SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

Sustainable Development Goal 10 (Goal 10 or SDG 10) is about reduced inequality and is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015. The full title is: “Reduce inequality within and among countries”.

The Goal has ten targets to be achieved by 2019. Progress towards targets will be measured by indicators. The first seven targets are outcome targets: Reduce income inequalities; promote universal social, economic and political inclusion; ensure equal opportunities and end discrimination; adopt fiscal and social policies that promotes equality; improved regulation of global financial markets and institutions; enhanced representation for developing countries in financial institutions; responsible and well-managed migration policies. The other three targets are means of implementation targets: Special and differential treatment for developing countries; encourage development assistance and investment in least developed countries; reduce transaction costs for migrant remittances.

Target 10.1 is to “sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average”. This goal, known as “shared prosperity”, is complementing SDG 1, the eradication of extreme poverty, and it is relevant for all countries in the world. There has been a growth in income for poorer people in 2012–2017. Nevertheless, it is common in many countries that “the bottom 40 per cent of the population receive less than 25 per cent of the overall income”.

A UN report from 2020 pointed out that “women are more likely to be victims of discrimination than men”. And the situation is even worse for women with disabilities.

Background
There are many instances of inequalities throughout the world that attracts attention of international institutions to look into the matter. For example, In 2000 the richest country in the world (Luxembourg) enjoyed a per capita gross national income level more than 90 times that of the poorest (Sierra Leone) – World Bank.

In India in 1990, 56% of those aged 15 years and above were illiterate, while the 3.6% that had attended tertiary education had received around 16% of the total number of person years of formal education(Ref. A. Mckay, 2002)

Among 17 Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) formulated by United Nations in its Agenda 2030, SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities (Reduce inequalities within and among countries) is very important in response to social, economic and political inequalities. It can be considered at local, regional, national and international level. SDG 10 has been proposed to reduce the concerned inequalities throughout the globe.

The inequalities object economical, educational and political rights of the people and so hinder the development and growth of a nation. The inequalities violate human rights as a whole.

The inequalities in tum hamper the relationships between different countries. The social challenges such as poverty and illiteracy are the outcomes of such inequalities. SDG 10 instructs to reduce the inequalities within the society. The UN has defined 10 Targets and 14 Indicators for SDG 10. Targets specify the goals and Indicators represent the metrics by which the world aims to track whether these Targets are achieved.

Inequality exists in various forms, such as economic, sex, disability, race, social inequality, and different forms of discrimination. Measuring inequality in its individual forms is a crucial component in order to reduce inequality within and among countries. The Gini coefficient is the most frequently used measurement of socioeconomic inequality as it can significantly show the income and wealth distribution within and among countries.

Issues associated with health, pollution, and environmental justices are often inseparable with inequality. Sometimes these issues also associated with indigenous and aboriginal communities, ethnic minorities and communities of low socio-economic status (SES). Studies of environmental justice shows these communities are irregularly likely to live in environments with higher risk of exposure to pollution and toxic contamination, which possess long-term health and environmental threats.

Globalization is also accompanied with migration, displacement and dispossession, and this often increase vulnerability of marginalized communities and groups, which negatively shaped their prospects for globalization and emancipation and widened inequality at the meantime. There are also association between inequality and mental and physical health in various forms, such as status anxiety/competition, social capital, social embeddedness and cohesion.

Meaning of Inequalities
Inequality refers to disparities and discrepancies in areas such as income, wealth, education, health, nutrition, space, politics and social identity. Inequalities are ‘fundamentally about relational disparities, denial of fair and equivalent enjoyment of rights, and the persistence of arbitrary discrepancies in the worth, status, dignity and freedoms of different people (UNICEF & UN Women, 2013). Inequality concerns variations in living standards across a whole population (Andrew Mckay, 2002). Inequality has multiple dimensions and varies depending on the context. It can include economic inequalities such as inequalities in income, wealth, wages and social protection, as well as social and legal inequalities where different groups are discriminated, excluded or otherwise denied full equality. Inequality can also refer to inequality within a country as well as inequality between different countries.

Negotiation process
A study in 2023 pointed out that the emergence of SDG 10 was partially related to the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, which prompted calls for addressing extreme inequalities in outcomes and wealth concentration at the top of the income distribution. For comparison, the earlier Millennium Development Goals did not have a separate goal on inequality.

