"Rising inequality and exclusion are among the most pressing issues of our age. They are a formidable challenge to sustainable development, and a source of political grievance which can undermine democratic gains. Inequality and exclusion matter to everyone, not only to those who feel excluded. The evidence is clear that inequality and exclusion cause human suffering, breed political instability, and stunt growth and development for all. The damage caused by inequality, until recently denied, has finally been accepted—but nowhere has enough been done to tackle it. However, we can reverse this trend by fostering social harmony, achieving inclusive growth, and restoring trust in politics.
The Pathfinders’ Grand Challenge on Inequality and Exclusion brings together governments from every region and countries at every level of income. They share a common desire to deliver this new agenda through bold action. Supported by a multi-stakeholder group of international agencies, research institutions, and civil society organisations, these governments are developing practical and politically viable solutions to meet the Sustainable Development Goals commitments to fight inequality. The challenge links the best of ideas with determined policy-makers in a position to implement them.
Analyses of inequality and exclusion have too often tended to narrowly focus on the bottom 40 percent of the population. Partners in the Pathfinders’ Grand Challenge on Inequality and Exclusion recognize the harder truth that efforts to address inequality need also to look at what is happening in the upper reaches of society, where wealth and power is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands. To meet citizens’ demands for democratic oversight and limits on the unaccountability enjoyed by elites, the members of the Grand Challenge are working to enable greater participation in society and a fairer distribution of its fruits. They recognize that fiscal austerity has increased inequality and failed to increase growth, and that new forms of thinking are needed—ones that are holistic and can respond to social and environmental, as well as fiscal, needs. This group of countries and communities have come together to jointly develop and implement transformational solutions: to show that where there is a will, there is a way to beat inequality."
For more information on this Grand Challenge, visit the Pathfinders' page on Inequality.
To read the full document, click on the file below.
