008 exposed the risks of the financing of the economy; secondly, 2013, Thomas Picketty’s book “Capital in the 21st century” demonstrated that, against the trend of the overall 20th century, capital returns outstrip the gains through economic growth in recent decades, thus threatening social coherence and democratic institutions and thirdly, the Millennium Campaign presented impressive achievements regarding poverty but stirred doubts whether the most deprived were left even further behind. Since 2015, then, the stated aim of SDG 10 is to “reduce inequality within and among countries”. There is growing consensus that economic growth is not sufficient to reduce poverty, and that our efforts to make it more inclusive so far were insufficient. The very first step reduce inequality is to adopt a systemic perspective, allowing an integrative analysis covering both ends of the ladder. Policies should be universal in principle and pay attention to the needs of disadvantaged and marginalized populations. Predicated on comparison, inequality reminds us that it’s not enough to study lower earners and the poor. Instead, the term demands that we expand our perspective, scrutinizing how economic value is generated, accumulated, at whose cost, and – not least – how the overall system could be made fairer. “Transitioning to Reduced Inequalities” therefore explores inequality trends worldwide, offers a debate on different measures and comparative perspectives, highlights key actors who either benefited or suffered from recent economic trends, and explores policy options to reduce inequality and thus contribute to SDG 10. The volume considers particularly: conceptual frameworks with regards to the inequality debate; the relationship between poverty reduction, economic growth and inequality; measures of inequality; overlooked/bypassed groups in developing countries; analysis on income/wealth growth for different groups in the global north; discussion about policies to reduce inequality; and further research in the realm of inequality. Transitioning to Reduced Inequalities is part of MDPI's new Open Access book series Transitioning to Sustainability. With this series, MDPI pursues environmentally and socially relevant research which contributes to efforts toward a sustainable world.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Defining inequality as the social, economic and political challenges of our time, this book will examine SDG10 to look ahead at how policy action might engage multiple stakeholders, involve diverse sectors and address gaps between policy and implementation to tackle key inequalities within and among countries.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of global goals that meet some of the most pressing challenges facing our world today. Goal 10 concerns reducing global inequalities. Inequality is currently seen in the social, political, and economic structures of communities at both the national and international level. The United Nation’s approach to sustainable development is to create a set of goals and targets try to minimize the accelerating gaps of inequality. The book presents new insights for evaluating the progress on SDGs (especially goal 10), it also boldly sets new economic, social and environmental targets for reducing inequality. Using case studies, this book encourages readers to view economic development through the lens of growing inequalities and disparities. Such inequalities are clearly becoming more obvious as the world is better connected, and information is quickly shared. The books main aim is therefore to direct the efforts of scholars, practitioners and policymakers to swiftly find the balance between the three pillars of sustainable development. The main challenges and focus of each chapter are different and collectively they give an integrated understanding of the phenomenon of sustainable development and its diverse aspects. This book will be useful for policymakers, social and environmental activists, agencies, educators and practitioners in the sphere of social or environmental economics. The methodology of the research can be replicated and taken forward by future researchers in the field.

International debate has recently focused on increased inequalities and the adverse effects they may have on both social and economic developments. Income inequality, now at its highest level for the past half-century, may not only undermine the sustainability of European social policy but also put at risk Europe’s sustainable recovery. A common feature of recent reports on inequality (ILO, OECD, IMF, 2015–17) is their recognition that the causes emerge from mechanisms in the world of work. The purpose of this book is to investigate the possible role of industrial relations, and labour policies more generally, in reducing these inequalities.

This edited collection analyses social inequality in the European Union, within and between countries. The work critically explores both vertical inequality, existing between those with high incomes and low incomes, and horizontal inequality, existing between groups according to nationality, age, ethnicity, and gender. Reducing Inequalities has been written by leading academics in the field who describe the current social situation in the European Union, focussing on inequality from a multidimensional perspective that includes income, poverty, social exclusion, education. The authors argue that social issues such as these have become national prerogatives for countries within the European Union. In response they ask: How does the European Union engage with inequality today? What principles of social solidarity ought to be applied between states and citizens of the European Union? What should be the role of European Union and its institutions regarding the challenge of reducing inequality? This book will be of interest to anyone seeking to understand inequality as a multidimensional concept, rather than solely as an economic phenomenon, across different geographical and historical contexts.