Reducing Inequalities Within and Between Countries is Critical to Overcoming COVID-19 and Achieving the SDGs

In 2015, World Leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The 17 SDGs call for action by all countries to promote prosperity while maintaining peace, protecting the planet, the people and building partnerships. With only ten years remaining to achieve these goals, countries are accelerating steps towards ending poverty, fighting inequalities, tackling climate change, and ensuring that no one is left behind.  Every month, the United Nations places one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the spotlight, highlighting its purpose, targets, and criticality in advancing Agenda 2030. This month’s focus is SDG 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries.

In this last Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, inequalities based on income, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, class, ethnicity, religion and opportunity persist across the world. Admittedly, the COVID-19 pandemic has been  exacerbating pre-existing inequalities.

Inequality threatens long-term social and economic development, harms poverty reduction and destroys people’s sense of fulfilment and self-worth. This, in turn, can breed political instability, lack of social cohesion, crime, disease and environmental degradation.

We cannot achieve sustainable development and make the planet better for all if inequalities persist. Despite some positive signs, inequality is growing for more than 70 percent of the global population,  increasing the risks of divisions and hampering economic and social development.

COVID-19 continues to hit the most vulnerable people the hardest, the same groups that  experience increased discrimination. And the same goes among nations, as the world is facing an immense gap between the wealthier and less-wealthy nations.

A few days ago, U.N. Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, called for the creation of a global vaccination plan while criticizing what he termed the "widely uneven and unfair" distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. He noted that the rollout of vaccines has given hope to the world; however,  10 countries account for 75% of all vaccines while more than 130 nations have yet to receive a single dose. A devastating blow to the international solidarity required to beat the COVID-19 pandemic and a denial to of the unfortunate truth that: “none of us is safe, until all of us are safe.”

Inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic extend beyond the roll-out of vaccines amongst countries. The health, social and economic crises that have emerged, due to the pandemic, have been destructive and painful. With over 100 million reported cases of COVID-19, and 2.4 million deaths worldwide, the impacts have proven immense and plentiful.

To contain the spread of the pandemic, governments around the world had to make rapid and bold decisions; many of which entailed extremely difficult choices between saving lives and saving livelihoods, between speed of delivery and efficiency, and between short-term costs and long-term impacts.

While timely and mega fiscal interventions have helped to prevent the worst outcome, they failed to address the deep inequalities felt by marginalised and vulnerable population groups. In April 2020,  International Monetary Fund (IMFpredicteda global recession worse than that of 2009, with the loss of millions of jobs, young workers, women, those who are self-employed and low-and-medium-skilled workers have felt the brunt of job and income loss.

It is estimated in this regard that, in 2020, an approximate 120 million people were pushed into extreme poverty with hundreds of millions more expected to fall into poverty in 2021. Over the past two decades, poverty had fallen by approximately one billion people across the world; progress which is being dramatically reversed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eswatini is among countries worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, which has contributed to growing pre-existing inequalities within the country. Economic growth has largely been subdued as a result of extreme levels of poverty and inequalities. In his State of the Nation Address, His Majesty King Mswati III announced that the country was already on a monetary consolidation course to contain the distress in the economy, including getting assistance from the IMF and World Bank to finance the budget.

Vulnerable groups, including children, youth and women; persons living with disabilities; people living with HIV/AIDS; people with albinism; people living with autism; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) persons; forcibly evicted persons; people in the move; and persons in conflict with the law are at particular risk of being left further behind in our efforts to recover from COVID-19.

Children have been among those worst affected by the pandemic, as more than 1.6 billion children and youth across the world are out of school. Education is a powerful tool to prevent poverty, as there is a significant correlation between education and the probability that a household will experience multidimensional poverty. In this regard, and according to research, more than two-thirds of children with a non-educated mother are multidimensionally poor.

Further, approximately 369 million children have not been able to receive school meals, the only daily source of nutrition for orphaned and vulnerable children in poverty-stricken countries such as Eswatini. These impacts are also felt particularly hard by children living in conflict.

In Eswatini, many girls will not be able to return to school due to early and unplanned pregnancy, thus becoming more likely to fall into poverty and contracting diseases. HIV predominantly affects women and girls because of existing gender inequalities. Reports reveal that, in Eswatini, of the 210,000 people living with HIV in 2018, 120,000 were women. Within the entire population, 35.1% of all women are living with HIV, compared to 19.3% of men. (UNAIDSInfo.2019).

Unemployment in Eswatini remains higher for young women than men at 50 percent and 44 percent, respectively. Along with high levels of gender-based violence, income inequality affects women and girls and, in turn, the standard of living. In this regard, women are more likely than men to live and earn below 50 percent of the median income. In 2018, the UN Human Development Report ranked Eswatini 137 out of 159 countries for gender inequality, indicating just how severe the issue is.

Discrimination is also particularly harmful in deepening major inequalities amongst LGBTQI persons and persons living with disabilities, albinism, autism and HIV/AIDS. According to UN reports, 2 in 10 people reported having personally experienced discrimination on at least one of the grounds established by international human rights law. In order to ensure that the dignity of all people is respected, and vulnerable groups have access to essential services and social protection, the UN has called for urgent and bold action to increase international support and political commitment.

In today’s world, we are all interconnected; poverty, climate change, migration, economic crises or pandemics are never just confined to one country or region. Richest nations still have communities and individuals living in poverty. Oldest democracies still wrestle with racism, homophobia and transphobia, or religious intolerance.

Clearly, global inequality affects us all, no matter who we are, where we are from and where we reside.

Reducing inequality requires transformative change. Greater efforts are needed to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, and invest more in health, education, social protection and decent jobs, especially for young people, migrants and refugees, and other vulnerable groups.

Within countries, it is critical to empower and promote inclusive social and economic growth for all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.We can ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities if we eliminate discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promote appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard.Among countries, the principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, must be implemented urgently while all efforts are made to ensure that developing countries are better represented in decision-making on global issues for  solutions at the national level to be more effective, credible and accountable.

Governments and other stakeholders shall also consider promoting safe, regular and responsible migration, including through planned and well-managed policies, for the millions of people who have left their homes seeking better lives due to war, discrimination, poverty, lack of opportunity and other drivers of migration.

In this last Decade of Action, let’s all commit to reducing inequalities to ensure a life of dignity for all. Political, economic and social policies need to be universal and pay particular attention to the needs of disadvantaged and marginalized communities.

Facts and Figures

• Evidence from developing countries shows that children in the poorest 20 per cent of the populations are still up to three times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than children in the richest quintiles.
• Social protection has been significantly extended globally, yet persons with disabilities are up to five times more likely than average to incur catastrophic health expenditures.
• Despite overall declines in maternal mortality in most developing countries, women in rural areas are still up to three times more likely to die while giving birth than women living in urban centres.
• Up to 30 per cent of income inequality is due to inequality within households, including between women and men. Women are also more likely than men to live below 50 per cent of the median income.
• Of the one billion population of persons with disabilities, 80per cent live in developing countries.
• One in ten children is a child with a disability.
• Only 28 per cent of persons with significant disabilities have access to disability benefits globally, and only 1per cent in low-income countries.

Goal 10 Targets

• By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average.
• By 2030, 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.
• By 2030, reduce to less than 3 per cent the transaction costs of migrant remittances and eliminate remittance corridors with costs higher than 5 per cent.