Global Inequality: - A Rapid Review of Income Distribution in 141 Countries by UNICEF 12:44am 4th May, 2011   Global Inequality: Beyond the Bottom Billion - A Rapid Review of Income Distribution in 141 Countries, by Isabel Ortiz and Matthew Cummins.    This working paper: (i) provides an overview of global, regional and national income inequalities based on the latest distribution data from the World Bank, UNU-WIDER and Eurostat; (ii) discusses the negative implications of rising income inequality for development; (iii) calls for placing equity at the center of development in the context of the United Nations development agenda; (iv) describes the likelihood of inequalities being exacerbated during the global economic crisis; (v) advocates for urgent policy changes at national and international levels to ensure a “Recovery for All”; and, (vi) to serve as a general reference source, Annex 2 provides a summary of the most up-to-date income distribution and inequality data for 141 countries.    May 2011 (UNDP)    Latin America and the Caribbean remains one of the most socially unequal region in the world, says the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), highlighting the measures required to tackle the problem in a region which has made significant strides in reducing poverty.    “Ten out of the fifteen most unequal countries in the world are in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Helen Clark, the UNDP Administrator, addressing the 4th Ministerial Forum on Development in Latin America. “While the region is not the poorest in the world, it is the most unequal,” she said.    Miss Clark gave the reasons for inequality in the region as continuing gaps in the quality of social services and access to them; institutional and regulatory challenges, including insecure property rights and limited access to justice, which affect the poor mostly; and a lack of opportunity for decent work.    Miss Clark stressed that countries in the region needed to address inequality through specific public policy instruments, rather than treat it as a by-product of successful poverty reduction programmes.    “Those instruments need to reflect the multi-dimensional nature of inequality across the economic, political, and social dimensions, and be designed to reach the poorest and most vulnerable people, including women, indigenous people and Afro-descendants,” she said.    The Administrator also spoke of the need to strengthen the capacity to mobilize domestic resources, pointing out that the tax burden among countries in the region ranges from 10 to 23 percentage points lower than the average in other regions of the world, and tax evasion is widespread.    * Download Global Inequality: Beyond the Bottom Billion - A Rapid Review of Income Distribution in 141 Countries via the link below. Visit the related web page
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