Fighting Inequality to Finance Sustainable Development

February 13, 1:15-2:45 PM | UN Headquarters

As the SDG financing gap is widening, trust in multilateralism is eroding, and inequality has created a development crisis with billions of people left behind. At the same time, 1% of the global population controls over 95% of global wealth. This extreme inequality threatens social cohesion and democracy, making reforms to the international financial architecture a critical priority. Wealth concentration impacts many of the current UN negotiations. FFD4, COP, and WSSD all offer a chance to address economic inequality as both a technical and moral challenge.

To advance this discussion, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s United Nations and Global Dialogue office, in partnership with Oxfam International and NYU’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC) Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, will host a dialogue featuring renowned scholars Professor Ingrid Robeyns, whose theory of “limitarianism” presents a framework establishing moral limits on wealth accumulation given urgent global challenges, and Professor Branko Milanovic, whose empirical research on inequality's evolution demonstrates why current trends undermine the instrumental benefits once thought to justify high inequality.

This moderated fireside chat will explore evidence of inequality's harm and propose ways for the UN to strengthen global norms, framing extreme inequality as incompatible with sustainable development.