The same study found that in the agenda-setting phase, the World Bank significantly influenced the definition of SDG 10 during the negotiations. This reduced their need for later adjustments to comply with the goal. The bank succeeded in incorporating its goal of shared prosperity into SDG 10. Shared prosperity was a ready-made framework to use, and it left out sensitive political discussions around inequalities of outcome. The bank defined shared prosperity as increasing the income of the bottom 40 percent of the population in each country. The authors of the study pointed out that by doing so, the World Bank ensured that others would evaluate their success based on the bank’s own definition of inequality. The only difference between the first target of SDG 10 and the World Bank’s own internal goal is the addition of “higher than the national average.” The World Bank thus managed to enter its own framing into the global agenda and to block any possibly more radical global inequality narrative.

Measures of Inequalities
There are different measures of inequalities, as –

• Intersecting inequalities – These inequalities occur when people face inequality in multiple aspects such as age, disability, migrant background, ethnicity, sexual orientation or socioeconomic background. These are associated with gender inequalities.
• Vertical inequalities – Vertical inequalities are a measure of inequality among individuals and families, often focused on income or consumption of daily needs. The rich and poor are two marginal status of this inequality.
• Horizontal inequalities – Horizontal inequalities occur among groups of people who share a common social identity, and have economic, social, political and cultural status dimensions.
• Inequality of outcomes – It refers to differences in what people achieve in life (e.g. level of income, education, social status, etc.).
• Inequality of opportunities – It refers to differences in people ‘s background or circumstances, on what basis they are able to achieve their rights (such as job, education, health service, property, etc.).
• Global inequality – It refers to difference in income between all individuals in the world rather than inequalities between different countries.
• Economic inequality – It is often resulted in connection with other social inequalities faced by people underrated  because of their identities  such as gender, disability, race, ethnicity, caste, religion or language.

Targets	Indicator(s)
10.1 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	10.1.1 Growth rates of household expenditure or income per capita among the bottom 40 per cent of the population and the total population
10.2 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	10.2.1 Proportion of people living below 50 per cent of median income, by sex, age and persons with disabilities
10.3 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	10.3.1 Proportion of population reporting having personally felt discriminated against or harassed in the previous 12 months on the basis of a ground of discrimination prohibited under international human rights law
10.4 Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality	10.4.1 Labour share of GDP   10.4.2 Redistributive impact of fiscal policy
10.5 Improve the regulation and monitoring of global financial markets and institutions and strengthen the implementation of such regulations	10.5.1 Financial Soundness Indicators
10.6 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	10.6.1 Proportion of members and voting rights of developing countries in international organizations
10.7 Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies	10.7.1 Recruitment cost borne by employee as a proportion of monthly income earned in country of destination   10.7.2 Number of countries with migration policies that facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people   10.7.3 Number of people who died or disappeared in the process of migration towards an international destination   10.7.4 Proportion of the population who are refugees, by country of origin
10.a Implement the principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, in accordance with World Trade Organization agreements	10.a.1 Proportion of tariff lines applied to imports from least developed countries and developing countries with zero-tariff
10.b 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	10.b.1 Total resource flows for development, by recipient and donor countries and type of flow (e.g. official development assistance, foreign direct investment and other flows)
10.c 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	10.c.1 Remittance costs as a proportion of the amount remitted

Custodian agencies
Nine custodian agencies monitor the eleven indicators of SDG 10. This makes the arrangement of custodian agencies highly fragmented for this SDG. As a result, there is only very limited, informal coordination and “ad hoc forms of inter-organizational knowledge sharing”.

The custodian agencies include: World Bank (for four indicators), International Labor Organization (for two indicators), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (this agency, and the following agencies, monitor just one indicator), International Monetary Fund, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Financing for Development Office, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Trade Centre, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs – Population Division, International Organization for Migration.

Links with other SDGs
SDG 10 is linked to many of the other SDGs, such as peaceful and inclusive societies (SDG 16), gender equality (SDG 5), poverty (SDG 1), zero hunger (SDG 2), good health and wellbeing (SDG 3), clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11).

Organizations
Organizations that work on achieving SDG 10 include for example the World Bank, IMF, OECD, UN, WEF.

FOR MORE DETAIL DISCUSSION ON SDG 10 – REDUCE INEQUALITIES, LISTEN TO THE PODCAST EPISODE ON ‘RESEARCH WITH NJ’.