Growing economic inequality is a crucial factor in the rise of nationalist and populist politics in the US and elsewhere—with alarming implications for inclusive democracy and the broader human rights project. However, despite growing concern, expressed even by governments and elites, wealth inequality continued to rise in 2016, with the world’s top 1% now owning half of all global assets. According to Oxfam, eight men own as much as the poorest half of the world’s population—some 3.6 billion people.
Inequality—and not just poverty and absolute deprivation—is a core development issue.
In this context, do the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN in 2015 offer an opportunity to advance the fight against extreme inequality? The SDGs include a goal (SDG10) focused on “reducing inequalities within and between countries”, including economic disparities. The inclusion of this goal represents a groundbreaking acknowledgement from the community of states that inequality—and not just poverty and absolute deprivation—is a core development issue. Moreover, given that the SDGs are an explicitly universal agenda, SDG10 brings economic inequality in countries rich and poor under the microscope.
