Strengthening social justice to address intersecting inequalities post-2015

The people most likely to be left behind by development are those facing ‘intersecting inequalities’, or economic deficits intersecting with discrimination and exclusion on the grounds of identity and locational disadvantage.

The experience of seven countries (Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, India, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Nepal) shows that key ingredients for addressing intersecting inequalities are: social movements demanding changes in the ‘rules of the game’; political trajectories and processes of constitutional change that facilitate and actualize these changes; social guarantees, opportunity enhancements and developmental affirmative actions as well as specific policies and programmes which show commitment to reduce intersecting inequalities over time.

The post-2015 agenda can help establish global norms which will support and encourage mobilisation to tackle intersecting inequalities, including a strong commitment to universal quality basic services, and the development of country-specific frameworks of targets and indicators monitoring intersecting inequalities

Authors: Veronica Paz Arauco, Haris Gazdar, Paula Hevia-Pacheco, Naila Kabeer, Amanda Lenhardt, Syeda Quratulain Masood, Haider Naqvi, Nandini Nayak, Andrew Norton, Nidhi Sadana Sabharwal, Elisa Scalise, Andrew Shepherd, Deepak Thapa, Sukhadeo Thorat, D. Hien Tran, Leandro Vergara-Camus, Tassew Woldehanna, Chiara Mariotti.

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The following background papers prepared for the report are also available: 

Pakistan (Gazdar, Masood and Naqvi)

India (Nayak)

Nepal (Thapa)

Latin America (Hevia and Vergara-Camus)

Land tenure (Scalise and Tran)

Bolivia (Paz Arauco)

India (Thorat and Sabharwal)

Tackling chronic poverty: The policy implications of research on chronic poverty and poverty dynamics

The first decade of the 21st century has illustrated the power of economic growth (especially in China) and human development to bring large numbers out of poverty. But a large number of people
remain abjectly poor, among them almost half a billion people who are poor over long periods of time, their entire lives, and who may pass poverty to their children. The essential argument advanced in this report is that if these people are to escape poverty beyond 2015, they require additional policies and political commitment, underpinned by greater understanding and analysis, compared to what is currently practiced at global and national levels. 

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