The tenth global goal is to reduce inequalities within and among countries. While reaching this goal includes overcoming numerous challenges, the global community is on a good path to reduce economic inequalities and allow higher incomes for the lowest income classes of society. There is still hope that SDG 10 will be realised until the SDGs are due in 2030 and that by then, our world will be significantly more equal.
Sustainability is wholly incompatible with inequality, which is itself the driver behind inefficient production and underutilisation and misuse of resources. While it may be near impossible to eliminate all inequalities, the UN’s tenth Sustainable Development Goal aims to reduce inequalities within and among countries as much as possible.
Reducing inequality, for SDG 10, looks like considerable sustainable income growth of the bottom 40% of earners at a rate higher than the national average, regardless of “age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.” Ameliorating economic equality is perhaps one of the first steps toward global equality.
Reducing inequalities will take many forms, but perhaps the most important is through legislation, by eliminating discriminatory laws, and replacing them with more progressive policies, like wage and social protection policies.
Increased regulation on financial markets and institutions, who have historically been sources of inequalities, along with encouraging lower-income countries to contribute to global economic and financial institutions, so that these institutions can more effectively and more credibly deliver global solutions. Particularly, major financial institutions should adopt a principle of differential treatment for developing countries, and globally nations should come together to provide assistance to the least developed countries.
Every year, issues resulting from migration make the front page, and migrants are some of the most vulnerable people, so facilitating safe and responsible migration by implementing well-managed migration policies.
As for progress on SDG10, from 2011 to 2016, the bottom 40% of earners have in fact seen their incomes grow at a higher rate than the national average, but they still only account for less that 25% of all earnings. Additionally, as the incomes of the bottom 40% have increased, so has the share of wealth going to the top 1%, which is serious cause for concern.
Concerning the integration of developing countries in global financial organizations, the one country one vote policy of the General Assembly and the World Trade Organization has been great for encouraging participation, but other organisations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund still do not have adequate representation, though reforms are underway.
On the whole, the world is well on its way to reducing economic inequality at a macro level, however there is still a ways to go to reach all the targets set out by SDG10. And achieving full equality will entail even more active efforts for individuals to reduce their own biases, a process that should occur in tandem with the efforts of the UN to reach economic equality.