​​The people most likely to be left out or left behind by development are those groups whose economic deficits intersect with discrimination and exclusion on the grounds of identity (race, caste and ethnicity) and locational disadvantage. The compounding quality of this form of disadvantage is captured by the term ‘intersecting inequalities’.

The Intersecting Inequalities Report, realised through the support of the MDG Achievement Fund, reviews the experience of countries that have been successful in reducing intersecting inequalities and identifies the core ingredients characterising these experiences. It highlights that addressing intersecting inequalities pertains to social and political mobilisation for goals of social justice as much as to technocratic details of aid and policy formulation.

The current international context seems favourable to initiatives aimed at addressing intersecting inequalities. The Report of the UN High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda states that: ‘targets should only be considered achieved if they are met for all relevant income and social groups’. The ‘zero draft’ of the Sustainable Development Goals released by the Open Working Group in July 2014 includes a proposal for a goal on reducing ‘inequality within and between countries’(Goal 10), although no explicit reference to the elimination of inequality between groups of a given society is made.

This event turns the launch of the Intersecting Inequalities Report into an opportunity to discuss the practical changes in politics and policies that need to be realised for no-one to be left behind and ensuring that all SDGs are indeed achieved for all relevant and social groups. After a brief presentation of the report, four panellists will give their opinion on ‘what needs to change in order for the SDGs to drive change that benefits the poorest and people facing multiple discriminations’ and will then open the discussion to the audience.