French translation of the Reference Document “Addressing income inequalities through development cooperation”

Reference Document – French Translation

We are happy to announce that the French translation of the Reference Document “Addressing income inequalities through development cooperation” was published!

Inequality refers to differences in social and economic outcomes and opportunities within the population, and between and within its groups. The past few years there has been an unprecedented decrease of poverty. However, inequality seems to triumph, especially in many of our partner countries. Indeed, inequalities have increased during the past years due to many causes (e.g., climate change, pandemics, digitalisation), posing a threat to sustainable development. The European Consensus on Development strongly recognizes the importance of tackling inequalities. The New Consensus on Development places the eradication of poverty, the fight against discrimination and inequality and leaving no one behind at the heart of EU development cooperation policy. Fighting inequalities is therefore among the top priorities of the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA).

The objective of this Reference Document is to support the ongoing efforts of the European Union (EU) to strengthen its approach to development cooperation addressing inequalities in its partner countries. While recognizing the importance of all forms of inequality, the document focusses primarily on income inequality, effective policy responses and how to address inequality in development cooperation.

The Reference Document is structured in three complementary volumes:

• Volume 1: presents the theoretical background to understanding inequality, including its trends
• Volume 2: presents 18 briefs on policies with a demonstrated impact on inequalities
• Volume 3: presents guidelines and tools to help EU staff mainstream reduction of inequality into all their development cooperation operations

Regarding the inequality reduction tools of volume 3, the EU developed in 2022 an innovative Inequality Marker (I-Marker). Such a tool helps to better understand, monitor, and analyse the impact of EU work on inequalities and to appropriately capture the multidimensionality of inequality. This new tool will make sure that inequality reduction is further integrated into the core of EU interventions.

This document shows the EU's unending commitment to tackling inequality. In addition, it clarifies the cooperative relationship with the various actors involved in development and cooperation that support our objective and our approach. The aim is to improve knowledge and understanding of economic and social inequalities, their underlying drivers and factors, and the most effective policies and approaches to address and reduce them.

You can find the French translation of the Reference Document at the links below:

• Volume 1, Concepts et définitions
• Volume 2, Notes d’orientation pour lutter contre les inégalités
• Volume 3, Lignes directrices pour l’intégration de la réduction des inégalités dans les interventions

You can always get in contact with the Inequality Team of the Unit G.4 for any clarifications.

Happy reading!