We ́re all in this together: Why fighting inequality is
central to development
Alex Cobham^41
he Post-2015 agenda
The report sets out our analysis of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), and draws some conclusionsfor the post-2015 successor framework. In particular, we highlight
the gap between the ambition of the Millennium Declaration and
the eventual form of the MDGs, in three main areas: sustainability,
accountability and inequality.
Since its inception after the Second World War, Christian Aid has
worked in countries around the world with partner organisations
focused on people and groups of all faiths and none, who are
systematically marginalised, economically and socially, and
otherwise excluded from political processes. It was natural then that
our critique of the Millennium Development Goals would focus on
the extent to which inequality is not addressed.
We argue that in practice it is not possible for development
processes to be inequality-neutral. By being largely inequality-blind,
the MDGs may well have exacerbated inequality. The paucity of
data, and in particular the lack of granularity that would allow major
inequalities to be tracked and responded to, is a fundamental
obstacle to both the MDGs and any eventual successor. That
successor must include both data and targets that reflect the
horizontal and vertical inequalities present in each aspect of
development that is included.
Implications of inequality for child poverty
The child poverty implications of the inequality analysis in the
report are absolutely stark. What we see time and again where data
(^41) Alex Cobham is Chief Policy Advisor for Christian Aid