"Are the Multilateral Organizations Fighting Inequality?" 2017 Financial Impact Report Executive Summary

Reducing inequality within and among countries is now a stand-alone goal for the United Nations: Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10 in the UN’s Agenda 2030. While many countries have adopted SDG action plans that include policies to reduce domestic inequality, at the global level it remains difficult to evaluate what effect the policies of the multilateral system have on the international dimension of inequality. This is so even though reducing inequality has become a greater priority for the multilateral system.

A timely new report, "Are the Multilateral Organizations Fighting Inequality?", helps to highlight the impact of the global financial rule-makers.  This report reviews policies of the United Nations (UN), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Bank Group (WBG), Financial Stability Board (FSB), and Group of 20 (G20) and scores them on a scale of 1–5 on their efforts and success at reducing inequalities.

Eminent economist José Antonio Ocampo has written a Foreword to the report that highlights the key role multilateral organizations should be – but are not yet – playing to ensure that we reverse disastrous trends in inequality and allow all of the world’s citizens to benefit from future growth and development.