The problems are as much practical as political with capturing
inequalities, and in particular the major inequalities between groups,
in a broader set of post-MDGs. A major investment would be
required to enable the data collation necessary to understand, for
example, the extent to which disabled children are excluded from
access to education; or the extent to which gender, HIV status,
caste, ethnicity and religion determine economic opportunities.
The necessary investment may be hard to envisage, with aid budgets
tightening in the face of austerity measures, and with the ever-
present pressure on governments to invest in people rather than
numbers. Nevertheless, substantial progress could be made simply
by joining up and sharing more effectively the existing data and the
future data collation efforts of major players such as UNICEF. It is
worth thinking about what kind of progress could be achieved by
the September 2013 summit.
The overarching challenge for the next eighteen months is to turn
the consensus on the importance of inequality into agreement on
practical, specific elements in the post-2015 framework and the
process to agreeing on it.
References
Christian Aid ( 2010 ). We’re All in This Together: http://bit.ly/pOVERty
Kabeer, N. ( 2010 ). “Can the MDGs provide a pathway to social justice? The
challenges of intersecting inequalities.” Report for the Institute of
Development Studies/Millennium Achievement Fund.
te Lintelo, D. ( 2011 ). “Summary: Inequality and Social Justice Roundtable
Consultation.” IDS/MAF:
http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/InequalityRoundtablereportFINAL.pdf
Sir Richard Jolly, Baroness Kinnock and others. ( 2011 ). Audio of inequality
debate at UK parliamentary group: http://www.ids.ac.uk/news/inequality-
is-top-development-challenge-parliamentary-meeting-told.