Expert Group Meeting - Reducing Inequalities: SDG 10 Progress and Prospects

Geneva, Switzerland

The Expert Group Meeting- Reducing Inequalities: SDG 10 Progress and Prospects in Geneva was a two-day preparatory meeting organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the World Bank. It helped inform the July 2019 meeting of the United Nations High Level Political Forum 2019 on “Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”; and influence collaboration and programmes on inequality going forward from 2019.

The meeting was also an opportunity for participants to take stock of the progress towards SDG 10 – reducing inequalities; to share knowledge about success stories, good practices and challenges; to identify particular areas of concern; and to suggest ways forward in terms of policies, partnerships and coordinated actions at all levels toward inequality reduction that also advance synergies with progress toward other SDGs.

Dr. Martha Chen, Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Affiliated Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Design; and Senior Advisor, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) Network spoke at the Consultation on the Human Development Report 2019: Inequality in Human Development, a lunch plenary session on 2 April 2019. During this meeting, global experts discussed inequality in human development and tried to answer the following questions:

What does inequality look like today?
Do we have the right measures of inequality?
How is it changing?
What might this mean for societies worldwide for the rest of the 21st Century?

Dr. Chen was also invited to speak at the parallel session 6c on Economic Opportunities on April 3rd. This session discussed progress in and impediments to designing and implementing effective laws, regulations, and policies to promote economic opportunities that are equitable.