Equity and the MDGs: Closing gaps to accelerate progress
Speakers:
Richard Morgan - Director of Policy and Practice, UNICEF
Patrick Watt - Director of Development Policy, Save the Children
Claire Melamed - Head of Growth and Equity Programme, ODI
Discussant:
Bella Bird - Head of Governance and Social Development Group,DFID
Chair:
Larry Elliott - Economics Editor, The Guardian
Description
Five years from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline, there is growing debate on how to accelerate progress in human development – particularly around the 2010 MDG review process. Will promoting equity in human development by reducing the gap between the haves and the have-nots accelerate progress towards the MDGs? This ODI public event will discuss how the impacts of rising inequality are felt across society. When one part of a society is excluded from development processes, as seen in the widening disparities of recent years, sustained improvements across the economic, social and political spectrum is undermined – thus hindering progress on the MDGs. Addressing inequities will promote progress on the MDGs.
A panel of ODI, Save the Children and UNICEF researchers centred discussion around three questions:
- Why care about equity for progress towards the MDGs?
- Has progress on the MDGs been equitable? Examining specific MDG indicators.
- What concrete policy recommendations have enabled equitable progress towards the MDGs?