How can the world address inequality? 7 experts explain

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated socioeconomic inequalities within and across countries. However, governments mainly adopted short-term fixes solutions which allowed the distributional consequences of the pandemic to widen.

In this context, it is critical to take into consideration multidimensional factors such as social mobility, gender, livelihood infrastructure, technology access, the voice of civil society, social and environmental protections, progressive tax laws and labour rights when tackling inequalities.

A mix of bottom-up and top-down changes that address the underlying social and economic systems is then needed to leave no one behind.

Seven global experts from the World Economic Forum Expert Network provide their insights on the topic of inequality reduction in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. They recommend for example:

- To increase the minimum wage, to implement an “equal pay for equal work” policy to bridge the gap between regular and non-regular workers and to accelerate the redistribution of wealth;

- To enhance and to encourage education because it is proven to be a key factor to mitigate inequality;

- To enhance access to well-funded and quality universal healthcare;

- To promote more transparent and accountable systems to address deep-rooted social, economic, and political systemic problems that preserve and often amplify vertical inequalities;

- To include inequality-affected communities in the processes aimed at formulating effective responses to better understand their priorities and needs and to effectively support long-term global transformations;

- To invest seriously in education and livelihoods of women and girls to decrease gender inequalities;

- And to increase public investments in the formal and informal care economies and tap into the job creation potential of the care economy to reduce gender inequalities.

To read more : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/how-can-we-mitigate-inequality-7…