A new equity agenda?: reflections on the 2006 World Development Report, the 2005 Human Development Report and the 2005 Report on the World Social Situation

The issue of inequality in development has been debated for some time. Whilst much discourse in the 2005 development agenda focused on poverty reduction and achievement of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), it was the issue of inequality that was most prominent in the three main development reports of that year. This paper examines the main messages contained in these reports related to inequality, and their implications for policy-makers in governments and donor organisations.

The paper focuses on two main questions - is the international development community approaching a consensus as to why (and which) inequalities matter and how they are best addressed, and if so is there anything this consensus is missing?

The main areas the authors touch on are:

• the arguments made about why governments and donors should be concerned with inequalities
• the types of policies and interventions which can be used to address inequalities
• the potential constraints to addressing inequalities, in particular political economy constraints

In terms of implications for policy-makers in governments and national organisations, the authors present three main conclusions:

• there are good reasons for placing more emphasis on equity, and related concepts such as social justice and fairness, as policy objectives
• making equity a more explicit policy objective does not require a fundamentally different approach to development policy - it may just involve adding further strategies and developing existing ones
• even within an institutional landscape, with traditionally rooted political disparities, opportunities exist for social actors to negotiate, to strategically manage reform processes and to build coalitions for pro-equity change.